porcelain tea cups
I love tea cups. All kinds of tea cups including pottery to porcelain. I just wanted to give a heads up on using the fragile porcelains. Always warm the cup before you pour the tea. It can cause a crack if the cup is too cool. I know this from experience and I damaged a beautiful antique cup. Booo
If you are having trouble with tea stain in your porcelain, you can resolve the problem with a mild bleach. Make sure it is mild. It won’t hurt gold rims or accents, but it will tarnish silver. So be careful.
This is true with most materials. If you live in a cold area or just have a cold house/apartment you need to warm up things before use. I broke a tempered glass cup because I decided to clean it just after I had poured boiling hot water in it, it initially was close to the A/C unit and the tension from the expansion plus my hand made it break. :(
Ouch! I did the same thing with a Spode cup that was my grandmother’s. I found another one on eBay, but alas it’s not grandma’s.
It depends on the material. I have a German glass beer mug I use for ice tea. I throw the mug into the freezer until it gets freezing cold. Then I take it out, fill it with ice and then pour boiling tea into it. Have done this with ice, without ice, freezing cold to hot, hot to cold, and the beer mug has withstood all of my abuse over two dozen times. The glass beer mug is thick, made of clear glass, most likely tempered, holds 500ml when filled to the fill line, and made in Germany.
Also for tea stains, dilute a small amount of automatic dish washing liquid in a large pot filled with water. Let your cups, teapots, etc. soak in the water. It takes about two hours or three for the stains to disappear.
Tempered glass holds PRETTY well with cold vs heat. But as I said, I wasn’t very smart and introduced boiling hot water to a cold cup and tried cleaning it forcing my had into it a bit. :P I should get something like you describe, that one was too delicate and it was my ‘casual’ cup. Casual cups need to be more sturdy.
What a mug!!!!!
Thanks for the soaking tip. I will try the dish washing liquid. The bleach is a little harsh, but it works and I’ve been doing it for awhile. If your method works I’ll switch.
The only issue I ever had was with a 99 cents store glass beer mug I tried to put tea in foolishly.
Never had anything else crack, never warm stuff up, guess it can happen though.
That’s true, especially in winter, the porcelain cup is cold, when pouring boiling hot water in it, it may crack easily. So it’s a good way to warm the cup before you pour the boiling hot water.
For the tea stains, i use toothbrush dip with Toothpaste to brush, as well as salt.
That’s another great idea. I love Steepster’s, everyone is so resourceful. I’ll try this as well.lol
I use baking soda and warm water to help get rid of tea stains in my tea tumbler and infusers. Just let it soak for a while, then the tea stains rub off easily with a sponge.
That’s a smart idea. The salt would be a good abrasive. I use vinegar and salt on my copper tea pots. That works like a charm.
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