Special Report: Shower shocker

Coffee -- it's the jump-start to your morning. How do you like your java jolt? With cream? With sugar? With soap?

Now, there's a whole new way to get your caffeine fix. But instead of sipping, you have to shower. It's called "Shower Shock," a peppermint-scented soap infused with caffeine. But does it really work?

7NEWS had three volunteers trade in their coffee cups for some soap.

Helen, a retired grandmother, spends her day running after her rambunctious two-and-a-half-year-old grandson, Nicholas.

Kurt, a 25-year-old photographer here at 7NEWS is constantly on the go with all his heavy equipment.

And Kathy, a 30-something mother of two starts her day early and ends it late with her two, energetic kids! 

Helen, Kurt and Kathy all have in common: they crave caffeine.

"I definitely need my caffeine in the morning," Kathy said.

"I love my caffeine," Kurt said. "It keeps me going. I drink about three cups a day."

"I always have my latte in the morning," Helen said.

The company that makes the soap says the science is simple.

"They embed the soap with caffeine," Ty Liotta, of ThinkGeek.com, explained. "Caffeine is one of the most easily absorbed substances through the skin."

The soap promises you'll feel the jolt of 200 milligrams of caffeine. That's the same amount you'd get in two eight-ounce cups of coffee.

But some experts say there's a big difference being what you put in your mouth and what you put on your skin.

"When it comes to caffeine, it is a fairly big molecule," Doctor Thomas Rohrer, a dermatologic surgeon, said. "So, only very little bit of that can get absorbed. We can put caffeine on the skin, but most of that is gonna wash right out with the soap."

One of our testers wasn't impressed.

"I didn't feel like I got the caffeine kick it promised," Kurt said.

But our two ladies liked it.

"It kind of wakes you up a little bit," Helen said. "It smell good and feels good."

"I’m not sure if it was in my mind, but I did feel like I got a little boost from it," Kathy said. "I liked the soap itself. I liked the scent, but I’ll still have my coffee in the morning."

So if you're looking for a new way to perk up your morning, it will cost you about $7 to get your own "Shower Shocker!"

(Copyright 2007 Sunbeam Television. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)