Can You Actually Clean Your Coffee Carafe With Salt Water And Ice?

Coffee is a staple in many American households. According to the National Coffee Association, 70% of people living in the United States drink coffee, with 62% chugging down a cup of coffee a day to get their giddy-up and go. Where are consumers getting their coffee from? With all the coffee shops and chains that dot street corners and strip malls, many get that cup of coffee from the likes of a Starbucks or a Peet's coffee; However, per Comunicaffe, a Mr. Coffee survey revealed 49% of coffee drinkers began making their coffee at home during the COVID-19 pandemic, and of those at-home baristas, 66% didn't return to the coffee shop after pandemic-related restrictions were lifted.  

While this is good news for your pocket book and it's putting that coffee maker to good use, you may notice the glass coffee carafe is starting to look a little dirty and dingy from coffee stains at the bottom and on the sides of the pot. Joy Ride Coffee explains that even if you clean your coffee carafe on a fairly regular basis, this is normal wear and tear and is simply the result of coffee oil build up that ultimately creates stains. 

A popular way to get rid of these coffee stains, per Morton Salt, is to use salt and ice. But does it really work?

According to Morton Salt, if you pour some crushed ice and salt into a room temperature coffee carafe, along with a little water, and "swirl" it around, you will find those nasty looking coffee stains going bye-bye. Kitchn decided to put this trick to the test to see if it worked on a glass carafe; However, the food site's results were less than stellar. The tester was rather disappointed because success was not in the cards and the stains persisted, despite giving it the old college try. That said, Tips Bulletin suggests the addition of lemon juice to the ice and salt makes all the difference for getting rid of those pesky coffee stains.

Still, if you want to skip this savory cleaning method all together, according to Martha Stewart, nothing does the job of cleaning your coffee carafe like baking soda. The domestic guru recommends using baking soda and some water to create a paste that you can use to "scour" those coffee stains on the glass carafe. The site then notes you want to rinse it with warm water to remove all the baking soda paste residue before placing it in the dishwasher for a "complete" cleaning.