Mango Iced Tea Soap

I hate iced tea. I really do. That's like speaking blasphemy when living in the south where everyone has this syrupy stuff called "Sweet Tea" running through their veins. Call me wierd, but I just feel that tea should be hot and that's the only way I'll drink it.  However, since I seem to be the only person who feels this way, I've had to master making a great pitcher of iced tea. This is a recipe for iced tea that even I have to admit is pretty tasty (although I still do prefer it hot)

Mango Iced Tea

11/2 quarts Cold Water

6 high quality Black Tea bags

2 cups Mango Nectar

Sugar

1/4 cup fresh Mint Leaves

Thinly sliced Mango

Bring water to a boil.  Add tea bags a steep until tea is dark (about 5 minutes)  Remove bags.  

Add Mango Nectar.  Add sugar to taste.  Stir until sugar is dissolved. 

Place in pitcher and add mint leaves.  Pour over ice and garnish with Mango slices

Mango is definitely one of my all time favorite flavors.  This has inspired me to make a batch of cold process soap using the same concept of this tea recipe.

Mango Iced Tea Soap

Just like the Lime Margarita soap, I used a high quality clear glycerin soap base to make the "ice cubes" and scented them with Peppermint Essential Oil. The peachy/yellow swirls are "mango slices" and I added dried peppermint leaves to garnish.

Goats Milk Soap

 I was  in the store looking for Coconut Milk the other day. After checking all the isles (twice) I still couldn't find any. What I found though was a can of Goats Milk.  I know I kind of live in the country now, but sorry I don't have any goats running around so the canned milk will have to do for now.

Milk tends to heat up and even scorch & curdle when it meets with lye. I found that if  I put it in the freezer and allowd it to turn slushy before adding this can be prevented. I mixed about 1/3 of the liquid portion of my recipe using water. After that cooled (I like to mix at cooler temperatures) I mixed the lye/water with the oils to a medium trace THEN I added the milk. It gets hot and starts to set up pretty quickly so you have to move fast.

This is Toasted Almond & Honey scented. As you can see, it rose up and split like a loaf of bread. I don't know if it helped but I put a fan on it to help cool it down. Eventually the top flattend back out and the split closed back most of the way.  I filled the split with more ground almonds. On the sliced soap you really can't tell.