[CH] Tiny bottles!
Renee Watson (rlwat@uswest.net)
Sat, 30 Oct 1999 19:01:29 -0500
Hey, Chileheads!
I am sooooo excited! I have found a stash of bottles
suitable in size
for carrying a small, personal cache of peppers and spices
for travel.
The place is Axman (St. Paul, MN) in the Midway area (also
two
other stores one in Burnsville & one in Fridley or Shoreview
or Blaine--
sorry can't remember which). Axman deals in surplus,
seconds,
discontinued, overrun, miscellaneous, useless but really
cool sh*t!
It's a fun place to browse. My shame is that had been going
there
on-again-off-again since '93 but I've been there since '97.
Back
then they had a ton of clear glass bottle/vials with twist
caps, and
I bought a bunch of them to contain beads, screws, junk...
It took
a coworker giving me one of those tiny bottle of Tabasco to
spark
the memory.
Alas, no more small glass bottle with black screw caps but I
bought
the following yesterday (nothing over $0.50) and spent this
afternoon bottling-up pepper powders from Calvin, MWPH and
my
long awaited samples from Chef Paul.
- glass, 1 teaspoon capacity, separate rubber stopper
- glass, 1/2 teaspoon capacity, separate rubber stopper
- glass, 1/4 teaspoon capacity, separate plastic stopper
- plastic with twist-on cap, 1 teaspoon capacity
- plastic, 1/4 teaspoon capacity, separate plastic cap
- plastic, 1/8 teaspoon capacity, separate plastic cap
Some comments on quality & problems I foresee with the
items:
-Not all rubber or plastics are suitable for use with food
products
but ... it is cheap, short-term storage.
-If the oils in the product interact with the
rubber/plastics they may
breakdown & impart a flavor to the product; the rubber may
collapse
and become gummy... ish!
-The rubber stoppers already have a hard, slightly slick
feel of an
old rubber mason jar gasket *but* they are still very
pliable. I'll
find some cork stoppers later...maybe?
-I would not consider tossing any of the stoppered bottles
in my
purse, totebag or pocket. One solution to this safety
problem is
a little box that holds up to five of the 1 tsp.
bottles--$.45. Now
all I have to do is put a velcro hinge on the box --$.25.
-While I love clear glass containers, I think the plastic
vial with a
screw-top may be the most practical of all the containers I
got.
Picked up a metal spatula for dipping out of the original
containers
and filling my travel supply containers--$.45; and, a tiny
bottle brush
for cleaning my tiny bottles--$.15.
Axman has some other containers, too. There are amber jars
with screw
cap (about 2-3 tsp. cap.). There are test tubes both large,
small, plastic,
glass, with & without snap-on caps. 'But test tubes don't
have flat bases,'
you say. HA! Buy the test tube rack. Axman even has paste
tubes, as in
do-it-yourself toothpaste tubes; only heaven knows what
they're made
of... yikes! And, there is an assortment of tiny plastic
vial with plastic caps.
[Insert basic disclaimers ...]
Renee in Minneapolis