Tea Mug Care - a new trick for stains

 We all have favorite tea mug or tea pot - the one that we reach for first every time we make that comfort cuppa.  After a while though, no matter how much we baby that mug by washing it immediately after our cuppa is done, or hand wash it with care after every use, that favorite mug will get stained.  It can't be helped.  The oils from the tea blends collect and build and stain and eventually, you have brown rings of ick marring the inside of your beautiful favorite mug.

Even worse, if you're the sort not to drink the same blend out of that favorite mug ever cuppa, than over time as the stains build, you can notice that the flavours of your blends all start to muddy a bit.  The greens start to pick up hints of that Earl Grey you had three days ago even after you've washed the hell out of your mug.  It's true, the stains that won't come out also carry flavours that won't come out.

In a perfect tea drinker's world, we would be able to have a pot and cup seasoned for every blend so that, like a good cast iron skillet, the flavours that built up in your Oolong set would only ever carry that Oolong flavour and would deepen that flavour as the oils and stains built up with time.  The unfortunate truth, however, is that there are simply too many tasty blends out there to dedicate a mug or pot to each of them.  Does this mean that once your favorite mug is stained too much that it's no good for anything with a delicate flavor?  Or that you need to find a new favourite mug every season to keep your flavours clean?  Thankfully, no, because I have discovered a wonderful modern solution.

A malamine "sponge" does wonders on tea stains.  You might know the product by its more brand specific name "Magic Eraser".  When used on a glazed ceramic or porcelain, or a glass mug or pot, a magic eraser is indeed MAGIC!  I have found that it gets rid of the set in stains and with them, the lingering flavours.  A mug that's been cleaned with a magic eraser suddenly tastes like a new mug with no muddied flavours!

Now - before you go crazy and buy a bunch of magic erasers to use for every tea mug cleaning, a few words of warning.  These malamine sponges are not actually sponges but are foam and part of the magic of how they lift the tea stains and flavours away is that they don't dissolve them like soap.  Instead, the magic eraser acts a lot like a fine sandpaper to use abrasion to .... the best word I can think of is exfoliate your mug.  Hence, you shouldn't use the magic eraser for EVERY washing of your mug or pot because you don't want to scrub away the glaze on the inside.  Besides, you don't need to use such a deep clean on every washing - just keep one for a once a month touch up (or once a week depending on the severity of your tea habit).  Also, please note that I mentioned that this is good on GLAZED ceramic or porcelain.  Unglazed rough or porous ceramic sucks in the tea oils deeper than a magic eraser can reach.  Besides that, the rougher "natural" ceramics tear up the foam of the magic eraser and then it leaves behind all these foam bits that can get stuck in the bigger porous sections and then you just have a big ol' mess.  I don't recommend. 

Oh and - yes, this method works on coffee stains too.

So, I hope that this little tip helps some of you enjoy less muddied tea in your newly stain free favorite tea mugs!!

Happy tea drinking!