Removing Butter Coffee Stains

Have you been wondering about giving “Butter Coffee” a try? First, there’s the different ways you can make it: just add unsalted butter, or butter and coconut oil, or maybe butter and MCT Oil (that’s medium chain triglyceride oil), or maybe really go for it and buy the expensive coffee and upgraded MCT Oil to make your butter coffee “bulletproof,” as they say. There are different ways to brew the coffee, and different equipment options for blending up the coffee and butter. Any new trend has its devotees who swear by it, going head-to-head with those who aren’t so impressed. Whatever you decide about butter coffee, if you (or your best friend who swears by it) spill any, at least you don’t have to wonder how you’ll get a butter coffee stain out!

With so much added oil in the coffee, a butter coffee stain requires more attention than a regular coffee stain, which usually comes out just by adding Clorox® Regular Bleach₂ along with your favorite detergent. With butter coffee, you simply can’t skip pretreating to break up the oil before bleaching away the coffee! Here’s a quick how-to for butter coffee stain removal on white bleachable items.*

1. Apply liquid laundry detergent directly to the stain and gently rub in. Let this stand for 5–10 minutes, and then rinse with warm water.
2. Pretreat again, this time using Clorox® Bleach Pen Gel. Wait only 1 minute before washing the item in the hottest water recommended on the care label using detergent and ½ cup Clorox® Regular Bleach₂.
3. Air dry the item. This is very important with so much oil in the stain. If you don’t get it all in the detergent pretreatment step you can repeat the complete procedure again targeting the areas you missed. You have a much better chance of success when you keep the item out of a hot dryer until you know the stain is all the way out!

Washable items with color (or white items with spandex) start out with the same pretreatment step, but use a different bleach product to work on the coffee part of the stain:

1. Apply liquid laundry detergent directly to the stain and gently rub in. Let this stand for 5–10 minutes, then rinse with warm water.
2. Pretreat again, this time using liquid Clorox2® Stain Remover and Color Booster. Wait 10 minutes before washing the item in the hottest water recommended on the care label using detergent and more Clorox2®.
3. Air dry the item. I can’t over-emphasize the importance of this — if you missed any stain during either pretreatment step you have a much better chance of complete success when you repeat the treatment on an item that’s been out of a hot dryer!

Now if the top of the blender flies off and the butter coffee gets on your clothes (not to mention around your kitchen), you are ready to handle it. And for your counters, break out the 409®!!

*Always avoid bleaching wool, silk, mohair, leather and spandex.