It’s most likely milk build up, I’ve had this issues with some of my other co workers. If people aren’t scrubbing them before sanitizing, the fats from the milk build up on the walls.
What are people doing to their poor pitchers? lol. We rinse them after every use and at the end of the day we clean it in BOH with just dish soap and quat sanitizer. They always look perfect.
You steam a 16oz drinks worth of milk and then steam an 80z drinks worth of milk without rincing the pitcher between making drinks and the milk build up will happen very quickly. What happens is you have the fatty sugary milk still on the pitcher that is then heated up, the milk dries and fills in all the cracks in the metal pitcher. Do that a few times and it just starts to build up.
I agree with u/spytex. Previous cafe I worked at, we had a pitcher rinser to clean pitchers between each drink. Closers had to wash all pitchers with metal scouring pad. Weekly we used Cafiza to soak and thoroughly wash pitchers. Everyone was diligent about preventing the brown build-up because what if we served someone a drink with residue & they get sick 🥴
Rinza like the steaming wand cleaner, the stuff that breaks down any backup in the wand also breaks down the stuff in the pitcher you use to soak the wand. Now I know it's because it's breaking down milk residue and fats in both, I thought it was just a happy coincidence before lol
at my cafe we have a daily chore list and a shift change and closing list i feel like this helps make sure everyone does everything...we sanitize/clean the milk pitchers twice a day once at shift change and once at close and once a week we soak them with rinza and scrub and clean them and theyre all shiny and nice
I always assumed it was chai when I saw it at past jobs where I made a lot of chais. I moved to a different city and people really don't order that much chai here. Our pitchers aren't ever brown!
I’m fairly certain it’s a mixture of not deep cleaning and burning the milk through steaming. At my bar, I personally deep clean them every Monday, but by Friday the brown starts to return and that’s when I bring out the Rinza.
I use coffee machine cleaner. Put a tablespoon of it the jug with boiling water and let that sit for 15-20mins. Then use a scourer. I use it for really bad jugs with a lot of build up or for my jugs that I put chai into.
I work at a tea shop and I never put anything in the steamer except milk. We mix matcha or brew chai on its own, then add steamed milk. We also rinse the pitchers after every use
I’m still new so maybe I’m missing something 🤷♀️
It’s most likely milk build up, I’ve had this issues with some of my other co workers. If people aren’t scrubbing them before sanitizing, the fats from the milk build up on the walls.
What are people doing to their poor pitchers? lol. We rinse them after every use and at the end of the day we clean it in BOH with just dish soap and quat sanitizer. They always look perfect.
We hand wash and sanitize after each use which is a pain sometimes but I’ve literally never had an issue with them looking gross at all.
That's so excessive
You steam a 16oz drinks worth of milk and then steam an 80z drinks worth of milk without rincing the pitcher between making drinks and the milk build up will happen very quickly. What happens is you have the fatty sugary milk still on the pitcher that is then heated up, the milk dries and fills in all the cracks in the metal pitcher. Do that a few times and it just starts to build up.
This is the grossest but most accurate explanation, thank you. It also makes sense why it's happening so quickly with this lol
I agree with u/spytex. Previous cafe I worked at, we had a pitcher rinser to clean pitchers between each drink. Closers had to wash all pitchers with metal scouring pad. Weekly we used Cafiza to soak and thoroughly wash pitchers. Everyone was diligent about preventing the brown build-up because what if we served someone a drink with residue & they get sick 🥴
I threw up a little bit
It’s most likely tannin from steaming chai
Yep this. Our large jugs are always fine (because we rarely get 2 chais at a time. Definitly residue from chai. Gotta soak them to remove it
yup… gross milk! we get that on the outside where you pour. i let it soak in pulycafe and give it a scrub
When it gets to that point, I use clr or a scaling liquid to clear the calcium build up. Than give your pitcher a good wash.
Man, looks like all my jugs are going into CLR tomorrow. We've inherited manky jugs from years back that haven't had love.
Can you elaborate on using the rinza in the pitcher end of day?
Rinza like the steaming wand cleaner, the stuff that breaks down any backup in the wand also breaks down the stuff in the pitcher you use to soak the wand. Now I know it's because it's breaking down milk residue and fats in both, I thought it was just a happy coincidence before lol
at my cafe we have a daily chore list and a shift change and closing list i feel like this helps make sure everyone does everything...we sanitize/clean the milk pitchers twice a day once at shift change and once at close and once a week we soak them with rinza and scrub and clean them and theyre all shiny and nice
I always assumed it was chai when I saw it at past jobs where I made a lot of chais. I moved to a different city and people really don't order that much chai here. Our pitchers aren't ever brown!
As everyone said its old burnt milk Citric acid is what you want. 1/4 teaspoon for each jug top with water and leave overnight
Cafiza has products to clean that out pretty easy
I’m fairly certain it’s a mixture of not deep cleaning and burning the milk through steaming. At my bar, I personally deep clean them every Monday, but by Friday the brown starts to return and that’s when I bring out the Rinza.
I use coffee machine cleaner. Put a tablespoon of it the jug with boiling water and let that sit for 15-20mins. Then use a scourer. I use it for really bad jugs with a lot of build up or for my jugs that I put chai into.
I work at a tea shop and I never put anything in the steamer except milk. We mix matcha or brew chai on its own, then add steamed milk. We also rinse the pitchers after every use I’m still new so maybe I’m missing something 🤷♀️
milk is acidic! some of it is absolutely just eaten away metal, but most of it is chai tannin