I have this one mug I drink all my hot tea from.  I love it because it's bigger than a standard mug and I drink a LOT of tea - hey, it's better than snacking all day!  I also love it because it's not part of a set or something that DH had when I moved in; it was a gift that someone picked out just for me.

The problem is that it's got sort of a matte finish (I don't know that it's really "stoneware" but that was the word that popped into my head to describe it), so it gets this residue on it from the tea that is REALLY hard to get off.  Honestly, I'm stumped!  I have tried salt.  I've tried baking soda.  Soda and vinegar.  Soda, vinegar, and dish soap (boy, did that one make a volcano!).  All with limited success.  My best results so far have been from letting it sit overnight with vinegar in it.  But I can't say I love the smell of vinegar in the morning!  Or the idea of going through that much vinegar - and it's a lot of hassle having to plan hours ahead just to do my dishes.

The obvious solution is to use a different cup with a glossy finish.  This stuff washes right off a shiny mug; I've tried it.  But I don't know what I would use this mug for if not for tea, so it would just languish in the cupboard, and meantime we don't have anything else as big as this one!  And anyway even if I stopped using it, I'd still have to figure out how to clean it.

So for all you hardened tea-drinkers and those of you who have been keeping house longer than I... any swear-by-it secrets I could try?

Oh, I almost forgot!  In case it helps to know what the culprit is, it's orange pekoe (specifically Salada and Red Rose) that I'm drinking almost exclusively these days.  In the summer I make iced tea with them - it's not the same as what I grew up with but it's better than nothing! - and I get the same residue in the pitcher only that's plastic so it washes right off.  I haven't had this residue problem, that I recall, with the Earl Grey or green teas that I used to drink.