Anyone ever made cinnamon toothpicks?

So this past week I saw Lil’ Devil’s Cinnamon Toothpicks at Zia, and bought a pack. When I was a kid, people used to make them and sell them at school, a highly punishable act of contraband trafficking. I used to participate in this black market; I loved the fiery goodness too much not to.

Sadly, these failed to come even close to my memory of what a cinnamon toothpick should be. They tasted more like a piece of wood that had sat in a bowl with some cinnamon candy than like an actual cinnamon toothpick. So, being a DIY kind of guy anyway, I went searching on the intarwebz and found some instructions. Subsequent looks at other sites showed pretty much the same directions, if not the same thing verbatim.

I got some cinnamon oil, some toothpicks, and followed the directions. I soaked them (completely submerged) for about 25 hours, then spread them out on a cookie sheet covered in tin foil to dry. I kept wondering how in hell they were gonna dry, since it was oil, but that’s what the directions said to do, so I done it. Sure enough, after 2 days, they still were oily. I figured what the heck and tried one anyway, and… it pretty much just tasted like wood that had been sitting in a bowl with some cinnamon candy.

So, I figured maybe it was partly that I had the wrong oil. I now have this cinnamon oil in my cart at Amazon. I already have the toothpicks and the glass jar ready to go. But I thought it might be a good idea to ask my fellow Dopers if they had any experience making these, and any advice to offer. I promise I won’t be selling them on the middle school black market, tho.

I’m after something that fairly reeks of cinnamon taste, that’s got that cinnamon “hot” going on for a while.

Is that the right type of oil?

How do I “dry them out”?

Thanks in advance for any help.

As a kid (late 70’s) in high school we carried around tiny vials with toothpicks soaking in the cinnamon 24x7. A vial would hold maybe 5-10 toothpicks.

So give my 2 cents worth on your question… We didn’t dry them out.

You could try baking them at a low temp.

Not that I would do anything illegal, but I remember making them not with the straight oil, but an alcohol extract of cinnamon. I remember at least once using McCormicks alcohol based cinnamon extract. I suppose you could make your own with everclear and cinnamon bark rolls.