#coffeesoap #vanillacoffeesoap #hotprocesscoffeesoap
#coffeeloversunite
#coffeeloversunite
Wednesday, May 27, 2015
Coffee is such an interesting beverage. Some people love it hot, some prefer it cold, some don't drink it but will gobble down coffee ice cream or eat a coffee mocha brownie cake! The variations are limitless, so today we are joining in with another option - bathe with it using our coffee soap!
For months now we've been getting request after request for coffee soap. Some people want hazelnut flavor, some prefer vanilla, others deep dark strong coffee. Today we will try to make our coffee lovers happy by making a HP batch of Coffee soap.
This batch of soap is part of the Glen Ella Springs order. A French Vanilla coffee scent was requested. After purchasing a few coffee scents we narrowed it down to a blend of two FO's - French Vanilla Coffee from +Natures Garden which leans towards a sweeter vanilla coffee scent, they describe it as "a sugary, vanilla aroma with just the right amount of fresh brewed coffee."
We mixed the French Vanilla Coffee with one from +Rustic Escentuals called Coffee House. They describe it as follows: You'll find notes of coffee beans and freshly brewed coffee accentuated by hints of rum, brandy, brown sugar and cocoa beans.
To enhance the flavor, fragrance, and richness and make it truly a coffee inspired soap, we added coffee butter to our oils. It honestly looks and smells like coffee ice cream!!!
Another enhancement is a jug of chilled STRONG coffee I made earlier this morning using distilled water and a LOT of Starbucks Sumatra blend coffee!
We mixed our lye into the chilled coffee water, then added about 1 1/2 TBSP of the coffee grounds from the brew I had made earlier.
Once we poured the lye/coffee mixture into the oils and stick blended for a while, we were at heavy/thick trace which is a perfect place to start when making HP soap.
We covered the crock pot and let the soap cook on high for 30 minutes.
This is what our soap batter looked like after 30 minutes; the outer rim had completely jelled, and the center was still rather stiff. We stirred it together and covered it. After the initial stir at 30 minutes, we stirred the soap in fifteen minute increments for a total of 1-3/4 hours.
Once the batter had fully cooked and passed the famous "Zap," test we removed about 1/4 of the batter.
We added the Coffee House FO to the remaining batter in the crock. It smelled just like we were in a coffee house. The aroma was rich and strong.
We added the French Vanilla Coffee FO to the 1/4 we had removed.
Since we want the French Vanilla Coffee batter to be lighter than the Coffee House (think cream in your coffee) we added a TBSP of TD to the batter.
That first TBSP didn't lighten the soap enough so we added another 1/2 TBSP. We had no idea how light this would actually be in the finished soap. Vanilla as a fragrance ingredient tends to darken in soap, so we were interested in how this would look.
We spooned the lighter French Vanilla Coffee batter into the Coffee House soap.....
And once it was gently folded we spooned it into the mold. In this picture there is a distinct difference in color, we probably should have added a bit more TD, but we'll see how it goes.
The coffee smell permeating the kitchen was almost unbelievable - it was fantastic!
Here is a close up of the soap after we put it in the mold, you can distinctly see the two colors.
We put the soap away to cure over night and planned to take it out of the mold after 24 hours.
Once we began cleaning up we had a pleasant surprise at the amount of bubbles produced from this soap. We can't wait to try it once it's cured for a week.
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Friday, May 29, 2015
(We actually waited an extra day before we un-molded it.)
We took a picture of the soap before we removed it from the mold, it was REALLLLLY dark, and once it had cured for a couple of days, we didn't really see the hoped for light swirls.
But, on a happier note, it smells so good! It is a combination of strong coffee with a mocha chocolate kinda of smell mixed in and some added vanilla. Wow - a great smelling soap! We were not expecting the mocha aroma, but there is a layer of it in this heavenly caffeine soap.
Here is what the bottom of the soap looked like coming out of the mold, it still had a bit of the lighter swirls, viewable only because oxygen hadn't hit it yet, we think it will turn pretty dark.
And here are the final shots of our Coffee soap.
A little bit of the lighter swirl is visible, but not much unfortunately.
We will let them sit for a week, and they will be ready to use in a week (Counting down the days...)
Absolutely gorgeous, ladies!! My sister would adore this! She is the only one I make coffee soap for. I wonder if the coffee butter added to the aroma of the final product? It sure looks delicious!
ReplyDeleteJanelle, We can't tell if the coffee butter enhanced the smell or not, for sure in the bucket it smells so good you want to melt it and take a drink. We've used the "bonus" balls of the coffee soap and the lather is really creamy and Al's hands now smell like coffee....in a good way! as always, thank you for your comments!
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