There’s nothing more luxurious than drinking a cup of hot chocolate when it’s cold outside. It’s a tasty alternative to all the tea and coffee we drink while we’re on the go (after all, your little one can’t exactly drink coffee, and even most teas contain caffeine) and gives adults and kids alike a warm, cosy feeling inside – especially in winter when we’re more likely to need something to warm us up!
But imagine this scene: you’re drinking a mug of steaming hot cocoa with whipped cream or marshmallows and dreaming of ski chalets and roaring fires, when suddenly your mug slips and you end up with a nasty brown mark on your fluffy white scarf, or on a clean pair of trousers!
But can hot chocolate stain your clothes? Well, if you don’t get the mark out fast, the hot chocolate can seep into the fabric, staining your clothing and stomping all over your hot chocolate reverie too! So what should you do? Since the warmer the chocolate is, the more it melts down into the fibres of fabric; it’s important that you treat the stain straight away and avoid heat of any kind when removing a hot chocolate stain. If you let the spill dry, your stain removal efforts will be much harder! If you’re at a cafe you could start to treat the stain there and then by:
- 1
Going to the bathroom and running cold water through the fabric from the reverse side of the stain.
- 2
If there’s still a dark mark, gently work some hand soap into the stain with your fingers.
- 3
Rinse the soap away with clean water.
- 4
Put the garment in the washing machine as soon as you are able to get home.
How to Remove Hot Chocolate Stains from Clothing
However, this solution will not work for all situations – so if you can’t treat the stain immediately, then treat it as soon as you get home in the following way:
Removing Hot Chocolate Stains at Home
The easiest way to remove a hot chocolate stain at home is to follow these steps:
- 1
Check the care label on the garment.
- 2
Pre-treat the stain with a mixture of cold water and detergent such as OMO Auto Liquid, which is especially good for removing cocoa-milk sugar stains.
- 3
Allow it to sit for a few minutes before laundering the garment on a cool wash program.
- 4
At the end of the cycle, check that the stain has disappeared and then dry your garment as normal.
Stubborn Hot Chocolate Stain Removal
At the end of your wash, if you still find there’s a hot chocolate stain on your clothes, the best approach is to follow these steps:
- 1
Make sure the garment stays wet.
- 2
Add OMO Auto Liquid to a bucket of cold water (find the dosing guide on the label), and add the stained clothing.
- 3
Let the fabric soak for at least 15 minutes.
- 4
Remove from the bucket and rewash on the same cool wash settings.
Which OMO product do you use to remove stubborn hot chocolate stains?
OMO is known for tough stain removal, and our full product offering is tough on stains. If you need to remove tough stains on your laundry, any of these products would do the job.
