How to Remove Chocolate Stains (for Valentine’s Day)

Who doesn’t love getting flowers and chocolate for Valentine’s Day, or any day for that matter? In addition to putting those flowers in water, make sure you don’t get any of that delicious chocolate on your special clothing and fabrics. Home stain removal can be tricky and its VERY important to check the fabric care label before doing anything. But if you are in a rush, or just had the garment cleaned and looking to remove the stain yourself, here are some helpful tips to consider:

1. Because it’s so important, I’ll say it again: check the fabric care label to make the item is washable and that you won’t do any harm to the garment by cleaning it without the a professional. You might need to bring the garment to Anton’s for a professional cleaning. If the label says it’s a washable fabric, you can move on to tips 2-5.
2. Removing melted chocolate from clothing can be maddening. Allow the chocolate to harden by putting the fabric in the freezer or fridge. Once the chocolate is hard, scrape as much chocolate off the fabric using a butter knife or anything with a hard edge.
3. Now that you’ve got most of the chocolate off the fabric, run some warm water on the back side of the stain to melt the rest of the chocolate and rinse it out of the fabric. Do this until it’s as much removed as possible.
4. For any remaining chocolate, saturate the stain with gentle household dish detergent and let it sit for 10 minutes. (Again, be sure to check the clothing care label to ensure you’re not doing more harm to the fabric.)
5. Lastly, gently blot the fabric with a light cloth (nothing that would further stain the garment) to help lift the soap and chocolate stain from the fabric. Rinse again with warm water and your chocolate stain should be GONE.