Organic Coffee Scrub: Road Test

THERE’S another way to consume your morning coffee. But does it work? Our reporter investigates.

TWAM-20150314 EMBARGO FOR TWAM 14 March 2015 Natural body care. Cellulite massage with coffee scrub and cereals Supplied

ORGANIC Coffee Scrub

What is it? The most fun you can have with a bag of ground coffee. You don’t brew it into a refreshing beverage; you get naked and rub it all over yourself.

Eh? This 100 per cent organic concoction — a mix of roasted coffee grounds, virgin coconut oil, sea salt and peppermint oil — is touted as a rejuvenating body scrub for the shower.

Why? Adelaide-based Coffee Organics claims it stimulates circulation, and reduces cellulite, scarring and UV damage, among other things. The science is, ahem, a little hazy.

Verdict: There is a moment (when you’re starkers, smeared with the contents of a barista’s bin) when you wonder, Is this a joke? But you exit the shower all zingy and smelling like a long black. How can something so wrong feel so right? Your skin feels invogroated, partly because the coffee is abrasive, and the peppermint oil has a cooling, menthol effect. If you want to try it without spending $15, try the DIY version: get yourself a packet of ground coffee from the supermakret, add it to some oil and see how you go.

$14.95 for a 200g packet, coffeeorganics.com.au

From Road Test, in The Weekend Australian Magazine, March 14.