Stubborn tea stains vanish from mugs with 1 item you have in laundry cupboard

It’s easy to get rid of stubborn tea stains on mugs and cups if you have the right items – and one of them is already sitting in your laundry cupboard

As a nation of tea lovers, plenty of us will have encountered some tea-stained mugs. More than 100 million cups of tea are consumed in the UK every day, according to the International Tea Committee.

And with the typical Brit drinking around two to three cups of tea per day, it’s hardly surprising our mugs might get discoloured from time to time. Tea and coffee contain tannin, which gives it its colour. Over time these can accumulate on teacups, mugs and teapots, particularly if they aren’t cleaned straight away.

But fortunately, there are things you can do to remove the stains and make them look as good as new. TikTok cleaning sensation Ann Russell recently shared her top tips for this on her @annrussell03 account. The professional cleaner responded to a video of someone asking for help removing stains from a mug which was purchased 32 years ago, which was severely stained.

In response, Ann said: “Tea stains can be surprisingly hard to get rid of.”

But there are a number of things you can try.

But instead of going out to buy specific products that claim to be able to remove tea stains, Ann says you can just head over to your laundry cupboard. She said: “First thing, laundry detergent, or if you’ve got it, Vanish or sodium percarbonate. Because it’s the oxygen bleach part of laundry detergent you want. Spoonful of that, in a bowl, hot water, just leave them to soak overnight.

“In the morning, rinse it off and then either use a little bit of Cif on a scrubby sponge, that works really, really well actually. Or a paste scourer, like the Pink Stuff or Astonish or any of those on those sponges. That should bring it up really, really nicely.”

Should this prove unsuccessful, which may occur with particularly stubborn or thick deposits, Ann suggests rinsing it clean before leaving it to soak once more with additional laundry detergent, repeating the process until achieving the desired results.

Within the comments section, people began sharing their own techniques for eliminating tea stains. One individual commented: “I use salt and a teeny bit of washing up liquid,” whilst another contributed: “I’ve always used biological laundry powder. Fill a bowl/cup with water and add the powder. Leave to soak and then wash/scrub after a few hours or overnight. Always come out spotless – obviously then wash well afterwards with usual washing up liquid.”

A third person recommended: “Milton is the one! It’s the only way I can get the bone china sparkling.”

Should that fail to work, another person proposed: “I just use brillo pads ………works wonders.”