Australia's fashion-conscious cafes and bars have recently gone Mason jar mad.
The attractive glass jars, invented in 1858 by Philadelphia tinsmith John Landis Mason, are being used to serve everything from an almond milk smoothie to chocolate mousse to bourbon cocktails.
They're also used as display, with rows of jars containing preserved fruit and vegetables for instance, as light fittings, and even in the bathroom, repurposed as soap dispensers.
One passionate admirer and user of Mason jars is writer and former editor of Cosmopolitan magazine Sarah Wilson.
The author of I Quit Sugar is pictured on the front of her new book, I Quit Sugar for Life, holding a Mason jar containing a salad.
"All my friends laugh at me because where ever I go - I've always got a jar of food with me," Wilson says.
"And I travel a lot, so I'm constantly getting on and off planes, so to make sure I eat well I make one of my green or chocolate smoothies, place it in a jar and it keeps nice and cool.
"And I do the same with my soups, I'll freeze my soup and they keep if I travel interstate and then I have it for lunch or dinner."
Home decor bloggers have also fallen hard for the Mason jar, also known as Ball jars after the Ball Corporation, an early and prolific manufacturer of the jars.
The website Countryliving.com, for instance, has written a lengthy article in defence of its habit of re-purposing the Mason jar after it was criticised by a reader for it jar obsession.
"First, stop picking on Mason jars," Country Living's Rachel DeSchepper writes on the site.
"The Mason jar is a true icon, not just of country style, but of made-in-American ingenuity.
"If there were ever a product that deserved to be reused, repurposed, and re-imagined, it's this."
Mason jars are made of soda-lime glass, have a standard 60 mm or wide 76 mm mouth diameter, and come in a variety of sizes including cup, pint, quart, and half-gallon.
If you don't want to eat your salad out of one ... they make great candle holders and vases.
