The 5 Best Cookie Jars

What makes a great cookie jar? We go to mom’s house, and sitting on the counter is the cute ceramic Mama Bear cookie jar from when you were 7 years old, and just the sight of it fills your heart with warmth and makes your mouth water for her famous chocolate chip cookies. So is it a jar's character that sets it apart? Or is it utility? Is the best cookie jar the one that vacuum seals when the lid is closed, ensuring freshness for days? Perhaps it’s a little of both – after all, what’s the use of mom’s cookies if they’re stale, and who wants to eat cookies from a Freshness Robot? We took a look at both form and function, at convenience and cuteness, and decided that these are the best five cookie jars available on the market today.

OXO Good Grips Airtight Cookie Jar

Get A Grip (On Your Cookie)

Featuring an airtight seal, vacuum suction and convenient storage, the OXO Cookie Jar grabs our highest award.

Best Overall

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For the past thirty years, OXO has been the brand leader in resealable, airtight containers. The OXO Good Grips Airtight Cookie Jar is yet another high-quality and functional product from this excellent company. The lid of this 3-quart container features a large button-handle surrounded by a rubber O-ring; when you push the button down, it pulls air out of the jar, creating an airtight seal. Made from BPA-free plastic and heat-resistant silicone, the jar has a flat back end, making it easy to store against the wall and optimize the space in your kitchen. It works great for crackers and other snacks, too.

Pros:

Repair or replacement guarantee
Comes in large and medium size
Clear plastic shows off your creations

Cons:

Must leave room at top of jar
Not crack-proof if dropped

Anchor Hocking Montana Glass Jar

Anchors Aweigh!

The Anchor Hocking Glass Jar features a 1.5-gallon capacity for all the serious cookie eaters in the world.

Best Glass Jar

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Perhaps the biggest advantage to glass cookie jars is the fact that they don’t retain smells. Glass jars are dishwasher safe, and come out clean and odor-free every time. Such is the case with the Anchor Hocking Montana Glass Jar. With a huge, 1.5-gallon capacity and a sturdy, brushed-metal lid, you can hold dozens of cookies until your sweet-toothed loved ones eat them all, then turn around and use the jar for coffee beans (until the next batch of cookies is done!). Anchor Hocking has been making American glass products since 1905, so you know the quality and craftsmanship are excellent.

Pros:

Available in six sizes and lid colors
Made in the USA
Great for pantry organization

Cons:

Lids are only hand-washable
Be careful with little ones and glass

Outshine Vintage Cookie Jar

Vintage Jars Are Better Than Vintage Cookies

With its Modern-Country design, airtight seal and sleek looks, Outshine brings back the vintage cookie jar.

Best Traditional Cookie Jar

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The Outshine Vintage Cookie Jar was designed with both style and functionality in mind. Harkening back to the “Modern Farmhouse” design era of the 1920s, the sleek container with white, rust-resistant enamel holds up to three packages of Oreos, while maintaining freshness with a durable, airtight-gasket lid. A firm, metal handle sits atop a large, 7-inch opening, while the inside of the container has been FDA tested to ensure that it meets food-grade storage standards. For those who fall in love with the design, Outshine makes an entire series of similar food containers for your kitchen.

Pros:

Brilliant white with black “Cookies” lettering
Holds 7 cups of volume
Small, family-owned business

Cons:

Can rust if the enamel chips
Not dishwasher friendly

77L Ceramic Storage Jar

Get Your Hand Caught In This One

Combining the strength and purity of ceramic with an airtight lid, the 77L Ceramic Storage Jar is perfect for cookies.

Best Ceramic Jar

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Many people prefer ceramic to plastic, not simply because it’s more environmentally friendly, but because the smooth, earthy finish looks beautiful in the kitchen or pantry. Featuring a wooden lid with a food-grade, silicone sealing ring to keep the contents airtight, this 630ML-capacity jar has a cylindrical shape that’s just perfect for storing cookies. Best of all, the ceramic is dishwasher safe, so cleaning up your lemon cookie crumbs to make room for your chewy fudge cookies has never been more simple.

Pros:

Lead-free
Perfect for grain and coffee, too
Available in 19-ounce size

Cons:

Breaks easily if dropped
Don’t put wood lid in dishwaser

Oggi Jumbo Ceramic Cookie Jar

The Cookie Monster

Oggi’s attached metal latch and large, thick ceramic shell make it the perfect, dependable cookie jar.

Best Durability

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There’s nothing more frustrating than getting a new cookie jar and losing the lid – except, perhaps, losing the seal ring from the lid. Oggi solves this problem with a one-piece, lid-and-latch-attached cookie jar. The latching mechanism is a sturdy design that has been used on Mason Jars and other containers for decades. In addition, the ceramic is thick, making it resistant to chips, scratches and dings. At 9-inches tall, it has plenty of space for all your favorite cookies, and the design looks beautiful on your countertop.

Pros:

Easy to wipe clean
Great way to gift cookies
Airtight O-Ring seal

Cons:

May be too heavy for kids
Must center the lid for proper seal

Frequently Asked Questions

Why exactly do cookies go stale, and does storing them in a cookie jar help?

When you bake a cookie, the starch ingredients (like flour) absorb water and swell up. Unfortunately, this doesn’t last for very long, as the water starts to evaporate from the starch, leaving the starch in its original, crystalline form. This creates the texture we associate with staleness. Placing your cookies in an environment that inhibits evaporation will help delay this process. Hence, the cookie jar. Another tip is to place a piece of bread or two in your cookie jar to help retain moisture.

Does sunlight affect the freshness of a cookie? Just wondering if I should get a glass cookie jar or a ceramic one?

Tricky question. Light is radiation, and radiation is heat. Low levels of light, such as the light that comes from the lightbulb in your kitchen, will not affect your cookies. Light that comes in through your kitchen window shouldn’t affect your cookies, either, unless that light is particularly hot. This brings us to heat, which is a cookie-killing culprit. Enough heat will start the cooking process again, turning your crispy cookies into hockey pucks. If you’re concerned about light getting into your cookie jar, avoid glass or clear plastic jars. Ceramic should protect your cookies from both heat and air, as will the “cookie tin” style of jar.

I have a candy jar. Shouldn’t that work as well as a cookie jar?

Only if you want your white chocolate macadamia nut cookies sitting on top of your tropical Skittles. Seriously though, candy jars are designed to accomplish mostly the same things as cookie jars, which is to keep the air and moisture out and show off the contents inside. Your concern might be the smell. Oftentimes, candy is full of artificial flavors, colors and scents, which can overpower a jar and make everything inside smell like whatever candy was in there last. Glass jars are the best if you plan on using your jar for multi-purpose snacking, as they’re dishwasher-friendly and not as porous as other materials.