Ingredients · Spice

Cinnamon

Cinnamomum verum, C. burmannii, C. loureiroi · Lauraceae (laurel family)

Cinnamon
The inner bark of a laurel tree, peeled, dried and curled into quills. Three different trees are sold under the one name, and the shop carries all three: Ceylon (Cinnamomum verum), the soft, papery, floral one from Sri Lanka; Korintje (C. burmannii) from the Kerinci valley in Sumatra, the everyday cinnamon of North American kitchens; and Saigon (C. loureiroi) from central Vietnam, the boldest of them. It is the most-used ingredient in this catalogue — forty-five products carry it — because it does two jobs at once: it sweetens without sugar and it warms without heat. That is why it turns up in a chai, a pumpkin pie blend, a curry powder and a mulled cider alike.

What it’s like, and how to use it

The partBark
KindSpice
CaffeineCaffeine-free
Where it is fromSri Lanka, Indonesia, Vietnam
TasteSweet, woody, warm — Ceylon floral and citrusy, Korintje smooth and familiar, Saigon bold and fiery-sweet

How to use it

Ground into baking — rolls, apple pie, spice cake, French toast. A stick simmered in cider, mulled wine or a chai pot. In savoury cooking it works in Moroccan tagines, Mexican mole, Middle Eastern rice and pho broth, where Saigon is the usual choice. Bloom ground cinnamon in fat or liquid rather than dusting it on at the end; the flavour is oil-soluble.

With food

Apple, pear and stone fruit. Brown sugar, maple and honey. Butter, cream and custard. Chocolate and coffee. Lamb, pork and duck. Tomato and chile in mole and chili. Rice pudding, oatmeal and anything with raisins.

With spices

Nutmeg, cloves and allspice — the four make the baking-spice chord. Cardamom and ginger for chai. Star anise and fennel for a Chinese five-spice direction. Cumin and coriander in a tagine. Chile and cocoa for mole.

With tea

Assam and Ceylon black tea, which have the body to carry it. Rooibos, which is naturally sweet. Pu-erh, for a darker, earthier cup.

Its story

Where it comes from

Ceylon cinnamon is native to Sri Lanka. Korintje is grown around Kerinci in Jambi, Sumatra, renowned for its high oil content. Saigon cinnamon grows in central Vietnam — Quang Ngai province and the Central Highlands rather than around Ho Chi Minh City, despite the name. The product titles name these three trade origins; the growing region of any particular lot is not something we can confirm without the supplier's record.

What happened

Egypt was importing cinnamon by about 2000 BC. Herodotus, writing in the fifth century BC, placed it in Arabia and reported that great birds carried the sticks to cliff nests no one could climb; Pliny the Elder said flatly that such tales were "invented by the natives to raise the price of their commodities". A crusader, Jean de Joinville, wrote in 1248 that cinnamon was netted out of the Nile, washed down from the Earthly Paradise. Exodus lists sweet cinnamon in the holy anointing oil. The real history is shorter and harder: Portugal reached Ceylon in 1505, the Dutch took the island's cinnamon from 1638, the British took it from them in 1796, and through all three the bark was peeled by the Salagama, a caste bound to the work by quota, who under Dutch rule were chained, whipped, branded and had their ears cut off for fleeing it. That history is only now being written.

On the shelf with it

Sold on its own, and in these blends.

Every ingredient in the shop

Explore

Other ways in

Ingredients Every plant, seed, bark and salt in the shop on one page — what it is, why it is in the blend, and where it comes from. See them all Collections Every shelf in the shop on one page — teas by leaf and flavour, spices by kind and cuisine. Open any shelf to see what is on it. Browse the shelves The Showroom The whole shop on one floor — every tea, spice and blend, filtered by what you are after, with the basket beside you. Open the Showroom Elsewhere Seventeen short trips — a place, a moment, a feeling — each with the teas and spices that get you there. Take a trip