Tuesday Tips #5 - Coffee Stains and Stainless

I don't know about you, but I've just about finished converting all of our drinkware to stainless steel. We have the Thermos brand coffee mugs that keep things either hot or cold for hours on end, and the Thermos brand cold drink 16 oz thermos and our giant stainless tall cups for when we're underway. The problem with all of this stainless is that coffee and tea do, in fact, stain it. While I have one of those nifty long-handled brushes to reach down into these narrow-mouthed, tall cups, it just doesn't get rid of the deep-down stains that accumulate over time. The best solution I've found so far is to fill them up with hot water, plop in two denture cleaning tablets, and let them sit overnight. In the morning, wash with soapy water as usual and the cups will look brand new inside. This works great for porcelain cups as well but we don't have any on the boat due to breakage risks. The denture tablets work on pretty much anything stainless, including pots and pans that might have discolored from something you cooked. I usually just buy the store brand, but any of the ones in your local store or on Amazon will work.