Tea stains cups for the same reason it stains teeth – it all comes down to having a high tannin content. Tannin, otherwise known as tannic acid, is a naturally occurring compound that gives tea it’s unique dark colour and flavour. Rather than spending hours scrubbing the stain, which can end up damaging the cup, Mrs Hinch fans have shared a natural 65p method to clean tea cups instead.
Taking to Mrs Hinch Cleaning Tips Facebook page, Tina Hern wrote: “There are always yellow/brown tea stains in my cups. What should I do if I can’t wash them off with clean water?”
The post received over 100 comments from fellow cleaning enthusiasts, with the majority recommending Tina use salt for the stains.
Brenda Foster said: “Rub salt on it. The stains will disappear. Wet cup first.”
Tracey Bolger wrote: “Salt with a drop of hot water. Rub around the cup and it comes up like new. I never use bleach for cups.”
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Marianne Garety said: “Salt works every time for me. Works on stained teaspoons too.”
Sue Burcombe agreed: “I put salt and a small amount of water in the cup then use a cloth and rub the sides. Works on teaspoon stains too.”
Sadie Gower wrote: “The best remedy l read somewhere on one of the sites was to use salt and hot water. Never had a problem cleaning a stained cup since l started using this method.”
Debbie Moss commented: “Put salt inside the wet cup and it scrubs right off straight away. No steeping and it takes seconds.
“My sister takes black coffee and it’s awful for staining my cups so I do this all the time. They come up like new.”
In response to Debbie, Lina Sparks said: “Yes, this is a fantastic way to remove the stains.”
Debbie added: “It works every time. I used to use the bleach technique until someone mentioned using salt. It wipes off so much quicker than bleach.”
Most households will have some salt in their kitchen cupboards, but if not, it is cheap to buy from local supermarkets. At Sainsbury’s and Asda table salt retails for 65p. At Waitrose it costs 70p.
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To use this method, wet the inside of the cup with a little bit of water and add about a tablespoon of salt and scrub the mug until it is clean.
The salt simply acts as a mild abrasive, getting into the stains and removing them.
Households can also use a lemon peel to scrub the salt into the mug. While the salt is an abrasive, the lemon is a bleaching agent, helping to eliminate the stains.
Other Mrs Hinch fans suggested using either denture tablets or Milton sterilising fluid to remove the stains.
Gladys Best said: “Cheap denture tablets. Fill cups with warm water, drop in tablet leave an hour, swish a scouring pad around the inside, beautiful clean cups.”
Jean Edwards wrote: “Denture tablets clean great. The cheap ones are good, no need for the expensive ones.”
Mairead O’Callaghan commented: “A drop of Milton always whitens cups etc. A cheaper version in Aldi. I put some cutlery into the cups to sterilise and then throw on a dish cloth. No waste.”
Kathy Marks said: “I always put a little Milton in my washing up water and everything comes out clean.”
