Some things look better with a little wear and tear – coffee mugs aren’t one of them. As a former barista, I can tell you, there’s always (at least) one stubborn mug in any coffee shop that seems destined for the dishwasher, no matter how many times you scrub it or run it through the dishwasher. Even though I knew these cups were clean, the rings and stains from past coffee drinks would make me immediately switch to using these cups for customers.
At home I found myself in that other situation. So I decided to try soaking my cups in non-toxic Dri-Pak soda crystals. I’ve heard that these crystals are a popular solution in England (and have been for generations), so I thought I’d give this cleaner a try here in the States. It was easy enough to get the bag, thanks to Amazon.
Admittedly, I didn’t know much about Dri-Pak, so I had to do some digging. Turns out it’s a UK-based family business that’s been around since the 60s. The company makes many products, and soda crystals are one of the most popular and versatile. Soda crystals used to be called Washing Soda and are the unscientific name for sodium carbonate decahydrate (say that five times fast). The material is water soluble (in fact, it is intended to be mixed with water) and acts as a detergent. To get confused for a moment: it makes things like fats and oils “water-miscible,” or able to combine and form a homogeneous mixture, rather than repel each other as oil and water usually do. It can be used for laundry, washing the washing machine, cleaning pots and drains, removing moss from terraces and much more.
To clean coffee mugs, all you have to do is shake some crystals into said mug, add some warm water, let the solution sit for at least 30 minutes (overnight is best) and then you can wipe the stains properly. off.
I put on my science hat and chose two mugs to see how the crystals handled fresh stains and older, more hardened stains built up from years and years of use. I took the cup of cappuccino I had a few hours ago sitting in the sink. I also took my favorite mug, which had a decent number of rings and stains, especially on the flap on the side (I love handmade pottery!). I wasn’t 100 percent sure how much cleaner to use, so I started with a teaspoon for both mugs and let them sit with hot water for half an hour.
For a cappuccino colored cup, the crystals did the trick. All coffee stains came off immediately and required minimal scrubbing. I went in with my hands to get some of the old coffee off, but I didn’t even need to get a sponge or anything more abrasive to get the cup completely clean.
As for the second cup, my favorite cup, the crystals effectively cleaned some of the coffee stains, but didn’t get the deeper stains I was hoping to remove. So I tried again, this time letting the solution sit on my counter overnight.
Deep set stains on the top and sides melted a second time. I still had to scrub the sides to remove some of the more aggressive stains, but I noticed the rings towards the top disappeared, and I didn’t see any stains on the cup flap.
Overall, I won’t be cleaning my mugs every day with soda crystals, but they work well and are very effective for a deeper clean every now and then. My favorite mug now looks better than brand new!
How do you clean your coffee stained mugs? Tell us your miracle solutions in the comments below.
This post originally appeared on The Kitchen. See it there: A ridiculously easy way to clean coffee stains from white mugs