How to Sterilize Amber Glass Bottles
(with a surprise ending)

When you have emptied a bottle (used up the tea in it), rinse the bottle out out and fill to the top with tap water, screw the cap on and store somewhere until it's time to wash and sterilize all of your bottles for a new batch of tea. This way any residue won't dry out and make washing more difficult.

Washing the bottles and caps
During or after 10-12 hour steep of new tea, wash and rinse the bottles and caps. Your dishwash detergent may create so many bubbles they are hard to rinse out. Instead, you can use a squirt bottle of Kitchen Cleaner or Antibacterial Kitchen Cleaner you have on hand (like Lysol or 409). Couple squirts into each bottle, fill 1/2 full of hot water and shake, let them sit until you are done squirting and shaking each bottle. Squirt kitchen cleaner on the caps or let them soak it in while squirting in the bottles, then rinse bottles and caps thoroughly. About using a bottle brush, a cheap one is available that can get into the narrow bottle necks, it has foam strips bunched up at the tip.

There are several ways to sterilize, choose the one that is easiest for you:

  • Boiling -- this is like sterilizing canning jars or baby bottles
    Place bottles and caps in kettle, add water to completely cover them.
    Bring water to boil and boil for five minutes.
    Turn off heat, use tongs to lift the items out or allow kettle cool just enough so you can pour off water and remove items. Let bottles and caps drain and dry in dishrack a few minutes.

  • Hydrogen Peroxide -- from supermarket or drugstore, cheapest brand is fine.
    Buy a fresh 16oz bottle of 3% strength hydrogen peroxide (so it won't be opened and old).
    Fill first bottle 1/2 full of hydrogen peroxide and shake well.
    Then pour first bottle's peroxide into second bottle and shake well.
    Keep pouring and shaking the peroxide from bottle to bottle until finished, adding more peroxide if nnecessary. Meanwhile, have caps soaking in some peroxide.
    Rinse out bottles and caps well with hot water.

  • Clorox -- or equivalent plain laundry or household bleach
    Add 1/2 teaspoon Clorox to one gallon of water (using an empty or full distilled water bottle).
    Line up bottles in sink and fill each to top with Clorox water, soak caps in some in little dish.
    Let soak for 5 minutes, then rinse out bottles and caps thoroughly with hot water.

Comments
The methods above are suited to 16oz (pint) amber glass Boston Round bottles. If you use the 32oz (quart) amber bottle size, you may need to buy 2 bottles of Hydrogen Peroxide or a bigger size.

Trying to wash and sterilize amber glass Boston Round bottles in a dishwasher isn't advised since the bottle necks are so narrow the detergent and rinse sprays don't reach inside the bottles well.

The boiling method is good and I think using Hydrogen Peroxide is better than Clorox, because the peroxide evaporates completely and if there was any left in the tea it would be less harmful.

Now I am going to surprise you -- I do not use amber glass Boston Round bottles!

Because I make just enough tea to last a few days (four days max) for family and dogs, I don't worry about the jar's glass color. I use Ball or Kerr canning jars (pint or quart), most of the time they aren't the wide-mouth kind because I need those to store dry herbs and they are harder to pour from. In a pinch, however, I will use any glass jar with a lid that has an opening big enough to come really clean in my very good dishwasher -- so I don't use any of the sterilizing methods above.

Remember, you can do it "my way" only if you make just enough tea to use up in a few days. Choose one of these directions to make 1 pint or 1 quart of tea. Powdered herbs will usually have chunks of burdock in them, they are still powdered. If your herbs are all chunks and stems and leaves they are cut/sifted (c/s)

One pint boiling distilled water, add 1 Tablespoon powdered herbs OR 2 Tablespoons of C/S herbs, stir, boil 10 minutes.

One quart boiling distilled water, add 2 Tablespoons powdered herbs OR 4 Tablespoons of C/S herbs, stir, boil 10 minutes.

After 10 minute boil with lid on, allow pot to cool enough to put in refrigerator, steep for 10-12 hours or overnight. Reheat just to simmer point to kill bacteria, then pour hot tea into bottle using funnel and stainless steel sieve to catch residue. You will always end up with less tea than expected due to water loss due to boil evaporation and absorption by residue.

I think it's a lot harder doing the amber bottle thing (sterilizing, storing) than to make the tea often. Brewing the tea is so easy that making it fresh every few days can become a simple routine. Try it sometime!

Jan Hodges
Hans, Duke, and Bell
New Mexico, USA

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