Okay, this is wierd. I’ve never noticed if before.
I just nuked a normal white porcelain grocery store $1.00 coffee mug full of water for three minutes so that I can have my usual three Tbsp of instant coffee plus a shot of lemon.
After I take it out of the microwave, it’s developed all these tiny brown/black spots along the hairline heat cracks in on the outside.
They seem to wash away under the faucet, but they reappear when I nuke the mug again.
What gives?
I’m not sure about it washing off, but other then that it sounds like porcelain craze. If you do a search on google, you should be able to find out something about it, but I’d swear we discussed it on the board or it was talked about in one of the staff articles.
okay, upon re-reading this I have a question. Were the cracks already present along the outside? What about the inside. If that’s the case then I’d assume some coffee got into the cracks (or it could have even been other dirt and water going in through the outside when the mug is being washed) either way, when you microwave it, the water inside the porcelin heats and expands and is pushed out, hence the fact that you can wash it off.
lemon in coffee? never heard of that but hmmmm i might try that.
I don’t have the cup in front of me now, but I seem to recall that the tiny cracks are both on the inside and the outside.
I’ve got a feeling that the nuke treatment forces the old coffee/dirt out through the cracks, like Joey said. Still, it’s kinda freaky. I guess it’s time to buy some new cups.
Oh, and lemon in coffee, especially really really bad coffee, kicks ass. Black only.