I drink a LOT of tea in my house which means I’m constantly having to deal with Tea stained cupware. The only way to get rid of it is to rinse them out in a sink full of bleach water.
A chore that I hate.
Well, in my never ending quest to look for new ways to be lazy, I came up with an idea. Put all the cups in question (along with a tea pitcher) start the washer as normal, and AFTER the second wash cycle starts, open it up and pour about a quarter cup of bleach in there.
Worked like a charm! I love it when a plan comes together.
*I gave it an extra rinse just to be on the safe side.
Even easier: a denture-cleaning tablet (you can buy a box at the dollar store). Fill the mug with hot water (“from the tap” hot is hot enough, it doesn’t need to be boiling), drop in a tablet. Let sit for an hour or two. Wash normally.
My goodness, you actually wash dishes?
My Household Management Team replaces the dirty dishes with stock from the warehouse and orders new stock as needed.
A wet paper towel does wonders removing coffee stains and tea stains from cups. I learned that trick at the office. We have a kitchenette and sink. But usually there’s no fresh dishwater. I brought a quarter roll of Bounty (a partial roll from my kitchen) and keep in my desk. The wet paper towel acts like a very mild scrub sponge. dab a little baking soda on the towel and it really scrubs a coffee cup or tea cup clean.
Cleaning tea stains from flatware. boil some water. put a tablespoon automatic dishwasher powder into a cup or small bowl. Add boiling water. soak your spoons for 15 minutes. the tannin from the tea easily rubs off.
I use the same spoon for tea. Because it does get stained with tannin and I prefer only having one stained spoon to worry about. I use it several months and it gets pretty brown. (yes, I do rinse it off after each use) I’ve cleaned it several times with a soak in boiling water and auto dishwasher powder. All the brown stain gone. For awhile, until I make more tea.
I drink a lot of tea, too. And I tend to use the same mug all day. It gets horribly stained. But I fix it by cleaning it with a sponge, warm water and normal dishwashing liquid. It takes a little scrubbing, but nothing particularly vigorous. Does that not work for you?
Q: Isn’t using undiluted bleach directly on ceramic surfaces considered a bad thing? I seem to remember someone yelling at me something about stains, stripping glazing, etc.
…of course, it might have had something to do with almost passing out from bleach fumes in a confined space and the house smelling like a swiming pool for a week. Still, that bathtub was* CLEAN…*
I think it depends on the type of ceramic glaze used in the mugs. Or the quality. Or something. I have several mugs that stain easily and scrubbing and scrubbing and scrubbing and soaking and scrubbing…doesn’t work. And some other mugs that clean up perfectly with just a regular wash and rinse.
I do a dilute bleach soak occasionally to whiten everything up. I wonder if vinegar would work just as well? It sure dissolves hard water build-up in my coffee maker and nicely cleans the coffee over-spill on the counter much better than regular detergent or cleaner.
I just use salt. Make sure the insides of the cups are damp, sprinkle salt all over. Leave a few minutes. Rub salt over tea stains. Rinse. They’re clean.
I find all these different methods fascinating. I never really thought about it. I’ve used the same wide-mouth Mason jar since about 1990 for coffee and tea, so it’s never come up! I recently (in the last 5 years?) started using a smaller mug for coffee and sometimes tea, but it’s also a glass mug. I use a plastic pitcher to make iced tea in the summer, and that does get a few drops of bleach and a soak about every third batch. But I never knew about the ceramic mug issue. Good to tuck away just in case.
