How To Remove Coffee & Tea Stains From Mugs & Teapots
27 Comments 
If that favorite coffee mug of yours is getting a nasty brown ring inside, here are a few different methods for removing the stains and making it look brand new again:
Keep Your Favorite Mugs Clean With These Easy Methods
Method #1
- Wet a cloth then rub the inside of the mug with baking soda. If the stains are stubborn, soak overnight in hot water and baking soda.
Method #2
- Soak in bleach OR vinegar for several hours or overnight.
Method #3
- Fill with boiling water, add two spoonfuls of dishwasher detergent then soak overnight.
Method #4
- Try a paste of corn starch and vinegar, apply and let sit for a few minutes then scrub away.
Method #5
- Drop two denture tablets in the mug, pour hot water over top then soak overnight.
After soaking and removing the stains, rinse and wash very well before using–especially when using the bleach method.
Teapots
It's Simple To Keep Your Teapot Stain-Free
Soaks
- Fill a teapot with boiling water, squeeze the juice from a wedge of lemon (1/4 lemon) and toss in the peel, add 1/8 cup of baking soda. Soak overnight, wash well in the morning.
- Fill with boiling water and add 1/4 to 1/2 cup Realemon juice, soak overnight then wash well in the morning.
- Fill with boiling water and add a couple denture tablets. Allow to sit overnight then wash with soap and water in the morning.
- Put about 1/4 cup dishwasher detergent into the teapot, cover with boiling water and soak for a few hours or overnight. Wash well to remove all detergent residue.
- Pour 1/4 cup of washing soda inside, cover with boiling water and allow to soak overnight. Wash well in the morning with hot soapy water, making sure to remove all traces of the washing soda.
Cleaning Scrubs
- Sprinkle a small spoonful of salt on a damp cloth and gently scrub.
- Gently scrub stains with a baking soda & water paste.
- Gently scrub tea stains away with a baking soda & lemon juice paste.
- Make a paste of salt and vinegar, scrub onto stain and wash off a few hours later.
These stain removal tips are for ceramic or common materials, for fine china or delicate porcelain teapots, choose a gentle method like baking soda soak (or paste) or try some of these tips.
Thanks for this hints. We get this question all the time and you have many of the solutions in one convenient place!
Bret Wingert
souvia.com/blog
I tried some of the cup cleaning methods offered here, but found the simplest was to spray the inside of the cup with kitchen 409. The brown stain just sloughed off. I rinsed the cup, washed it out — et voila, ready to go — and my cups were VERY stained.
Green Works natural all-purpose cleaner worked as well.
Hi! I have used hot water with a little bleach, filling the cup and letting it set while I wash the rest of the dishes, or I have also used hot water with a bit of ammonia in the same manner. (Remember to NEVER mix bleach and ammonia! Do not use ammonia for stainless steel pots and pans or tableware). Wash your cups very well after the soaking. I also add a lid full or two of bleach to sudsy dish water (use rubber gloves to protect you hands) to disinfect and make glasses sparkle. Rinse well with hot water. The gloves will protect you hands from heat as well. I hand wash dishes, so apparently I have already gone green!
Ugh… hand washing uses more water than most modern dishwashers… so no. You haven’t gone green.
That depends how much water you use when hand washing. Just because you heard a general statistic somewhere does not make it true. Some people can wash dishes with a sink full of water.
I know it’s a purchased product but they work great on any stained dishes and many other surfaces that are stained; thoes magic erasers that can be found in grocery store cleaning ailes and at many “dollar” type stores.Using one rescued my counter top from what I thought was a permanent stain.
Just use some sugar in the mug and use a damp cloth to get all the stains with it.
I always use SOS pads (steel wool). Quick, no fumes. Never noticed any damage, even to nice porcelain (rub gently on any gold rims etc.). Great for tea strainers and stainless steel sinks too (though there are gentler products out there made for sinks, which don’t scratch…but that’s only if you have a fancy sink you really care about!).
To remove tea stains from cups.Very easy. Happens instantly. Pour a small amount of toilet bowl cleaner on a dish rag. Wipe stains . Poof gone. You are welcome . Wear rubber gloves. Rinse everthing incold water. You are welcome.
Pat,
I question cleaning anything I’m going to eat or drink out of with something you recommend I should where gloves for. Your welcome.
WOW! thanks so much, HuwOS… the sugar suggestion worked FANTASTIC! no soaking necessary… no animal-tested, polluted-factory produced chemicals or products necessary! amazing, i tell you… absolutely amazing! (cleaning my dishes with bathroom cleaner just sounds wrong anyway. no offense.)
I totally Agree!!! The sugar worked wonders, no need to soak and no need for chemicals, instant removal of the stains!! Worked great!
I must admit, I was skeptical at first about the this, but I thought I’d try it anyway. It worked so great! I just dumped a small pack of sugar (the kind you get at restaurants) into a dry, stained mug, and then used a damp, hot washcloth to scrub the stains. It required a little elbow grease, but it worked a lot better than I expected it to. A+ for creativity and practicality!
Why would you want to clean a well seasoned coffee mug? It’s a labor of love when your coffee mug has that beautiful brown seasoning inside. It makes the coffee taste so much better.
I bet REAL coffee drinkers around the world are cringing, much like I did, reading this.
I agree. My white cup is washed daily, but it still contains tea stains. I left it at my neighbor’s one day and she bleached it. It took me a month or more to get the stains back in it so it would have the right taste. If its not broke don’t try to fix it.
About using bleach to remove tea stains from cups/mugs – be aware bleach will weaken the finish and stains will be harder to remove. The finish inside the cup will also deteriorate over time. My mom used to do that, and that’s what happened.
I do appreciate and enjoy all the tips here – thanks to all who contribute!
I never had much success withthe bleach method. I have never heard of wanting your mugs to be stained brown. I much prefer sparkling. I have usually just cleaned mine with a SOS pad, lightly no scouring.
The baking soda method worked great. Thanks for posting!
fill the mug with water and put a little washing up liquid in it then microwave it for 10 minutes, the mug will clean, the microwave will clean and you can use the hot soap to clean stuborn stains~!
You can also use salt just like the sugar method…just apply and rub with a damp cloth. If that doesn’t work, apply equal parts salt and vinegar, rub, and let sit for a little while and it should come off.
I don’t know about coffee stains because I don’t drink the stuff, but I’ve been using bleach for years to remove tea stains, and I’ve never noticed any change in the finish of the cups, not even to cheap cups (which is about all I have). I suspect full strength bleach might be harmful, but I just put a tablespoon or so in the cup, then fill with water to the rim. Takes five to twenty minutes to work, depending on the grunge factor, and the cups are like new. No scrubbing at all, just rinse well.
Up until recently my mugs with daily tea stains were cleaned in the dishwasher and the stain would be gone. bought a new box of detergent, same brand, and now the stains don’t wash out. I know about soda and bleach but I want them destained in the dish washer not by hand. I called the manufacturer and her suggestions haven’t helped and I have used this brand over others because it did work. Help! What brand works best for you?
Sorry, Carolyn. You have just been affected by the environmentally correct police. Even though the phosphates in dish soap are a miniscule amount of the total pollution (most is from animal waste in feedlots and fertilizers), they have been removed from the product. The lack is more apparent in some areas due to the mineral content of the water.
Thanks 2 the gal that posted the SUGAR remedy!!
PS– ladies it’s just not right to
I only have one mug & I love this thing, a week ago it got a terrible stain that I couldn’t scrub out for
the life of me, & I’m sorry — I wasn’t about to bleach or
toilet cleanse something I knew I’d be drinking out of — anyhow, the sugar & water scrub worked
great, good as new! Thank you
have “seasoned” mugs — dirty dishes are very un-lady like. Consider how you’d feel drinking from a dirty mug at a restaurant… – the sugar & hot water rub works wonders, please give it a whirl
Ok I just tried a toothbrush and some toothpaste. Took me 2 minutes to completly clean my mug to like new condition.
Thank you very much. I’ve been looking for a soaking method for my tea pot – cups are easy because I can just scrub them – FYI, those Magic Erasers & knockoffs are great for tea and coffee stains, no soap required – but pots are hard to scrub inside, especially in the spout.