I was in a Green Tea frame of mood after getting an awesome tea from Adagio Teas called “Hojicha“. It’s a toasty warm green tea flavor and it inspired me to make some Green Tea rebatch soap. I wanted that instant gratification of rebatch! Green Tea has natural antioxidants (called catechins) that help fight damage caused by free radicals. Very preliminary studies show that Green Tea topically may inhibit enzymes whose excessive activity contributes to age-related degradation of the skin matrix – sign me up for that!
Ingredients:
22 oz or 8 cups of grated Castile rebatch
0.75 oz of Green Tea extract
0.5 oz Green Tea fragrance oil
0.1oz Peppermint essential oil
Emerald Green LabColor (optional)
2 oz distilled water
1 tsp of green tea for infusing
Get everything you need for “Teabatch” in the click of a button!
ONE: Put a double boiler on medium. Once water is at a roiling boil, put your shredded soap into the double boiler. It will be quite full. Not to worry, this compacts down quite a lot.
TWO: Make a cup of tea with 2 ounces of distilled boiling water and 1 tsp of Green Tea leaves.
THREE: Add 1 ounce of Green Tea and .75 ounces of green tea extract to the double boiler.
FOUR: Every five minutes, stir your mixture, moving the not-melted soap from the top of the mixture to the bottom of the mixture. You want to make sure that all the soap gets fully mixed into bottom of the pan, which is the most hot part of the mixture, to help with a homogenous blend.
FIVE: When the soap is a good, thick, firm mashed potato type of consistency (seriously, think thickened mashed potatoes), add your fragrance/essential oil blend. This blend is clean, invigorating and absolutely a perfect pick me up in my opinion.
SIX: Optional: You can add your steeped green tea leaves. They will go a brown/black in the soap which may or may not be your cuppa tea (hardee har har). You may also add colorant at this point too. I used diluted Emerald LabColor in the picture at the very top of the post.
SEVEN: Glop this into your molds and fill 80% of the way up. You’ll want head space for the next step – releasing the molds!
EIGHT: Let this harden in the molds for 3 to 5 days. Then, place in freezer overnight to help aid with pushing soap out. Push firmly down on the back of the middle of each cavity with the palm of your hand, while the mold is flat on the counter. You will feel the soap “pop” and release. From there, it’s a matter of gently wiggling the soap out.
Let this soap continue to harden indefinitely. It is ready to use *right* away but extra drying and curing time will make a harder bar.
Check out another great rebatch tutorial on Soap Queen TV: Calendula Rebatch!
I’m interested in making the Green Tea rebatch that was posted on Sept 6, 2011. Reading the previous blogs by others I am a bit confused…
Infusing green tea in distilled water and using the infusion in the rebatch – will this turn the soap brown? (sounds like on some blogs it did, and others not sure).
Also, I would like to color this green, but do not have the labcolor that is called for. I have several green Micas. Am I correct in assuming that they will stay green? (I have made the mistake in the past of using in CP and all the color disappeared in the gel phase, but since this isn’t going through gel…) Could I mix the Mica with the green tea extract?
Thank you for your help!
Green Tea Rebatch versus from-scratch CP soap will have differing reactions to green tea infusions.
The green tea in rebatch will not turn the soap brown as it does not react with the lye.
Regarding the mica, since there is no active lye left in the rebatch soap, they should stay stable, similar to using them in Melt and Pour soap. You can mix the mica with the green tea extract if it’s water soluble. If it’s oil soluble (and from Bramble Berry, the only oil soluble mica colorant we carry that is green is the Shamrock https://www.brambleberry.com/Shamrock-Green-Mica-P3071.aspx), you’ll want to mix it with the fragrance oil.
Please let me know if you have any other questions. We’re all here to help =)
I tried rebatching with green tea powder once, and at first it looked great, but shortly aften the geen tea “bled” and made the soap brownish and….well, not pretty…. Was I doing something wrong, or will this happen with added things like green tea or calendula leaves?
Green Tea Powder is actually a plant material and will eventually go brown in soap, unfortunately, there really isn’t anything you can do to stop plant materials from going brown.
Calendula is a little different, the petals of the flower actually stay yellow for quite some time (6-8 months). They may eventually turn brown, but if you want a beautiful natural yellow in your soap, Calendula is the way you want to go.
https://www.brambleberry.com/Marigold-calendula-Dried-P4017.aspx
Happy Soaping!
-Becky with Bramble Berry
I’m new to soapmaking and I really want to jump in with both feet : ) But I am really nervous about messing up!
Is there a way to make this with melt and pour soap? Or maybe even a cold process soap? How can I figure out my own recipes using melt and pour soap? Is it just trial and error?
Thanks for any responses!! : )
~Carrie
Hi Carrie! Welcome to soaping world, we are so excited for you to start soaping! When starting as a beginner, we usually suggest trying out Melt & Pour because it is simple and easy. Here are some fantastic videos about Melt & Pour that could help you out!
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL05E2F1EF0838281A&feature=plcp
If you wanted to do this project with Melt & Pour soap, you will want to skip adding that tea because you do not want to add any extra liquid to this recipe, but it is okay to add the leaves, fragrance oil and LabColor for a similar looking soap!
Cold Process soap is going to be a little different and bit trickier as there are more things that could go wrong with it. If you are interested in Cold Process soap be sure to watch these videos on CP soapmaking and lye safety first! http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLAADF6209996265D2&feature=plcp
Rebatch is a great way to go, it is actually pretty hard to mess up! All you need to do it heat it up with some water, or for this particular project, tea, and ‘smoosh’ it around with your fragrance. Add a bit of color, ‘smoosh’ it into your molds and you have soap!
Soaping is so much fun and we are so happy you are wanting to do it! If you have any questions please ask! Happy Soaping!
-Becky with Bramble Berry
Oh I sure hope it goes brown! Mainly I hope it gets harder as it is still soft – may have to cure like CP. I imagine. 2 oz of water with infused with Matcha powder.
It will get harder. CP soap cures and hardens out for 6 weeks before we normally use it and a lot of that is waiting for the water to evaporate. That’s just like rebatch soap – it needs to harden up.
Well I tried to make this in a 3 lb mold with 32 oZ rebatch soap, lol guess my adjustments didn’t work out so good. First of all I made it with Organic Green Tea Matcha Powder mixed in a little distilled water – then ground up some hojicha green tea, green tea extraact, and mix of green tea and white tea/ginger fragrance. Then whipped some white shea mp for the top. LoL – Had a hard time getting it out of the mold it was really wet, tried to cut and it smooshed down on the front. So let the whole log sit and just dry out, then cut it, still needs to sit a few days – Looks like Cow Poop Color! Green Tea Powder did that!! Will take picture later.
At least it’s highly therapeutic with all that green tea goodies =) The green tea does tend to go brown but brown soap is still lovely….
I am a little confused I want to make this in a swirl rebatch soap in a 3 lb mold – or maybe the mold that comes with the mp kit. I checked on a conversion for volume and 8 cups = 63.9 oz or are you saying that 22 oz by weight? I want to make 4 oz bars from a log mold – so do I multiply everything by 3?
Thanks
22 ounces weight of the Bramble Berry shredded rebatch equals about 8 cups volume because it’s super light and fluffy with a lot of air gaps in the middle. If it wasn’t sold pre-grated, this measurement would be very different. It shrinks down to 22 ounces though so a 3 pound mold won’t get filled up quite all the way. I’d go with 36 ounces by weight of soap to get your 3 pound mold filled up. I hope this makes sense. If it doesn’t, just let me know! =)
AM Thank you so much, so with 36 oz. by weight then I should increase all the other ingredients to? And I am using Hojicha green tea and thinking of adding a small amount of Organic Matcha green tea powder. I have also made a Hojicha infused oil blend with Roobios red tea. I want this soap to be super great for the skin.
Yes – increase it by the same percentage (36/22 = % increase). Your blend sounds great and the Matcha Green Tea Powder MIGHT go brown in it so definitely check it in a small batch first. =) Brown soap will still look good but might not be what you were thinking. =)
I think I am going to have to try rebatch…just because I feel the need to know it all sometimes. 🙂
Thanks for the green tea idea, sounds fun!!
I love it because it has that handmade look and you don’t have to let it cure. Like Anne-Marie said in her tutorial, it’s instant gratification!
Courtney from Bramble Berry
I purchased some african black soap. They sold it to me in big chunks. I wasn’t sure what to do with it until I saw this post. Can I shred it and rebatch it?
Thanks!
Anamari
I am super unfamiliar with Black African Soap. From what I’ve read you just cut it up in to soap sized chunks and it’s ready to use. You could give it a try but I’m not sure what’s going to happen =/
If you give it a try let us know the outcome!
Courtney from Bramble Berry