I was asked to write this post about a year ago on tumblr but with St. Patrick’s Day fast approaching, enchanting food and drink is something that comes readily to my mind.

First, let’s cover what we’re even talking about here. Enchanting food and drink is the process of magically enhancing a piece of food or drink for a specific purpose via some magical process, like a spell. The food and drink is then to be consumed by the person you want that purpose to work on.

An example is you want to be more productive and inspired throughout the day so you add a pinch of cinnamon to your coffee that morning to give you an bit of a boost and stir the spoon clockwise and lift the mug to your lips while facing the sun. Sounds easy right?

Wrong. There’s a LOT that goes into this area of magic and a lot of be considered. A lot of people have food related allergies and others have food related taboos for spiritual, religious, or ethical reasons.

For example, I will rarely knowingly consume organ meat for spiritual reasons. The exceptions for this would be if I was starving and if I want to counter those spiritual reasons. I’m also slightly allergic to lactose so I tread carefully when consuming certain kinds of dairy like cheesecake so I don’t get sick.

Allergies and taboos are obvious clues to tread carefully but many people also don’t inform people about their allergies so you handing them an enchanted glass of water with a pinch of cinnamon when they’re allergic to cinnamon is really bad.

The obvious solution for this is to ask first before enchanting the food or drink or tell people that it’s enchanted. And that’s the real crux of the issue. Whether you even should enchant food you’re making for others. You’ll want to consider the morals and ethics of casting a spell on someone unknowingly. Often, food and drink is a stealth technique, used to cast a spell on someone subtly. Therefore, it’s pretty hard to ask permission if you’re trying to ensorcel them on the sly.

Additionally, many of the stealth techniques are used to make a person do something against their will. This is commonly seen in targeted love spells to make a specific person fall in love with you. Some spells even go so far where they’re the magical equivalent of a roofie. (Yes, really.)

Plus there’s witches enchanting other witches to “steal their power” or curse them via food or drink. Something to think about when you head over to your next witchy get together.

Not to mention there’s so many different way to enchant food and drink to from what you put into physical (ingredients) to the spells said over it to the way it’s stir and when and why it’s made. There’s so much. Food and drinks can be spells in and of themselves.

There’s no real true right answer for this. You’ll have to sit down and consider what you feel is right or wrong when it comes to enchanting food or drink. What’s your real intent (not magical intent, I mean your logical purpose) behind the spell? Why are you doing this? Address that issue and be honest. If you don’t like the answer you come up with, give the enchanting a miss.

As for me? Well, I bake a lot. A lot. In fact, there’s almost always a dessert hanging around my house. However, since I typically make my food for me, I enchant it. So when offering it to others, I’ll mention what I’ve enchanted it with. Just as a “hey, this food was made with cinnamon and is meant to inspire. I can make something else unenchanted if you want.” I feel like that covers my bases (plus, it gives me an excuse to keep a non-enchanted cake in the freezer.) Any chance to have more cake, right?