The Cinnamon Challenge

Here’s a story from Christmas that I almost forgot to share. Every year we get together- my parents, brothers, aunt and uncle, cousins and grandparents. We go through dinner, do the present thing, then the grandparents leave. That’s when things usually degenerate below the average level of stupidity.

The incident started when my brother Jamie (24) and cousin Walker (29) were talking about getting high from nutmeg. I don’t think Jamie believed it, so Walker offered to eat a tablespoon of nutmeg for $10. My aunt was very vocal about them NOT doing it, so of course they headed to the kitchen to look for spices. The discussion moved from whether or not it would get you high to whether or not you could keep it down.

Since they couldn’t find nutmeg, they needed to find a suitable substitute. I suggested they try Cinnamon instead- it was roughly the same type of powder, and we had a big jug of it available. I laid down $10.

The bet was that Walker couldn’t keep it down- the cruelty came when we said he couldn’t drink water for 30 seconds. So we took a 1 tbsp. measuring spoon, filled it full of Cinnamon, and headed outside.

My youngest brother Brian (21), Jamie, Walker, and I stood outside as he shoveled the spoon into his mouth. The powder instantly dried his mouth like a fistful of chalk. As those around him laughed, he coughed a bit, sending a bit of cinnamon into his lungs, causing him to cough harder. A plume of brown smoke rolled from his mouth. He coughed again, releasing another cloud of smoke. This is when my brother’s and I began roaring with laughter.

Moments later he began the dry wretching. Then came the vomit- he vomited up probably 1/8th of a pound of roast chicken with all the sides, mixed with a thick brown paste. My dad was pretty pissed that he yacked on the sidewalk, so he took a snow shovel and began dumping snow on the vomit to keep the dogs from eating it.

All in all, he lasted maybe 15 seconds. While Walker is a pussy, I don’t think many others could do much better.

So this brings me to the purpose of this post: are you man enough to take the Cinnamon Challenge?

*update*
Apparently there’s a whole section on youtube dedicated to this.