I had a black cup at work that I used for coffee or tea. I tried to clean it every few days but it was tough to distinguish the tea/coffee stains from the color of the cup.

I replaced the black cup with a stone-colored one so that I could at least see where the stains were. Of course, this worked better than I’d hoped. After using the cup once, it looks like I haven’t cleaned it for weeks.

I’ve made my peace with it and just clean the thing when I have my first cup of the day. For the rest of the day, I try to ignore the stains.

In the early 80s, my boss let me borrow his coffee cup to help keep me going while I worked an all-nighter. At the end of the shift, I cleaned the cup before handing it back.

The cup was black on the outside and brown on the inside. As I cleaned it, chips of the brown glaze came off, revealing a black glaze that matched the outside of the cup. More chips came off and I was wondering if I was wrecking my boss’s cup.

I like to think that I have a fairly strong stomach, (see Chinese Food) but I threw up inside my mouth a little as I realized that the brown glaze was old coffee.