Hey, thank you so much for posting this!

I had granite counter tops installed and I haven't been very happy with them at all. They were sure beautiful when they were installed. I got "moon valley" which is a combination of beiges with shots of iridescent white, veins of blue/black and spots of maroon.

I had no idea granite was so hard to keep looking nice! For one thing, you can't tell by looking that you need to wipe your counter off, or that you've missed a spot. My old butcher-block formica made it easy to see that. Every time you spill a liquid, it makes a dark gray area till it's dry. But the absolute worst thing about it is that if you spill something greasy, it makes a dark spot that doesn't disappear when I clean it.

I called the people who installed it, and the man came and was nice but with a bit of an ugly undertone. While he was all smiling and seemingly concerned, he remarked (a) that he thought the dark spots were just veins of quartzite, which are normally that dark (hinting it had always been there and I was just imagining the whole thing?) (b) he didn't mind stopping by and doing this for us because we're "nice" and lots of their customers aren't (I wonder why), and (c) that he normally charges $125 to strip and re-seal granite tops.

He also informed me that granite tops sometimes have to be stripped and re-sealed every couple of years! Ow!

I watched as he worked. He just used Lysol spray disinfectant to strip the counters. Immediately I thought, if they strip THAT easily, my counters will need resealing every couple of weeks! He used something in a can that had a pleasant smell -- something industrial-looking that was named something obvious, like "Granite Seal" or something, poured that on, and buffed it down with one of those car-wax buffers.

To say the least, I would never get granite counters again. So far, the only advantage I can see is that they make your kitchen look "updated", and that I can knead bread on the counter without using any flour.

I suppose I shouldn't be kneading bread on these counters, because any shortening that's in the dough will discolor the finish, and if that's the case then I'm even more disappointed in them.

I'll try your formula for cleaning the counters. Maybe it will help remove the grease spots. Thanks again!