Salvadoran Cocoa and Coffee Soap

One of my earliest memories (as in earliest in life) is the one of waking up, in the same room as my mom and my youngest brother (he was baby#5 and I was #4) and seeing two baby bottles on the cabinet top with warm milk.  One was brown because it had chocolate, and the other was plain white.  The chocolate color one was mine.  I would get up, grab it and go back to bed and drink it.  Ok, after a phone call to my mom I can say he was about between 9 months to 1 year old and I was between 2 and 2 and half.  Which means these were probably the last times I was drinking out of a baby bottle, as she also told me I stopped drinking baby bottles at around 2 1/2  (whether it was voluntary or not I cannot say).

This, I think, should give an indication of  my love for chocolate since early childhood.  As I grew older, I went with our nanny, the one who had been putting those baby bottles in the room,  just about everywhere.  Let me clarify and say that because of overpopulation, labor is cheaper in El Salvador than it is here in The States, most middle income families could afford either a cleaning lady/or nanny back then.  Anyway, I was an early riser, so I would go with her to a house-made-into-a-store (quite common too), that would sell fresh milk, that they brought from their cow farm every morning.  I remember seeing the sunrise as we walked there.

Another place we went to, was El Molino, which was a place with several mills.  And you rented the use of one of them.   These were not electric mills, but quite mechanical instead (with an engine powered by fuel it seems).  She would bring corn and cocoa beans.  The corn was added to the mill along with water, and wet corn flour (masa) would come out, ready to be made into tortillas.  Then the mill was thoroughly washed, and newspaper would be added to the bottom to dry any water.  I found a video and a couple of pictures here of it in case you are curious.  I forgot how noisy it was there!  For the cocoa beans, no water was needed.  Just sugar and cinnamon, and we would come home with freshly ground cocoa powder for hot cocoa!

All that, to explain why I wanted to use hot cocoa in this soap!  My mom brought me some chocolate tablets from her last trip there, these tables are meant to be melted into water or milk for hot cocoa.  They are traditionally made with very few ingredients, usually just the ground cocoa beans and sugar, sometimes cinnamon too.  I keep them in the fridge and take a bite every so often.  Last time I decided to actually make hot cocoa with it, and I froze the leftovers.  It was not much, so I also used frozen coffee to disperse the lye.  I kept them in an container filled with ice to prevent the lye from scorching the sugar in the cocoa and coffee.

For fragrance I used Coffee Beans from Wholesale Supplies, and for colorant I used cocoa powder, very little though, about a half teaspoon, as I knew the fragrance would discolor some and I do not like dark brown soap in the shower!

For the design, I tried to imitate the look of a cappuccino, however it proved harder than I thought.  It smells so good though!  (and I am not a coffee drinker).  I also tried doing the design with plain oil mixed with Titanium dioxide, however, this resulted in a broken look I did not like, so I carved swirly lines on top of it with a skewer, while still soft.

Here is the recipe, but truly, you can use any soap recipe you have:  I personally would not use these many oils in a single recipe, but I masterbatched it, so measuring it once for 10 batches was not a big issue.

Salvadoran Cocoa and Coffee Soap

Ingredient	Gram(s)	Ounce(s)	Pounds(s)	Oil %
Tallow, Beef	691.88	24.41	1.53	37%
Karite Butter (Shea)	149.59	5.28	0.33	8%
Coconut Oil, 76 deg	486.18	17.15	1.07	26%
Castor Seed Oil	93.50	3.30	0.21	5%
Cocoa Butter	149.59	5.28	0.33	8%
Rice Bran Oil	130.90	4.62	0.29	7%
Olive Oil – All Grades	130.90	4.62	0.29	7%
Canola Oil	37.40	1.32	0.08	2%
Ingredient	Gram(s)	Ounce(s)	Pounds(s)
Lye – NaOH 100.000% Purity (5.000% Superfat)	262.47	9.26	0.58
Frozen Coffee or distilled water (33.000% Lye + 67% Water Solution)	532.89	18.80	1.17
Total Oils	1,869.93	65.96	4.12
Soap Weight (Pre-Cook)	2,693.34	95	5.94

Fragrance:

4 oz of coffee beans fragrance oil

0.03 Ounces cinnamon bark (I am not sure that it is worth to add this one, I cannot detect it)

Additives:

1 teaspoon of cocoa powder (if dutch processed, you can disperse it in 1 tablespoon of water, if not in 1 tablespoon of clear oil)

0.25 teaspoon of cocoa powder (to be added directly to soap mix)

0.50 teaspoon of white mica dispersed in 1 tablespoon of oil or water (any light colored oil)  (Aff link)

2 tablespoons of brewed coffee grounds (optional, for exfoliation)

1.32 oz of sodium lactate (optional)

Equipment:

Plastic containers or buckets (Plastic #5 or #6) large enough for the lye, water, oils, and one for an ice bath

• Stainless steel spoon (small and large)
• Silicone spatula
• Hand blender
• Thermometer
• Scale
• Silicone liner for mold (or line with freezer paper)
• Bamboo or metal skewer
• 5 lb slab mold, though a loaf mold could also work (or adjust recipe to your mold by plugging into a lye calculator)
• Individual cavity molds (to pour leftover soap in case you have any)  I like having leftovers
• Safety Gear (nitrile gloves, face mask or properly sealed goggles, closed shoes).  Long sleeves and pants recommended too.

PROCESS:

1. If using coffee, freeze into cubes the night before, and weigh the cubes the same way you would weigh your distilled water.  I used both frozen coffee and frozen salvadoran hot cocoa, but I do not expect you to have that in your freezer!  So coffee alone will do.   In a well ventilated area, add gradually the lye to the frozen coffee or distilled water and stir periodically until dissolved. Do not breathe fumes.  You can freeze your water ahead to avoid fumes. You need to wear your safety gear. lye burns! You can prepare this several hours ahead, keep it properly covered.  Add the sodium lactate after it is mixed if using.  You can wait until it comes to room temperature, or to 120 °F (48.88 °C) at least.
2. While you wait for lye to cool down,you can mix or measure the cocoa powder with a light colored oil and the titanium dioxide.   I like to mix mine with a mini blender.  You can mix the 1 teaspoon of cocoa powder into a container that can hold about 1 cup of liquids, so you can pour directly into it.
3. Mix your titanium dioxide with 1 tablespoon of water.  You can use a medium size container so that you can pour the soap mix directly into it, less dishes to clean later.
4. Weigh your oils and heat them up until they are clear  (I put mine in the microwave for a couple minutes).
5. Add your lye solution to the oils slowly, to avoid splatters pour it on the blender shaft.
6. Stir with the blender on Off position initially, then blend for 15 second periods, alternating with stirring, until you can no longer see the oils but it all looks blended (emulsified).  This takes about 50 seconds to 1 minute with this recipe.
7. Pour out about 1/2 cup of this into the container with the titanium dioxide.  Or into a container large enough to hold about 1 cup of liquids and add the half teaspoon of titanium dioxide to it.   Do not blend this yet, as the TD tends to make soap thicken fast.
8. To the rest, add the fragrance oil, the 1/4 teaspoon of cocoa powder and the coffee grounds.  Mix until incorporated, just a little bit longer.
9. For the darker brown portion, pour out into a small container about 1/2 cup of the mix and add the 1 teaspoon of cocoa powder.
10. Pour the larger container into the mold, leaving just enough clearance (if using loaf mold) on top for the top swirls
11. Mix the titanium dioxide portion, and then mix the darker brown portion to incorporate the color well.

Now you have a couple of options for the top:

11. a) Pour the darker brown portion in a linear pattern, alternating with the white on top, so that with the skewer you can make a patter in the opposite direction (if your soap lines are vertical, you do  zig zag moves horizontally throughout the top.

11. b) Pour the darker portion in random patterns and places, then channel your inner barista and attempt to make heart shapes on different parts of the soap, or at best, random ovals with spikes coming out of them.

I sort of did both, you can watch it in the video below.

12. Wait 18-24 hours at least to unmold and cut, I used a ruler to mark both on the top and the bottom at every 3.5″ and 2.5″ measurements.

In the video I did a couple of things differently, but the written portion above is what I would do if I had a do over: