Best Reason to Brush Your Teeth? Bourbon Flavored Toothpaste

Recently my husband was touring an exhibit of Kenner Toys and other novelties with a Cincinnati connection at the Cincinnati Public Library and he sent me a picture that just about blew my mind. In the 1950’s a Cincinnati native named Don Poynter decided to top his recent success with the Jayne Mansfield shaped hot water bottle with a product to make brushing your teeth a task you look forward to: whiskey flavored toothpaste. The product contained real alcohol, a respectable 6 proof, and came in bourbon, rye, and scotch flavors. The product gained enough attention that Life Magazine did a feature on it and soon it was a best-selling novelty item nationwide. Before long imitators began making their own versions and for a few years in the 1950’s and 60’s you could find mail order ads for whiskey toothpaste at the back of your favorite magazines.

The competition caused Poynter to cease production after a few years but apparently there is another entrepreneurial individual out there who thinks the world is ready for the return of whiskey toothpaste. In doing a quick google search for writing this article, I found that on Caskers you can now purchase whiskey toothpaste and mouthwash. Unfortunately they are both currently out of stock so I was not able to try the product out for myself but if anyone out there has used it please comment and let me know how it was. I’m dying to know if this is strictly a novelty item for the bourbon lover who has everything, or if this could be my new favorite personal hygiene product. Of course there is a downside. I suppose in the mid 20th century your boss might not mind if you show up to work with bourbon on your breath but I imagine that it wouldn’t work so well in today’s office culture.

Thanks to CompleteSet for letting me use their photo of the exhibit. You can read more about the Kenner Toy exhibit in their article (written by the wonderful Mr. Tonic) here.