I remember making cinnamon toothpicks myself back in the 80’s by soaking toothpicks in cinnamon oil. I could find the oil basically anywhere spices were sold. I remember getting it at grocery stores, drug stores, KMart, etc.
However, now I can’t find it anywhere. Even specialty grocery stores don’t carry it. Did it get legislated away, or is it simply not in demand anymore?
I’ve noticed that lots of chemicals I used to be able to find in drug stores – oil of wintergreen/methyl salicylate, glycerine, etc. are getting harder to come by. I suspect that there’s less demand for it (I strongly suspect people don’t know about these vasic things anymore), and that companies are getting wary of stocking pure chemicals that people can use for nefarious purposes (making crystal meth, indulging in terrorism, etc.)
In general, I find that a lot of this sort of “do-it-yourself” stuff is going by the wayside, to our collective detriment. I used to be able to go to my local auto supply store and buy hobbyist chemicals right off the shelf, and toy stores sold Gilbert chemistry kits. Try finding a lot of that stuff now.
I recently had to get some glycerine for an optical demonstration. I ended up going to an occult supply store in Salem, Mass. for it (amazing what you can get at herbalist’s and Wiccan stores. “Wicks and Sticks” used to sell essential oils, too. My witchy friends called it “Wiccan Sticks”). I tried drug stores, but most drug store people didn’t even know what was talking about. I eventually found one that stocked it, though.
I’ve got several bottles of cinnamon oil. It has a surprisingly high index of refraction. If nothing else, I’ll bet you can order it over the internet.
Lots of places still sell cinnamon oil online, so what you’re seeing in the stores is probably a result of changes in culinary fashion. Like elephant bells or lime green purses, some years you see cinnamon oil, some years you don’t.
http://www.amazon.com/Pure-Cinnamon-Oil-4-oz/dp/B0002PHEU2
they have it here
It’s a gateway spice. Next you’ll be trying vanilla extract because it’s cool. When that isn’t enough to satisfy the monkey on your back you’l be taking concentrated lemon extract by by the squeeze bottle full. Finally, after you have lost all control, you’ll be selling yourself in the streets for fix of cherry syrup straight from the fountain.
I also loved cinnamon toothpicks back in the day.
I just checked the Aldrich website. They sell a kilo of natural Kosher cinnamaldehyde for only ~$130. I don’t know if they sell to the general public. It looks like they’re back-ordered until April anyway. Maybe there’s a shortage of cinnamon these days. Granted, “natural” doesn’t mean it comes from cinnamon; they could be growing it in bacteria or something. There’s some guy at Virginia Commonwealth University who is trying to do that with vanillin (vanilla.)
If you can’t get a hold of any food-grade cinnamaldehyde, I often make cinnamyl alcohols via a Horner-Wadsworth-Emmons from the benzaldehyde, followed by reduction. Stopping the reduction at the aldehyde can be a pain, so it’s often easier to go down to the alcohol and oxidize back up to the aldehyde. This is quite easy to do on large scale, and the yields are good. I can’t say I’ve ever tasted any of them, so YMMV.
funny you should ask, I was wondering the exact same thing a while back. I just never got around to googling for the stuff. I was going to use it for making Soap but I found a way to get the same result with powdered.
I miss those toothpicks