Are there any good ways to remove the coffee smell from a plastic coffee container?

Answer 1

Don't use bleach. Even though it may get rid of the coffee smell, you will have a nasty bleach smell in the plastic! (Been there, done that!)

Vinegar will work as it cuts the natural oils in the coffee (and will help break up calcium and lyme deposits which is why it works well for coffee makers). However, that too, can leave a vinegar smell in the plastic.

Hot lemon water -- nice thought, especially with salt to use as a grit for scrubbing. It works well on the inside of my microwave and refrigerator. It could work in plastic containers. I haven't tried that yet.

My method of choice to date has been to fill the container with hot (not boiling water) and baking soda (about 1 tablespoon per cup of liquid). Let it soak until it cools, then shake the heck out of it, or scrub with a bottle brush (if you can't reach fully inside). Then, rinse out with hot or warm water and soap up and wash as usual. The odor should be gone and you should be left with no residual odor.

Good luck!

Answer 2

Being quite familiar with the world of coffee. The residual film can work it's way through glazed porcelain. The sure-fire way I get rid of this is by pouring in a good 2 oz. of straight bleach. Standing over a light, slowly rotate the bleach in the cup, being careful not to spill it. Then dip a
Q-Tip in the bleach and rub the Q-Tip around the inner and outer rim, for a minute. Once your satisfied you've distributed the bleach on all the surfaces you were aiming for, rinse the cup with HOT water, then clean your coffee cup/mug as you would usually hand-wash dishes. Since straight bleach was used, it will need to be cleaned with soapy HOT water two or three times.
This will eliminate all traces of former contents that your mug has been holding. You will see this effect, I'm suggesting to you, especially when the cup you're cleaning is white. It will WOW you.

Answer 3

Funny that the some of the most relevant answers are minimized because of low ratings.

The answer is once something that is plastic has had coffee in it you can not get it out regardless of the plastic. Even expensive restaurant type Lexan containers will retain the smell.

Now you could scrub it forever and soak it in bleach and it will seem like the smell is gone but it will come back. If you put anything in it later when you open it it will smell like coffee again....... and anything in it will as well.

Answer 4

Tupperware Coffee Cups

Answer 5

If it's a plastic containter that is actually supposed to hold coffee, I would let it go. Just wash it out with hot water and leave it at that. The coffee that is the residue on the sides of the cup is now actually a part of the cup.

For all the people who tinker with autos on here, it was said that if you clean the carborator to well, the rest of the engine will not run properly because the residue in the carb had actually become part of the engine. Now the old has to keep up with the new.

Is that an old wive's tale?

Answer 6

You could use a tablespoon of bleach,and fill the cup up the rest of the way with water,then allow to stand overnight,or they have cleaners at most grocery stores for pots that you can also use,just scale down the amount,because you are not cleaning a whole pot,of course!My only other alternative is make a paste of baking soda and vinegar,then allow to sit for a few hours or overnight,then rinse.

Answer 7

Bleach of course will work but then you will have to soak it and rinse several more times again to get the bleach out. Plastic is a rather porous material and will leach out into your food whatever you use to clean it unless you put a lot of time into cleaning it again and bleach is not something you want getting into your food.

Your best bet is going with the backing soda/vinegar mix. Make a paste 1st with the backing soda and a little water. Just keep adding water till you get a mix slightly dryer than pancake mix. Use that to scrub the container then rinse. Fill the container with 2 parts water and 1 part vinegar and let sit for a few hours. Pour out that liquid and fill with HOT water and let sit over night.

You want the last water to be hot because that will encourage the plastic to expand and pull leach out any of the paste and vinegar left into the water. You may even want to rinse and refill with hot water one more time for good measure.

Answer 8

I'm with all the people who recommend using baking soda only -- I've been using it for years with good results. It's effective as an abrasive substance, so it helps scrub residue off the cup. It's also has no odor itself and is effective at removing or neutralizing other odors. If you look for info on this, you'll discover that baking soda users are practically a cult. Check out the Google search link below.

Answer 9

i use a tbsp of white vinager and put that on a sponge, next wash out like you normally would but use the sponge with one to two tbsp of white vinegar. now, pt baking soda in the cup and mix it with room temp water. let that sit over night. be sure to wash out EVERYTHIN very thouroughly nobody likes baking soda in thier coffee. i find that using white vinegar is a healthy, and natural alturitive to cleaning fluids. i also find that for cleaning up dog slobber, nothing works better than some white vinegar on a sponge rubbed onto the area. some people have found much succes with white vinegar and also say that thier families health has improved. please consider white viegar to stop some of the pollution caused by cleaning fluids/products. for a mug, use about 2 tsp of white vinegar scrubbed harshly. then, use some baking powder to rid the smell let sit for an hr +. i really hope this helped.

Answer 10

Drink coffee from a glass or china or pottery container, if you wish to get the true flavor. Plastic is always going to leech its smell into the coffee.

Above all never drink coffee from Styrofoam; those Starbucks containers are a joke.

Answer 11

Some of your respondents clearly missed the fact that your container is plastic. There's no need to use harsh cleaners or abrasives.

All you need to do is put some damp newspaper into the container, put the lid on and leave overnight. The following day wash as normal and the smell will be gone.