Ingredient

Carob

Sticky, warm, and mouth-watering, carob lends a deliciously sweet aroma to our products, making it a gourmand-lover's delight. 

Whether it's used to give our lip scrubs a cake-like flavour or to add a nostalgically comforting aroma to our fragrances, shower gels, and beyond, carob should come with a disclaimer that you will smell so delicious you'll leave everyone craving a freshly-baked treat. 

What are the benefits of carob?

• Sweet, cakey fragrance, with notes of vanilla and dark chocolate
• Naturally sweet taste
• Antioxidant rich for skin support

What is carob?

A hardy evergreen plant that thrives in harsh, arid conditions, carob trees are native to the Mediterranean, especially Morocco. The trees produce hanging seed pods that turn from bright green to dark brown as they ripen. Pods contain up to 15 seeds and are usually wild-harvested.

Once shelled, the bean-like seeds inside each ripened pod can be ground into a powder and made into a gum also known as locust bean gum - a natural and vegan-friendly thickener and stabiliser. A by-product of carob gum production, empty carob pods have long been considered waste, however the pods have other uses that improve circularity of the ingredient. Roasted and ground into a powder, they can be used as a substitute for cocoa powder, or transformed via solvent extraction into a resinoid. Resinoids are popular perfumery ingredients, thanks to their sweet, spicy fragrance - one of reasons we love using carob in our products! 

Worth its weight in gold

Across the ancient Mediterranean, carob seeds were used as a countermeasure when weighing precious stones and gold. In the Bible, it was thought to sustain St John the Baptist during his hermitic time in the desert, giving the tree its pseudonym St John's Bread - a name echoed across several European languages. In Islam, carob juice retains cultural significance as a traditional drink served during Ramadan. A fitting nod to the origins of our bestselling carob queen Sticky Dates, which began as part of our seasonal Eid range. 

Head over to our page on carob resinoid to learn more about where we source this sweet treat.