G is for Genius: Parle G biscuit (soap)

They arrived!!! The moulds for the Parle G biscuits! Just a few hours back!!!!

After making a successful batch of Toffee scented candles and savoury scented Noodles soap, I wanted to try making India’s household favourite low cost glucose biscuits, Parle G, as Soap! You can read about the history of these biscuits here. The machinery and technical knowledge of confectionery craft came to India from Germany in 1929. As I read this article, I remembered my school history lessons on proto-Nationalist movements emerging in British occupied India that looked towards the Empire’s enemies, mainly Japan and Germany, for military alliances, tactical know-how, weapons…and biscuits. It's complicated but India’s Parle G biscuits have satiated the poorest and wealthiest alike over decades.

I thought I would be playful as usual, and use these cheaptastic moulds meant for candle-making, for soap instead! Pack five biscuits in a butter paper packet just like the original 1960s-70s product, scent them with maltol, coumarine, vanillin and synthetic chocolate to amplify the burnt sugar-butter-flour notes so that it smells just like the actual biscuit itself!

To nail the baked biscuit colour was a little challenging. After a small 2 minute panic, the green dye, mixed with pink, orange, yellow, and red, and indeed turned into a delicious chai-brown! Phew!

I poured in approx 60 grams of melted shea butter soap base, the colour, the scent, all blended in and waited for a few minutes.

I stamped them at the back while they set…

…and squealed like a piglet as I took out the first “biscuit”!!!!

Cute little handsoap bars perfect for travel, packaged in butter paper. Just remember not to eat them!!!

I wanted to end the year on a sweet note. Everything is too heavy, I was searching and searching for some beauty and silliness.

I haven't decided yet how I want to price and sell them. I will make several batches of five bars and ship them off to London to my friend turned stockist, Fahad, so that the high shipping fees are no longer a hurdle for those based in the UK, EU and US. Currently, you can find some of my perfumes in stock on his website: https://litrahb.deansbottom.com/

I hope that all of you - friends, readers, and ok, some of you are hate-subscribers who are just here to track my G for Genius - will find something worthwhile, meaningful and beautiful to vest your hope and action in.

Early January I will turn a year older and my plans as usual are to stay home, avoid the pollution outside, and hang out with Koki, my sister's puppy. She's such a cute girl, she invents all kinds of games and I am often taken aback by her sense of fair and foul when I try to cheat a little!

Our favourite game is Godzilla-Godzilla! I stomp in a destructive manner like a giant dinosaur trying to chase her; then it's her turn to chase me while I run in mock-terror screaming “AaaahhhhGozeelaaaaa”!

I recently made her an excellent cedarwood-beeswax paw butter after realising how sus most of these strong-scented commercial pet products are! I know that if I tried just a little hard, I could become a fragrance millionaire but money doesn't motivate me. 🤷🏻‍♀️🐕