How to get coffee out of clothes

What to do right after you spill coffee

Blot first. Press a napkin or paper towel onto the spill to lift out as much liquid as you can, turning to a clean area each time, and do not rub, which spreads the stain and grinds it into the weave. Then get cool water through the fabric. The American Cleaning Institute and the University of Georgia Extension both start coffee stains the same way: sponge or rinse them promptly in cool water. If you can reach a sink, hold the fabric inside out under the tap so the water pushes coffee back out the way it came in.

Cool water is the safe default even for black coffee. Hot water can lift a fresh tannin stain on sturdy fabric, but if the coffee had milk in it, heat can set the milk protein, and you rarely know the fabric's limits standing in a café. At work or on the road, a bottle of water and a stack of napkins are enough to keep the stain from setting: wet one napkin, press it against the back of the stain, and blot from the front with a dry one. Skip the bar of soap in the restroom. Iowa State University Extension notes that bar soap and other natural soaps can make tannin stains harder to remove, so plain water is better than a lather you cannot rinse away.

How to get coffee stains out of clothes at home

These steps are for washable fabrics such as cotton, linen, polyester and blends. Read the care label before you start, and test anything stronger than water on an inside seam, especially on bright or dark colors.

1. 01

   Rinse from the back with cool water

   Turn the garment inside out and run cool water through the stain for a minute or two. You should see the brown lighten noticeably. The more coffee you rinse out now, the less the detergent has to do.

2. 02

   Treat any cream or milk first

   If the coffee had cream, whole milk or a sweet oily creamer, rub a drop of dish soap into the stain first to break up the fat. Cornell Cooperative Extension advises treating the greasy part of a combination stain such as coffee with cream before anything else, because the fat can hold the color in place.

3. 03

   Pretreat with liquid laundry detergent

   Work a little heavy duty liquid detergent, ideally one with enzymes, into the stain from both sides with your fingertips or a soft brush. Leave it for 10 to 15 minutes. The stain should look paler and less sharply edged when you check it.

4. 04

   Or soak in a vinegar and dish soap solution

   For a stubborn mark, the University of Georgia Extension suggests soaking the stain for 15 minutes in 1 quart (about 1 liter) of warm water with 1/2 teaspoon of dishwashing liquid and 1 tablespoon of white vinegar, then rinsing. The mild acid helps loosen the tannins. Use either this soak or the detergent step, and rinse the vinegar out completely before any bleach goes in.

5. 05

   Wash with bleach that is safe for the fabric

   Wash in the warmest water the care label allows, with oxygen bleach for colors and most whites. Chlorine bleach is fine on white cotton and linen if the label allows it, but never on wool, silk or spandex. Our guide to using oxygen bleach explains how much to use.

6. 06

   Air dry and check

   Look at the spot in daylight while it is still damp and again when dry. If you can see any brown ring, repeat the pretreatment and wash. Only use the dryer once the stain is completely gone, because the heat can set what is left.

How to get dried coffee stains out of clothes

Dried coffee can usually still be removed, especially if the garment has not been through a dryer. Older stains need time more than force. The American Cleaning Institute suggests pretreating or soaking older coffee stains in a product containing enzymes, then laundering. In practice that means dissolving enzyme detergent or an enzyme presoak in a basin of warm water, submerging the stained area and leaving it for at least 30 minutes, several hours for an old mark. Then follow the home steps above from the pretreatment onward.

Stains that have been ironed or tumble dried are harder, because the heat has cooked the color into the fibers. They are not always permanent. A long soak in oxygen bleach solution, overnight if the fabric tolerates it, can often fade a set coffee mark on white or pale cotton a great deal, and repeating the soak once or twice helps. On colored clothes, test the oxygen bleach solution on an inside seam first. If the mark sits on a white shirt collar together with sweat and body oil, our guide to removing sweat stains covers that mixture.

Coffee on white shirts, wool and silk

A coffee stain on a white shirt looks worse than it is, because the contrast is high, but white cotton is also the easiest fabric to rescue. You can use warmer water, and chlorine bleach is available as a final step if the label permits it. Never mix chlorine bleach with vinegar or ammonia, since the combination releases toxic gas. If you use the vinegar soak, rinse the garment thoroughly before any chlorine bleach goes near it. For keeping whites clean in general, see our guide to washing white clothes.

Wool, cashmere and silk need gentler handling. Blot and rinse with cool water in the same way, then dab the stain with a little wool or silk detergent dissolved in cool water and rinse again. Do not rub. Woolmark advises against enzyme detergents and against bleach of any kind, chlorine or oxygen, on wool, and silk is just as sensitive, so the stronger steps above are off the table. Our guides to washing silk and washing wool cover the full wash. On a suit, a tie or anything labeled dry clean only, blot, rinse lightly with cool water only if the label allows water at all, and take it to a dry cleaner quickly with a note saying whether it was coffee with or without milk.