I learned of an easy way to clean my pots, carafes, cups, pitchers, and thermos bottles years ago. Since I hand wash my coffee pot, ice tea pitcher, and thermos bottles, I still use this method today.

Fill the carafe, pot, pitcher, cup, or thermos, with hot water. Add 2 tablespoons of dry dishwasher detergent (not dish washing soap). Let it sit for 10 to 15 minutes. The coffee and/or tea stain will lift right off.

If you have a stubborn stain, repeat this process.

Rinse the carafe, pot, pitcher, cup or thermos thoroughly and it’s ready for use.

I haven’t tried this with liquid dishwasher detergent, however, it seems like it may work. Nor have I tried putting the carafe or pitcher in the dishwasher.

I make daily batches of tea in my Mr. Coffee Ice Tea Maker (see my product review). Just today I used this cleaning method to remove the tea stains from the ice tea pitcher and it worked like a dream.

UPDATE: Many thanks for comments from readers. It has been determined liquid dish washer detergent works just as well as the dry dish washer detergent to remove those stubborn stains from thermos bottles, carafes and cups.