Showing posts with label tea stains. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tea stains. Show all posts

Sunday, March 21, 2010

A Stain Removal Song for this Sunday Morning (Remove Tea and Coffee Stains)

I love coffee,
He loves tea,
We love hot bevvies,
But the stains bother MEEEE....

Yes, I actually did sing that as I typed it. :) How sad. Feel free to roll your eyes.

Right, so if you're a tea or coffee drinker then you're also well aware that the beverages taste delicious, but the stains they leave behind in our favorite mugs and cups are far less charming. I've found three things that help remove those nasty stains:
  1. Baking soda - the old favorite is a star again. Scrub with baking soda and a scrubby pad.
  2. Table salt - same thing, but a little grittier for even more difficult stains.
  3. Barkeepers Friend - The hardest, oldest stains are no match for this cleaner. When I was writing my book, I researched this marvelous powdered cleanser and discovered that it's derived from rhubarb. Hmmm. And here I always thought rhubarb was just good in pie. Wrongo, it's also good for scrubbing stains away (and cleaning your stainless, copper, etc...but I'll try to remain on topic here.)

Plus, a little scrubby pad called 'The World's Greatest Scrubbie' is available in many kitchenware shops. At the store where I work part-time we sell them for around $2.99. I always use that when scrubbing away stubborn beverage stains -- so keep an eye out for them in your locale. They're little rectangles of rainbow colored cleaning extraordinariness. (IF that's even a word.)

Right, now, go grab a coffee or tea and don't worry for even a single moment about any stains to come. :) Have a lovely Sunday while you're at it.

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Washing Dishes - Getting out Tough Coffee and Tea Stains

I've recently found that even good dishwasher detergents don't always completely clean coffee and tea stains out of mugs and cups. If you also have a rather unappealing collection of stained mugs you'd like to get truly clean, here are a few tips to try:

  1. Lemon and salt - Cut a fresh lemon in half and dunk in some regular table salt. Use this as a little natural scouring pad to get stains out. (This is also really useful on laundry stains, believe it or not!) Keep a few fresh lemons on hand anyway, for a variety of cleaning purposes.
  2. Baking Soda - Dip a damp rag into a bit of baking soda and use this as your natural scouring powder for edging away those tough tea and coffee stains. It may take a little effort, but this can really do wonders for stained mugs.