The best Consol jars for jam season, from single preserve jars to 24-packs

The listing is straightforward: a 352ml glass jar with a gold lid, sold as a 24 carton pack, meant for honey and other foods. That size is the classic jam jar size, big enough to be worth the labelling and small enough that an opened jar gets finished.

The evidence behind it is the best here. Nearly 200 shopper ratings averaging 4.8 is far more than any other jar on this page can show, and the carton lands mid-range in rand while working out to the lowest cost per jar of the multipacks. That combination is why it wins rather than the prettier singles.

Twenty four jars also matches how preserving actually goes. You fill what the fruit gives you, and the spares sit in the cupboard until next season.

Same idea as the top pick: 24 jars, gold lids, sold as one carton. At 291ml the jars are a little smaller, which suits jellies and anything you want to give away in quantity.

Shoppers rate it 4.9, the highest average among the cartons, though off only 18 ratings. The carton costs a bit more than the top pick for slightly less glass, so it is the second choice on value rather than on quality.

The catch. Eighteen ratings is a thin base, and per jar it is the pricier of the two 24-packs.

A 250ml preserve jar with a coloured lid, sold one at a time. That is the right call when you have half a pot left over, or when you want six jars and not twenty four.

It carries a perfect average from six shopper ratings, which is encouraging without being proof of much. Buy singles like this in small numbers and you will pay noticeably more per jar than the carton route, so use it for the odds and ends.

The catch. Only six ratings, and buying singles is poor value if you need more than a handful.

At 1000ml this is the largest jar here, with a dark navy mesh lid. Useful when the point is one generous jar in the pantry rather than a dozen gift-sized ones.

It costs roughly triple a small single jar, which is fair for four times the volume. The decorative lid means it will also sit happily on a shelf you can see.

The catch. The listing is thin on detail and there are no shopper ratings yet.

Work out the cost per jar before anything else. A carton of 12 or 24 nearly always beats buying singles, and jars do not expire. If you preserve once a year, the carton still makes sense by the second season.

Match the jar to the contents. Around 250ml to 350ml suits jam and jelly, because it opens, gets eaten and moves on. Five hundred millilitres and up suits chutney, pickles and anything chunky you spoon out over weeks. Tiny 28ml and 30ml jars are for portioning and gifting, not preserving.

Check whether a lid is included and what it is. Some of the listings here are bottles sold without lids, and some lids are mesh or decorative fabric covers rather than metal screw caps. Decorative is lovely for a pantry shelf and less useful when you want a tight seal.

Read the ratings count, not just the average. A five out of five off one rating means one person was happy. On this shelf the jars with a hundred or more ratings are the ones you can lean on, and they happen to be the carton packs.

Ignore the drinkware. Plenty of Consol products on this page are water bottles with straw lids, sports caps and carry straps. Good bottles, wrong shelf for jam.