Coffee stains are one of the most dreaded of all laundry stains. The dark color of coffee and the deep pigments in the liquid can make it tough to get coffee stains out of a t-shirt, particularly when the t-shirt is colored.
To have the best chance of getting the coffee out of the fabric, treat the stain right away. Don’t hesitate to start getting the coffee out of the t-shirt as soon as the spill happens. Take the t-shirt off as quickly as possible in order to be able to treat the stain quickly. The stain will be a lot easier to treat if it is treated quickly. If too much time has passed, it may not be possible to remove much of the coffee stain without using bleach on the t-shirt.
To start treating the t-shirt, get as much of the liquid out of the fabric as possible. If the spill was large, wring the t-shirt out several times to get the coffee out of it. If the spill was smaller, press a towel, or napkins or whatever you may have into the stained area. Keep doing this until you aren’t able to remove any more of the liquid.
Once you’ve done this, turn the t-shirt inside out and run cold water through the stained part of the t-shirt. If the entire t-shirt has been stained, squeeze and wring the t-shirt repeatedly under cold running water. However large the stain is, rub the fabric together under the water to get the stain out more quickly. Continue doing this until no more of the coffee is running out of the fabric with the water.
Use a pre-treating spray or rub on the stained area of the t-shirt. This pre-treating solution should be used on the entire stained area. Pay particular attention to the edges of the stain. These edges may be darker than the rest of the stain because of the way the coffee was moving along the fabric. Let the stained area soak in the pre-treatment solution for as long as the directions indicate. Once the soaking time is completed, wash the t-shirt in hot water. If the coffee stain was treated quickly, this should lift the remaining coffee out of the fabric. This process will give a colored t-shirt its best chance of beating the stain.
If the t-shirt is white, there are a few additional options that can be used that would alter the color of a colored t-shirt. The main principle of treating this type of dark stain on a white t-shirt is to simply strip all of the color out of the t-shirt. This can be done easily by washing the t-shirt with chlorine bleach, but it may weaken the fabric to do so. The best approach is to blot away the liquid and then rinse the t-shirt as you would with a colored t-shirt. Then, allow the stained area to soak in bleach for a few minutes. After that, rinse away the bleach and launder the t-shirt in hot water. If the bleach soak doesn’t remove the stain, try a bleach pen or soak the t-shirt for a longer period of time before washing it.