My first coffee soap

Well, technically it's my third attempt. The first two trys were impressive (and somewhat explosive) demonstrations of Acid vs Base. The second adventure actually cracked the beer pitcher that I had been using to make my lye solutions. This afternoon, I replaced the broken pitcher with a stainless steel stock pot.
Farewell ye pitcher, you served me well for many a batch!

Tonights attempt worked much, much better!


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It's a mix of several oils, including coconut, olive, canola, hemp and sesame - plus all the grounds from the brew that I used for the coffee/lye mixture. The grounds look so great - I can see a lot of them just below the surface. That slight translucence has been giving me lots of joy.

This being the first time I was able to mix coffee and lye without it blowing up, I noticed a few things. First the smell. It started off quite vile, but after a few minutes it really grew on me. In my notes I described it as a strong musty/earthy/composty combination. I've been aggressively working at building my compost pile, so perhaps that's why I've been enjoying the smell...

Secondly and what really surprised me was how quickly the solution rose and fell in temperature. In my limited experience, the temp fell a lot faster than water/lye usually does. I'm guessing this is because the coffee is a lot more acidic than water, so the chemical reaction between the two substances was able to happen quicker.
A good friend of mine has her M.Sc in Chemistry. Next time I'm talking to her, I'll ask her about my theory.

I've also been experimenting with my superfatting oils a tiny bit. I've been reading about (but not necessarily experiencing) issues with superfatting oils going in cold at trace and causing all sorts of problems. To try to avoid this tonight, I put my superfatting oils (this batch: 1 tbsp each of hemp, flax and castor) into a stainless measuring cup and then rested it on the element on my stove that was cooling down after heating up the rest of the oils. When I threw them in close to trace, theory being, they would be warm and at least close to the temperature I was mixing the bulk of my soap at. I don't know if that's common practice or not, but it made me feel clever earlier tonight and it seemed to work

Next on my agenda, I need to graduate out of my bread pans into something a bit more presentable. At least some PVC pipe!

The soap looks great in the moulds! I'm looking forward to seeing your cut bars.

I've never made coffee bars ... so I can't help with your questions.

About the superfatting ... my understanding is that the lye will change as much of the oils as it's can (whether that be when the oils are added, or after trace and in the moulds), so that if you add more oil in the beginning (superfat), some will be left at the end, due to the lye working with only it's amount. I've also read about adding additional oils at trace, but if this stuff is true about how the lye works, then there's no need to add them at trace ... just add them all at the same time, because if the lye will either change them or not ... as the lye is still working at trace.

Looks great--were the coffee grounds dry or wet--stupid question I know. I have coffee gounds from the pot every morning and wasn't sure if I could just dump them it as is or if I had to put them on papertowels to dry them out. Or did you use just ground coffee without it being brewed?

The coffee grounds I used were still moist from brewing the coffee.

As for the superfatting, I agree with Dragonkaz. No need to go to all that trouble. I use soapcalc and just set my superfat to whatever percent I want. It does the rest. The extra oil is built into the recipe.

I didn't experience any issues mixing the coffee with the lye. It was cold, though. Can't quite remember, but I think I made it and then put it in the fridge overnight.

Yep, it's time for a silicone mold or maybe a homemade wooden one!!

Looks beautiful!

I find that I have to grind the coffee super fine or it's too scratchy in the soap.

To cut down on the lye/coffee stink, I mix my lye with about half of my water and make the balance of my liquid extra strong coffee. I mix lye water with oils and then add the (room temp) coffee.

And yes, as other posters have indicated, reserving superfat oils to add at trace is a waste of time. The lye will take whatever if available; it doesn't discriminate.

Your soaps look lovely, great job. I agree with what has been said just mix all the oils together the lye will saponify as much of the oils as it needs until it is all consumed, the left over unsaponified oils will be your SFatting oils :wink:

Your soap is lovely, I have been thinking of making a coffee soap, after seeing yours I will be making a loaf this week. If you are looking to make a change for your soap mold, I have a wooden one and just love it, it was made for me out of some scrap boards and works great. I line it with a piece of black plastic garbage bag. Before I place the plastic bag liner in my mold, I pour a cup of water into the wooden soap box, roll it around to get all of the bottom and sides wet. I then put the plastic in, it sticks to the wet wood and you get a nice square loaf. I reuse the plastic several times, washing in my machine with a load of laundry between each use.

These look like they smell amazing.... I'd like to see cut pics, too!

Very nice!

Looks good!