How to get rid of those pesky chocolate stains?
When you work in the Chocolate industry and simply with working with chocolate, in general, is difficult because it just gets everywhere! How on Earth do we stay clean and avoid these stains?! Milk chocolate, dark chocolate, white chocolate, chocolate ganache, hot chocolate, tempered chocolate, the chocolate mess is endless! Our choccy aprons have definitely seen better days!
Not to worry though, here at Choc on Choc we’ll share our top tips on how to get those chocolate stains out!
Firstly, always remember that persistence and patience is essential for stain removal!
The basics go something like this… to begin with, make sure that you have put some liquid laundry detergent on to the clothing so that it can soak in. After this just pop it in a cool wash and follow the instructions found on the clothing label. Carry on this process until it disappears! If it doesn’t… then we can try a few other things!
Washable clothing
First things first, make sure the chocolate in your material has become solid again. This is to stop it from melting further into the material and creating even more hard work for yourself! Next, you should put your dirty chocolate mess of material in a bag (make sure that the stain is facing outwards, to avoid it spreading) and then into the freezer for a while! After a while, when it has gone hard, try and scrape off as much as you can! But, do be careful when doing this as you don’t want to damage your clothes!
Next, you should run the stain under some cold water! This will help to loosen whatever is left of your chocolate stain! Next try, rubbing some more detergent in (washing up liquid will do) and make sure it is well lathered in the soap. Then leave this to soak in cold water for about 15 minutes, and give the stain a quick scrub every 5 minutes or so. Repeatedly do this until the majority of the stain is gone, it might take a few times if the stain is especially bad!
Then pop it in the washing machine and fingers crossed, the stain has gone!
If not, repeat the steps and make sure you don’t iron or tumble dry the stain as this will make it harder to get out!
Non-washable clothing
Certain fabrics such as wool. Acetate, silk and other non-washable fabrics is a more difficult story. There are some special tips that work on occasion. However, we would advise to simply pop it down to the dry cleaners who will be able to manage this and avoid your clothes from becoming damaged anymore.
I’ll leave you with some of Choc on Choc’s top tips when facing dilemmas such as these!
- Make sure to read the labels on your clothes first! This will help direct you in the best way to remove stains.
- Think fast! Once you’ve got a stain on your clothes to make sure you act quickly, the longer the chocolate is left on your clothes the harder it will be to get them out!
- ALWAYS use cold water when treating a chocolate stain! Hot water might make the chocolate set in your clothes! Ahhh no!
