Soap, the perfect aperitif

SPRING cleaning has become quite a culinary affair. A new generation of sprays and scrubs is landing on the market sporting fruity scents and candy colors: mandarin coriander dishwashing liquid, apricot quince and grapefruit ginger surface cleaners, even wasabi green tea soap. Are we cleaning or eating? Many of these products are aimed squarely at followers of the Martha Stewart axiom that a clean home shouldn’t smell like chemical warfare. They want an appetizing scent, as in Restoration Hardware’s cucumber mint vacuum BBs or Williams-Sonoma’s ginger-almond dish soap. Williams-Sonoma spokeswoman Lindsay Mock says some of her company’s signature cleaners are seasonal, so around the holidays you just may be able to scrub and wipe to the aroma of roasted chestnuts and nutmeg. This all sounds enticing and at times looks good enough to eat, but can these cleaners actually clean? Can they make you “fall in love with housework again,” as the Home Thymes Collection promises? Uh, well, not exactly. But the Home section’s staff members -- a sorry lot of housekeepers, as you’ll see -- were inspired enough to roll up their sleeves and embark on some highly unscientific testing. By the time they were done, at least one tester reported feeling more hungry than clean. “The kitchen is a sensory place,” she said. “I think someone should market garlic dish soap or linguini-and-clams counter spray. That, I would use.”

-- Times Staff