How-To: Flavored Toothpicks

My husband loves chewing on toothpicks. For a while, he liked the strong flavor of Australian tea tree toothpicks, but they’re expensive, and after a while they burn your lips! We decided to try and flavor our own toothpicks with a milder oil. Here’s how.

You’ll need plain toothpicks (flat or round, your choice), a small bowl or dish, food flavoring, and a container to store them in once they’re finished. Oh, and a lot of paper towels! You can try extract, but an alcohol-free flavoring is best; you may need to track it down at a health food store. (This one just has sunflower oil and orange oil.) Pour some of the oil into the dish, and soak the toothpicks overnight.


Lay your toothpicks on a thick padding of paper towels. They will be really oily, so don’t put them on top of anything that could be damaged by the oil soaking through! You can speed up the process by baking them in an oven, or just rubbing them between several layers of paper towels.

Put them in a container and that’s it! You can use a plastic baggie, but a small mason jar works a treat, too.