Cool Cubes: what are they made of?

Our Cool Cubes are made of steatite, or colloquially known as soapstone. Soapstone is an all-natural product, found and mined in either Brazil, Africa, China or India. Originally, the stone is either grey, blue, green or brown. The stone can be used for many things, but is mainly used for either art sculptures, household products or furniture, this depends on it’s softness. Soapstone thanks its name to its high concentration of talc, which makes the stone feel like a soft block of soap. The concentration of talc in the stone determines its use, therefore soapstone with a talc concentration up until 50% will be used for household products and furniture, such as counter tops, sinks, cooking pots and cold stones, while soapstone with a talc concentration of more than 51% can and will be used for art and sculpting purposes.

Fun fact: historically, soapstone was used by the Scandinavians as a mould for making metal objects such as knives and spearheads. Egyptians on the other hand used it for making their scarab amulets. But not coincidentally; almost all historical native inhabitants used soapstone to make bowls, cooking pots and cooking slabs.

Egyptian scarab amulet

Collection of pots and pans

Because soapstone is long-lasting and dense, it is perfect for isolation. It is used for isolation in the building industry, because (as the Scandinavians discovered) the material is very suitable for absorbing and slowly radiating temperature. In that case, it is not a coincidence that soapstone is used to make our Cool Cubes, because of its ability to contain and maintain temperature. The fact that soapstone is long-lasting is worth mentioning, because of the sustainable aspect. Sustainability in products is important nowadays, because we want to be kind to our earth. Our soapstone Cool Cubes are ‘refreshing our earth’, because they can be used for years and years, in the meantime not wasting litres of water and you don’t have to throw them away every few months (producing waste) and buy new ones.

As mentioned before, soapstone is used to make household products and furniture, such as bathtubs, countertops, pots and pans, Cool Cubes and so on. Soapstone has some very important and handy features in order for it to be allowed to be used for these purposes, such as:

• Hygienic; soapstone has a very smooth surface, repelling dirt and making it easy to wipe clean.

• Unresponsive to acid, chemicals and heat; soapstone will not stain, burn or be harmed by acids.

• Non-porous; soapstone will not break easily. Throw it, kick it, step on it all you want, it will take some effort in order to break it down into little pieces.

• Odourless; you don’t want your pots, pans and Cool Cubes to smell like the last thing they touched if you use them for something new, no odour attached to this stone.

• Tasteless; same goes for taste, you don’t want your Cool Cubes to taste like something they touched yesterday, they stay fresh!

Cool Cubes: Refreshing!

If used properly, our Cool Cubes made from soapstone can create a lifetime of refreshment. Want to know more about how to properly use, wash and store your Cool Cubes? Check out our tutorial. (with a hyperlink to tutorial page).