Matcha green tea

navigator9 · Mar 27, 2015

OK, I'm going to ask this question even though I already know the answer, because hope never dies. Is there any way of using matcha green tea in soap, and preserving it's incredible color? I saw a bar of soap years ago, that said it was colored with matcha, but no details were given. I just found a great matcha/sencha blend at Costco, and it reignited my desire for that incredible green soap. Knowing full well how lye likes to turn everything brown, I still hope that one day I may figure out how it was done. I did a search here, with no positive results, but I'm holding out hope that someone out there has accomplished this magical feat. It's very nice tea to drink, but man, it would make one gorgeous soap!

In case you aren't familiar with matcha's beautiful shade of green, here it is..... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matcha#/media/File:Matcha_tea.jpg

Ellacho · Mar 27, 2015

I don't think so. I've used Japanese Matcha green tea powder in my soap many times and it first turned greyish green color and then to brown.

Dorymae · Mar 27, 2015

Possibly it could be done in HP after the cook, I imagine you would need to add something to keep it more fluid, use more colorant than usual and be absolutely sure that the soap has no zap anywhere.

Edited to add, I have not tried this but if it is the lye changing the color and not purely the PH it could work. Using a recipe that would yield a lower PH soap (by this I mean 9-10) would probably help as well.

Obsidian · Mar 27, 2015

I wish I had seen this about 30 minutes ago, I just poured a salt soap that I used matcha in for a swirl. Its a funky dark greenish brown but it works with the other color.