Marking syrup and juice bottles

Wondering how you all mark your various juice and syrup bottles. How do you tell the lemon juice from lime juice, and demerara syrup from honey or cinnamon syrup?

Sharpie? Masking Tape?

I just came across these on Zulily.com and ordered a set. Figured the lemon, lime, and orange juices will be easy enough, and I'll come up with some way to code the others. What are the rest of you doing?

I use polyester ("weatherproof") labels because they stick like crazy to anything, survive freezing and refrigerating, and can be written on with a Sharpie.

I'm getting ready to run a sheet of labels through my laser printer because Sharpie ink is not as durable as the polyester labels themselves.

They're not cheap, but they are durable!

On 2016-08-01 13:19, JenTiki wrote:
What are the rest of you doing?

Exactly, masking tape and a sharpie.

On 2016-08-01 13:49, Loki-Tiki wrote:

On 2016-08-01 13:19, JenTiki wrote:
What are the rest of you doing?

Exactly, masking tape and a sharpie.

And when your hands get wet/sticky doesn't the sharpie wear off onto your hand?

Tape & Sharpie.

Sharpie straight on the bottle. Cleans off with magic eraser.

And when your hands get wet/sticky doesn't the sharpie wear off onto your hand?

No, I've never had that happen. In another life when I worked in a restaurant, that was the labeling standard. That's where I picked it up from. Of course, I do have an aversion to letting my hands getting wet & sticky, I always have kitchen towels around me. Maybe I just never pushed my luck with those circumstances :)

Yeah I just use scotch tape and I have never had any ink come off. After the Sharpie dries (just a few seconds) I think it would take more than wetness to get it to come off.

My wife bought me a label maker on Amazon for like 20 bucks. She thought the masking tape and sharpie method I'd been using looked too tacky. I really like it. Looks much nicer and you can do two lines on one piece so I put the syrup name on one and date on the other. You gotta stick it to the bottle while they're still room temp or they won't stick.

I reuse my empty rum bottles and write on the label with a sharpie. After a few fillings the labels get ratty-I just toss em and there are always plenny empties around the SharkBite Bar. Btw, I prefer to use “older” or more unusual style bottles.

I use these:

Click to buy them on Amazon.

The are easy to stick and remove, write and erase. Since they can be removed, I put them on throw away jugs and glass bottles of syrup and booze, everything. Various sizes. Writing washes off, which can be an issue if they get wet, but has never been an issue for me. They do require a serious scrubbing if you want all traces of previous writing to go, but not required.

I have a bunch of OXO Good Grips containers I use for whatever I need. OJ, grapefruit, syrup, etc. and so I don't want a permanent label on them. I grab any container and write the new contents on it.

"Mai-Kai: History & Mystery of the Iconic Tiki Restaurant" the book

[ Edited by: Swanky 2016-08-02 11:18 ]

Swanky, I like those. Water-soluble inks have been a problem for me with my refrigerated juices and syrups, the bottles start to sweat when I take them out of the fridge and that dissolves some inks. So I found that printed polyester labels for my laser printer solve all my problems. I also have been using them to label paint cans and a few other household and garage items. Here's a screen capture of what my label template looks like:

[Edited to clarify that the bottles sweat and dissolve some inks.]

[ Edited by: AceExplorer 2016-08-02 06:23 ]

One more thing about polyester labels --- you can write on them with a Sharpie, but still, Sharpie ink is surprisingly not as durable as I expected. They do make some special "laboratory" Sharpies with a different and more durable ink, but I can't find that one and haven't tried it yet on my syrups.

The polyester labels are very tenacious, fortunately it's rare that I have to change labels. When I do I can either apply a new label over the top, or I can peel the label off and any glue which remains can be taken off with Goof Off solvent, or by using the old label to pull off whatever remains behind.

Lots of ideas in this thread. My solution seems to be the most expensive -- you have to buy a pack of polyester labels. But you have complete control over layout, logos, and fonts and you can crank 'em out very quickly to your heart's content.

I've used the same labels as Swanky. They came with a piece of chalk and my hands would easily rub off the writing so my wife bought the label maker as a next resort.

The fridge looks a lot neater with all the bottles having a nice clean look rather than my scribbled handwriting on tape or smeared chalk on the fancy labels.

[ Edited by: mikehooker 2016-08-02 16:07 ]

On 2016-08-02 16:04, mikehooker wrote:
I've used the same labels as Swanky. They came with a piece of chalk and my hands would easily rub off the writing....

Mine have a marker. It doesn't rub off, but it is water soluble and washes off. If it gets wet it can run. Has not been an issue in the bar, but if you have cold bottles you remove from the fridge a while and sweat, it could be an issue.

I use Ball dissolvable labels. They hold up well to refrigerating and freezing but dissolve when you wash the bottle.

[ Edited by: MrBaliHai 2016-08-07 12:46 ]

Kinda spendy, but did you know they make integrated pour spout lids for Mason jars?
http://amzn.to/2b7GtLT

Interesting lids for mason jars. I have been saving olive oil bottles and using those for pouring my syrups. They work great, don't get gunked up by drips, and pour very cleanly.