Ceylon Cinnamon: The Spice We Think Deserves the Crown

For thousands of years, cinnamon was treasure, and the kind empires sailed for came from one island, Sri Lanka. It still grows there. True Ceylon cinnamon, Cinnamomum verum, is the cinnamon the recipes were written for: delicate, sweet, and quite different in character from cassia. Cardamom is usually the spice people call the queen. We would hand the crown to this one. Here is why it is worth knowing, and how to tell the two apart.

Why Ceylon Cinnamon is the one worth having

Most cinnamon sold in the West is cassia, a different plant with a hot, sharp, one-note flavour that can bully everything around it. Ceylon cinnamon is gentler and more interesting. The taste is sweet and a little citrusy, with a warmth that unfolds rather than overwhelms, which is why it flatters delicate things like custard, apple and vanilla instead of steamrolling them.

There is a practical reason to choose it too. Cassia is high in coumarin, a natural compound best kept to modest amounts. Ceylon cinnamon, the true cinnamon, has only a trace of it (Healthline, NCCIH), which makes it the sensible one if you enjoy cinnamon every day. We go into the taste and the coumarin difference in Ceylon cinnamon vs cassia, and into the honest state of the health research in Ceylon cinnamon benefits.

How to tell the two apart

Ceylon cinnamon quills give themselves away in your hand. Look for a light tan colour and thin, papery layers rolled tightly together, like a fine cigar, soft enough to crumble between your fingers. The hard, hollow, dark single-curl sticks in most supermarkets are cassia, a different species with its own uses. And check the label: “product of Sri Lanka” or “Cinnamomum verum” means Ceylon cinnamon; no origin at all almost always means cassia.

Ways to enjoy it

Ceylon cinnamon rewards everyday use. A stick in your morning tea or coffee. A spoon of powder over porridge or yoghurt. A whole quill dropped into a pot of rice or a slow curry. A generous amount in weekend baking, where it can be the star. Little and often is the whole point, and with Ceylon cinnamon you can do that freely.

Store your sticks whole in an airtight jar, away from heat and light, and grind small amounts as you need them. Whole quills hold their aroma far longer than ground.

Ceylon cinnamon, from our family

Our true Ceylon cinnamon powder and sticks are grown and hand-rolled on our family estate and partner farms in Sri Lanka, never fumigated, and sold direct so the growers keep a fairer share. Once it is in your cupboard, most people find they reach for it more than they expected.

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Sources: Healthline: Ceylon cinnamon vs Cassia · NCCIH: Cinnamon