Tea Soap Tips

[Guest guest]

Sorry guys, I'm on digest so I didn't see the green tea messages until this

morning. Also, I got replies to my post in email so I was responding to them

there instead of to the list.

Here's a few tips for making tea soaps, nothing mind-boggling <g> just some

things I've observed and learned:

1. Tea infusions will react with the lye water and turn a charming array of

colors. My personal favorite is raspberry tea - it turns a BRIGHT olive

green! After much experimentation, I've found that I prefer infusing the tea

in a small container of (pre-lye) water overnight in the fridge. I just make

sure to deduct that amount from the total oz. of water used to make the

batch.

2. I add the tea infusion at trace. If the tea infusion is added at the

beginning of the soapmaking process (when the lye water is initially added to

the oils), it will turn a very dark color and stay that way for most of the

process. The soap will eventually lighten up towards the end but generally

not enough for my liking. Also I've noticed that in the smaller soap batches,

adding the tea infusion close to the beginning will sometimes accelerate

trace so rapidly that you can barely mix the rest of your goodies in and get

it in the mold in time. Plus, by adding the tea at trace there's always that

oh-so-slim chance that some of the beneficial properties of the tea are

retained by shortening the amount of time it's actually doing battle with

that naughty lye.

3. I never add used tea to my soap unless it's been patted completely dry

between paper towels first. I know some people like to add the contents of

the used tea bags to their soap and I do that also on occasion, but if the

tea is added with even a titch of moisture left, I notice that teeny little

moisture halos develop around each bit in the finished soap. I've found this

to be the case when using teas that have fruit bits in them, such as

Raspberry Zinger and Lemon Zinger. So for straight teas, i.e. green tea, I

just add new unused tea at trace. For my fruity tea soaps, I add used tea

(I'm afraid the unused tea and fruit bits will bleed/infuse itself into the

final product) but I pat it VERY dry first and then I run it through my small

grinder to make sure all tea bits are finely ground.

I think that's it, although I ALWAYS leave something out that I remember 2

seconds after I hit the " Send " button LOL

Sue

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