from wikiHow

Drinking tea and coffee in cups results in a residue build-up over time. There’s no need to use harsh chemicals to remove it; follow this method for ease of removal and mere baking soda will do the trick.
Steps

1. Dampen the tea cup. There needs to be a little moisture present for the baking soda to cling to.
2. Rub baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) over the stained area of the cup with the soft cloth. A paste-like film should form as you rub over the dampened cup.
3. Continue rubbing. Put some effort into rubbing directly over the stained areas of the cup. Continue doing this until the stain lifts. You will need to turn the cup around as you are scrubbing, to ensure that you reach all areas of the stain.
4. Rinse. Remove the baking soda residue off the cup. Check that you have removed all the stain. If not, repeat. If yes, turn the cup upside down and leave to air dry before returning to its usual storage spot.

Tips

• Salt can be used in place of baking soda if wished.
• You can also soak the stained item in white vinegar. That will remove tea and coffee stains as well as hard water deposits.
• Dental cleaner works well also.
• Try adding a teaspoon of bleach (sodium hypochlorite) along with the regular dish washing detergent and run a normal cycle. Your cups will come out sparking clean!

Things You’ll Need

• Baking soda or salt – the amount needed varies according to how much the cup soaks up and how effective the cleaning is; if in doubt, add more.
• Soft yet slightly abrasive cleaning cloth (the modern plastic scrubbers work very well for this purpose)

Related wikiHows

• How to Clean the Stains from the Inside of a Coffee Cup
• How to Remove Deep Stains from Dishes
• How to Use Baking Soda

Article provided by wikiHow, a wiki how-to manual. Please edit this article and find author credits at the original wikiHow article on How to Remove Stains from Tea Cups Using Baking Soda. All content on wikiHow can be shared under a Creative Commons license.

We are thrilled to announce that you can now find Blacksmith Coffee at several new locations in southern and western Kansas. Since we’ve been shipping coffee to online customers in these places already, we expect folks will be thrilled to know that they can find us in White’s Foodliner stores in Goddard, Kingman, Medicine Lodge, and Hugoton, as well as Gene’s Heartland Foods in Dodge City.

White’s Foodliner Stores in Goddard, Kingman, Medicine Lodge, and Hugoton
If you aren’t familiar with White’s Foodliners, they are a wonderful, independent, family-owned chain of grocery stores that specialize in providing a broad selection of both national and local packaged foods, along with high-quality produce and meats in a clean, comfortable environment.

Their stores in Kingman and Goddard (pictured) are larger stores that local residents are surely proud of!  The stores in Medicine Lodge and Hugoton, though smaller, are packed with a wide variety of products and surely, locals don’t lack for anything!  I was thrilled to find Ibarra chocolate in Hugoton so we could make Mexican Hot Chocolate for our daughters’ sleepover on Friday.

In fact, after trekking all over southwest Kansas to set up the coffee displays and talk with folks about Blacksmith Coffee, when I came to Hugoton, just before I ran out Kansas to drive through, I was surprised at how awesome a selection White’s has in that building down there!  Anyway, now they all have one more great product to add to the list – Blacksmith Coffee!

Gene’s Heartland Foods
Of course, I was excited to pull into Dodge City and tie the horse off just down the street from Boot Hill at Gene’s Heartland Foods.

Since I love all things  Old West – as our entire branding indicates – it was just time to make Blacksmith Coffee available to the hearty souls in the roughest town in the territory.

Well maybe that’s stretching it a bit, but it used to be the rowdiest place this side of the mighty Mississippi.  This Gene’s store is huge – I would guess it’s as big as their Ellsworth store – and the selection of food products and prices is great!  They even have Mexican Coca-Cola in the old fashioned tall glass bottles.  Anyhow, don’t get out of Dodge without stopping at Gene’s Heartland Foods for a bag of Blacksmith Coffee!

Click here for a map of other locations you can find Blacksmith Coffee.

Coffee in Haiti
Coffee first arrived in Haiti in 1734.  By 1788,  the island of Hispaniola, as it was known then, produced half of the world’s coffee supply. In 1795, through the Treaty of Ildefonso, the island, which was previously divided between French and Spanish rule, was ceded to France . But between 1795 and 1805 the slaves who worked the coffee and sugar plantations on the island,  revolted against their French masters. Under orders from Napoleon Bonaparte, the commander on the ground attempted to quell this rebellion but was unsuccessful.  The Bloody Revolt, as it is now known, cost the lives of thousands of slaves and nearly all of the French colonists.

This battle was the only successful slave revolt in history and it came at a huge cost in human lives and the island’s economy. Ultimately this slave revolt led to the Louisiana Purchase and shaped the future of the United States.  Most coffee plantations were burned to the ground and the owners massacred. By the end of the revolt Haiti’s coffee production had declined by nearly 50% and Haitian coffee never again enjoyed its prior dominance in the global marketplace.

Haitian Coffee Today
Today Haiti is not considered a major coffee producer.  At the end of the 20th Century, Haiti produced less than half a percent of the world’s yearly coffee supply.  Unfortunately, due to civil strife, lack of infrastructure and other reasons, Haitian coffee has lacked for consistency and quality in the cup for many years.  With one relatively recent exception – an outstanding variety marketed as Haitian Bleu.

Haitian Bleu is a wet-processed coffee that  has a bluish color to the raw beans.  In some circles is lovingly referred to as “the poor man’s Jamaican Blue Mountain” due to it’s exceptional quality and the similarities in appearance when both coffees are in their raw, green form.  In fact, in Japan it is often used as a blender to stretch Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee supplies.  Haitian Bleu is typically organic and shade-grown – due more to economic reasons than a moral/ethical one, but still produced in an environmentally responsible way, nonetheless.  It’s primarily farmed by small family landholders at medium and high altitudes from a variety of microclimates.  Because it’s essentially a cooperative coffee, the flavors can be quite varied as each farmers crop is blended with the other cooperating harvests.  It is a rich, chocolaty, medium bodied, sweet, and highly aromatic coffee with notes of tropical fruit, cinnamon and vanilla.

Bottom line – Haitian Bleu coffee is an exceptional coffee from one of the poorest nations in the world.

Haitian Bleu coffee has the potential to help the nation economically rebuild from the earthquake and many of the social struggles it has faced for many years.   Though Port-au-Prince was severely damaged, the coffee plantations went largely unscathed during the earthquake.

So now that I’ve built up this exceptional coffee, how do you get some?

Great question!  Like so many  others, we would love to do something to help with relief efforts.  I’ve tried many sources over the last few weeks hoping to do a special Haitian relief coffee fundraiser, but have been told repeatedly that this year’s entire crop of Haitian Bleu was contracted to French importers.  However,  I spoke on the phone this week with an organization that will be getting some new crop Haitian Bleu in soon and we are optimistic that we’ll have some to roast before long.  When we do, we’ll make an announcement and plan a special fundraising event around it.  In the meantime, please continue to pray for Haiti and give as you can.