Smart Soak

Perfect.

I got the water super hot in my kettle, then soaked my white and badly stained teacups for 15-20 min with this awesome powder. Took a sponge, wiped them out, and they look brand new. No lie. Even my boyfriend noticed and he’s not exactly Captain Observant, ifyaknowwhatImean :p

I reused one bowl of solution for all 8 teacups. One cup had to be soaked and wiped twice, but none needed scrubbing. This stuff is amazing. Period.

This stuff is amazing! And it’s simply too much fun to use. At first I was like ’I’m just doing to do one liter on my most tea-stained stuff’, which turned into ‘make 4 liters and clean anything that has the slightest tea or coffee stain on it’. Haha- and I’ve alot of various cups and thermoses and teapots. I even soaked the OUTSIDE of a brushed stainless steel thermos, just to see how it would do (SHINY!) I’m half tempted to make a big bunch of this stuff to see if it’ll get my stainless steel kitchen sink super shiny, but that would be overkill… and a waste of cleaner. Although the tea stains never really bothered me before (except on the inguineTEA), it was just really cool and fun to watch. I think some of this stuff is possibly shinier than when I bought it.

Warning: it does make your hands slippery and slick for awhile after touching, so be careful with handling or you’ll drop it. After the first few I switched to using rubber gloves so I wouldn’t drop anymore things, I didn’t want to risk the ceramic. Also, it does work tons better when HOT.

I recieved a sample of this amazing stuff with my Pu Erh sample order, I was quite giddy because I have wanted to give this a try for a while. See I have a problematic teacup, it is vintage glass and for some reason even a thorough baking soda scrubbing won’t remove the stains. Lots of elbow grease will get it mostly clear, but it has this annoying film that I originally thought was mineral stains…I think it is actually damage from running it through the dishwasher. Good thing it was only 50 cents!

So into the mix my cup (and a spare glass cup that was starting to develop a stain) went! After a nice fizzy soaking all the tea stains were gone, my glass cups are clean! I cannot wait to try this on some of my stained white porcelain.

Sadly the weird white stains are still there, but I think they are there forever since I am pretty sure they are damage and not actual stains.

If you are in need of a cleaner that is not made from harsh chemicals, then I suggest this one. It gets the job done!

HOLY !#$%^ This stuff works and is AMAZING! DAAANG. I was stubborn and liked my cheapy “baking soda and water scrub” method, but I never got my strainers clean. So I decided to buy the 6oz of the Smart soak to try it out.

Seriously steepster, check out my blog post (Oolong Owl) for the pictures of Smart Soak at work – I test run the smart soak with a gongfu tea strainer and it came out brand new. http://oolongowl.com/smart-soak-tea-stain-dissolver-mandala-tea-oolong-owl-review/

I then tried it on my horrific, disgusting, about to trash it gravity steeper from the tea stained bowels of hell and it came out impressively clean! I had scrubbed the blasted thing many times, but after 2 minutes using the smart soak I could see the tea stains peeling off.

I actually noticed my tea tasting better with the sparkling clean tea strainers – like I was using a brand new strainer. Very spiffy!

(on a side note.. rating this 100, with the Steepster green licky happy face is weird. Not drinking this stuff and it is probably a bad idea and smells like stale old tea)

Brace yourselves guys, ‘cause I’m about to go full-on housewife. This stuff is as close to a miracle product, actually-like-as-seen-on-TV-demos as I’ve ever tried. I’m lazy and used to a routine with my teaware where I just rinse it out daily, and then perhaps 2 times a week I’ll go at it all with the usual suspects—baking soda, white vinegar or lemon juice, occasionally something a touch more exotic like cream of tartar or citric acid or Bon Ami etc. And it does an ok job—respectable but not squeaky,-just-out-of-the-box immaculate and bright. You know, where there’ll be a couple hard to reach spots or ridges or whatever that have faint tannin discoloration no matter what (in particular, I was convinced the tannin stains on the inner bottom of my For Life basket and the thin glass spouts of my teapots were here to stay). Also, the Breville is nice (though I would say now definitively I prefer the Zoji if you have to choose one), but one thing that’s rough is it’s a little bit of a pain to clean (to do it properly you have to leave it overnight and boil and reboil and all that, which means no insta-morning tea!) and stains very easily, with the section behind the magnetic arm that’s nearly impossible to delicately/safely reach to clean well. But I was thinking, you know…a life of tea means some slight stains on a few hard-to-reach spots you just live with. Not a big deal. But I do sometimes get self-conscious when guests are here, wondering if they think those things are filthy or something.

Well no more. Now I know if/when it really matters, bringing everything back to brand spankin’ new condition is no sweat. Today I took a tablespoon of Smart Soak and 8 cups of boiling water (straight from the Zoji!) and submerged or poured it into or onto everything that had those sorts of pesky stains—lots of pouring back and forth between teapots to reach the spouts, dunking brew baskets in and then once they came out pouring that water into tea cups, what have you. And my gosh. I didn’t even have to wait the 10 minute soak time. Everything dipped in when the water was truly hot came out sparkling, factory-new immaculate immediately (the aforementioned For Life basket is so shiny it’s like a looking glass—ALL of it too, the bottom that no amount of scrubbing or homemade remedy chemical reaction could budge, the rim, everything). !!!! I felt like that Billy whatshisname guy from the informercials. And nothing was damaged, no paint or images or anything. No harsh fumes either; simply some effervescence and watching those yellow-brown tannins instantly bleed from the gear into the water. MAGIC. I was worried I’d have to use a lot for it to be effective, or that it’d smell harsh or potentially harmful, or make a mess, or require long soak times. Nope. No cleaning product has ever delivered on what it promised to this extent. I am so, so grateful Dexter3657, Azzrian, and other Steepsters sang its praises enough to convince me to bother to try it. I don’t ever want to be without this stuff—if Mandala ever announces they’re pulling it (the horrors!), I’ll be first in line to stock up on the remaining tubs. Fantastic product (especially on stainless steel, glass, and tumblers, but really everything).

This stuff is unbelievable. I got a sample of it from a Mandala order I placed a while back. Finally thought I’d try it out yesterday evening.

I have one fine mesh tea strainer that I’ve been using on an almost daily basis for the past three or four years. While I wash it regularly, over time it still accumulated a brownish tea-stain patina and while baking powder soaks helped get rid of some of it, it never completely went away.

Then I stuck the strainer in the Smart Soak for about thirty minutes.

The strainer looks brand-new. All those years of tea stains, gone. I’d forgotten how silvery the strainer looked originally.

I’m floored by how effective this stuff is.

This stuff is amazing! Garret sent me a sample with my last order and I am in love. I just used it to clean my Breville One touch, Timolino Thermos, a plastic ice tea pitcher and a frequently used white tea cup. All from the one sample.

It was super easy. I just followed the instructions and was shocked. No scrubbing needed and they’re all sparkling clean.

I’m definitely buying more when I get a chance. I haven’t seen my Breville this clean since the day I bought it. to clean