Chocolate: it’s not just for eating. Enjoy chocolate in non-edible ways too, in bath and après-bath.
|
| KAREN HOCHMAN is Editorial Director of THE NIBBLE. |
|
April 2005
|
 |
A Perfect Chocolate Bath
How To Soak, Sip, & Slither Sensually In Chocolate
One chocophile finds a new way to enjoy chocolate.
We were in the midst of testing scores of food-scented personal care products for this website when we found ourselves in possession of some superb chocolate bath products from Bidwell Botanicals. Then we tried a great chocolate candle from AromaFloria. And suddenly we found ourselves adding a few more items to enjoy...the perfect chocolate bath.
After the first, we couldn’t wait to take the next one and the one after that, adding a new feature each time. Here, we share our Perfect Chocolate Bath with you.
1. Milk Bath
Get ready to create a chocolate milk bath with Chocolate Silk Shake from Bidwell Botanicals. Made of cocoa powder plus coconut milk, tapioca starch, jojoba oil, hydrolyzed silk, and sodium laurel sulfoacetate (the soap). Also in strawberry and vanilla.
|
 |
2a. Soap #1
|
Reach for a bar of Chocolate Truffle Handmade Soap from Bidwell Botanicals. Luxury-quality soap that exudes the scent of cocoa through your bathroom, if you leave it out, (i.e. not stored in plastic soap dish [not included]), it perfumes your bathroom with the faint scent of cocoa.
- 4-Ounce Bar
$5.00
BidwellBotanicals.com
- The two chocolate soap bonbons in the photo can be ordered separately
|
2a. Soap #2
For something truly special, try a Hot & Steamy Hot Cocoa Bath Soak & Scrub from Hella Good Products. A muslin bag filled with cocoa powder, dry milk, mini marshmallows, and cocoa butter (plus oats for cleansing), you “activate” it by dropping it the bag into the bath water. It imbues the bath water with a lovely cocoa scent (if you’re also using CHOCOLATE SILK SHAKE, it’s a double chocolate hit). But more to the purpose, when you use the bag like a wash cloth, it leaves you scented like a delicious cup of fine hot chocolate—long after you leave the tub—and very moist from the cocoa butter. It also can be used in the shower—just wet it thoroughly under the running water.
|
|
3. Candle
Light the best chocolate candle, Chocolate Truffle, from Thymes. You’ll feel as if brownies are baking. Fifty hours of burning time will see you through a year of baths.
|
|
4. Beverage
 |
What to sip as you soak?
Jeff’s Chocolate Egg Cream in delicious Diet (20 calories) or Regular. Or, a Chocolate Martini from Stirrings—which can be served chilled or warm!
We feel obligated to suggest a glass of mineral water and a wedge of lime, but what fun is that?
Purchase Jeff’s Egg Creams at your local retailer or online, $1.19 per bottle (9.5 fluid ounces).
Purchase Stirrings Chocolate Martini. Elixir, 32 fluid ounce and Chocolate Martini Glass Rimmer, 3.5 ounces.
|
|
| Chocolate Martini |
 |
| Mixer |
 |
| Glass Rimmer |
5. Nibbles
 |
The perfect munchies: Sensory Therapy Chocolate Bars from Origins, developed by chocolatier Jacques Torres. Made of rich, anti-oxidant-laden dark chocolate in four infused flavors:
- Sweet Orange, Grapefruit and Juniper for relaxation
- Ginger, Black Pepper, Bay, and Spruce to boost energy
- Peppermint, Basil, and Cardamom to settle the stomach
- Mandarin, Lemon and Chamomile for a restful sleep
$5 each at Origins stores or Origins.com. |
6. Reading
Pick a good book about chocolate to read as you relax:
Fiction
Non-Fiction
All available at Amazon.com. |
|
7. Music
 |
Put on some chocolate music:
|
8. Moisturizer
Après-bath, moisturize with Chocolate Truffle Oil-Free Spray Moisturizer from Bidwell Botanicals. A light spray lotion that absorbs without leaving an oily slick. The bottle can be kept in the refrigerator during hot months for a refreshing spray of moisturize when your skin feels particularly hot and dry.
|
|
9. Body Lotion
 |
Finish with some white chocolate—the non-caloric kind: Dessert’s On Me Whipped Body Spread by Cake Beauty. It’s a nourishing, vitamin-rich lotion made of cocoa butter, coconut oil and sweet almond oil.
The fragrance of white chocolate will drive you—and the right person close to you—fairly wild with desire.
|
10. Lip Balm
Finish with a silky, all-natural chocolate lip conditioner, Ganache For Lips made from Scharffen Berger chocolate plus Shea butter and Vitamins A and E, with UV protection. In lip-smacking flavors:
At $4 each, get the whole set!
|
|
We’re thrilled to have found these excellent products, and hope that you enjoy them too.
We’ve Told You Ours—Now Tell Us Yours:
Send Us Your Idea Of A Perfect Foodie Bath
What products, music, environment would you create?
- You don’t have to specify brands, just concepts: e.g., you surrounded by a flotilla of rubber ducks à l’orange (orange-scented bath water).
- If we get some good ideas, the Editors may publish them and we may possibly find some products that match your wish list (no promises here, since we have absolutely no idea what you’ll be wishing for, and we have zero ability to deliver a caviar bath).
- On the other hand, since we don’t want to suppress creativity, if you want to bathe in caviar or wash your hair under a waterfall in Tahiti, don’t let us stop you. We may publish your idea, but we won’t be sending you to Tahiti.
- Keep your entries G-rated.
- Your idea can be published without your name. We respect your privacy but welcome your participation. However, we would like you to include your name with your submission so we can contact you if we have questions.
- You can send as many ideas as you like—there’s no “deadline.” This is an evolving story idea.
When you’re ready to start writing, click here.
Ducky looks forward to your recommendations for his bath. Photograph courtesy of Jacuzzi®. |
 |
|
