How to remove chocolate stains from clothes, carpet and couches

Step by step: how to remove chocolate stains from clothes, carpet and couches

1. 1

   Chill the chocolate so it lifts in one piece

   Chocolate melts near body temperature, so soft chocolate smears. Hold an ice cube in a plastic bag against the spot for a few minutes, or put a small item in the freezer for 15 minutes, until the chocolate is firm.

2. 2

   Scrape off the excess

   Lift the hardened chocolate with a dull knife or spoon, working from the edge toward the center. If it has already dried into the weave, flake off what comes away easily and stop; scraping hard only damages the fibers.

3. 3

   Rinse cold from the back

   Turn the fabric inside out and run cold water through the back of the stain for a minute. Milk chocolate, ice cream and hot cocoa contain milk protein, and hot water can cook it into the fibers.

4. 4

   Work in detergent to break up the cocoa butter

   Rub liquid laundry detergent or a few drops of dish soap into both sides of the stain with your fingers or a soft toothbrush. Leave it 5 to 10 minutes. You should see the stain lighten from dark brown to tan as the fat releases.

5. 5

   Rinse and check

   Rinse the area with cool water and look at it against the light. If a greasy ring remains, repeat the detergent step before moving on, because the color will not lift while fat still coats it.

6. 6

   Soak the brown shadow in oxygen bleach

   Dissolve oxygen bleach in a gallon of the warmest water the care label allows and soak for 1 to 6 hours. This breaks down the brown cocoa pigment that detergent leaves behind.

7. 7

   Wash warm and air dry

   Wash in warm water, or the warmest the label allows, with your usual detergent. Air dry and check before using the dryer; repeat the soak if a brown tint is still visible.

What makes chocolate stains hard to remove?

Chocolate is a combination stain: cocoa butter (fat), brown cocoa solids that act like a dye, sugar, and, in milk chocolate, milk protein. Each part needs a different treatment, which is why one quick rinse rarely works.

OxiClean notes that dark chocolate tends to be harder to remove than milk chocolate because it has more cocoa butter and more tannins from the cocoa. Colorado State University Extension lists chocolate as a combination stain to treat first as an oil stain, then as a dye stain, and the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension guide places it in both its oily and its plant and protein categories.

Tide stresses rinsing with cold, not hot, water because heat can set the stain. Put together, the order is: cold water for the protein, detergent for the fat, oxygen bleach for the color.

Milk, dark, white chocolate and cocoa: what changes?

The method stays the same, but the step that matters most shifts with the type of chocolate.

For stubborn spots, the University of Georgia Extension suggests pre-soaking in warm water with an enzyme detergent and, if an oily mark remains, treating it with a solvent spot cleaner or a waterless hand cleaner before washing with heavy-duty detergent.

How to get out a chocolate stain that went through the dryer

A dried, heat-set chocolate stain can often still be lightened. Work dish soap into the dry stain first to soften the fat, rinse, then apply a laundry stain remover spray and leave it as long as the label allows.

Follow with an overnight oxygen bleach soak and a warm wash. Melted chocolate in a pocket that went through the dryer may have spread inside the pocket lining too, so turn pockets out and treat both layers.

How to remove chocolate from carpet and couches

On carpet and upholstery, freeze and scrape, then blot with a mild detergent solution; you cannot soak these, so control the water.

• Chill the chocolate with an ice pack and lift it off with a spoon.
• Mix 1/4 teaspoon of dish soap into 1 cup of cool water, dab it on with a white cloth, and blot from the outside in.
• Blot with a cloth dampened in plain water to rinse, then press dry with a towel.
• See how to remove stains from carpet and how to clean a couch for fabric codes and drying.

Mistakes to avoid

• Wiping soft, melted chocolate, which spreads it; chill it first.
• Using hot water on milk chocolate before the protein is rinsed out.
• Going straight to bleach while the fat is still in the fabric.
• Scraping dried chocolate hard with a knife, which roughs up the fibers.
• Machine drying before the brown shadow is completely gone.