Cinnamon Powder

Cinnamon, taken as a supplement, may help to support a normal internal environment unfriendly to harmful bacteria, and also may help maintain healthy blood sugar levels and healthy cholesterol levels. Cinnamon is the inner bark of a tropical evergreen tree. Cinnamon comes in “quills,” strips of bark rolled one in another. The bouquet is sweet and fragrant, the flavor warm and aromatic. Cinnamon is widely used as a spice, primarily in dessert dishes. As a point of interest, the name Cinnamon is correctly used to refer to Ceylon Cinnamon, also known as "true Cinnamon." However, the related species Cassia is sometimes sold labeled as Cinnamon, distinguished from true Cinnamon as "Indonesian Cinnamon." Most of the Cinnamon sold in supermarkets in the United States is actually Cassia.

Cinnamon (Cinnamomum zeylanicum) is the dried bark of various laurel trees native to Sri Lanka. Ground cinnamon is perhaps the most world’s most common baking spice. Cinnamon sticks are made from long pieces of bark that are rolled, pressed, and dried. The sweet-spicy flavor of cinnamon enhances the taste of vegetables and fruits. Cinnamon is also a perfect partner for chocolate. Traditional healers of many cultures have regarded cinnamon as an appetite stimulator, a digestive and an aphrodisiac.

Appearance

A laurel which in its wild state grows up to 60 feet high, the cultivated cinnamon tree is pruned down two years after a seedling is planted out. This produces a profuse, bushy growth of bark-yielding twigs with shiny, fragrant leaves. At blossom time the small, creamy-white flowers attract swarms of birds and bees, which find their spicy fragrance irresistible. The bark is harvested twice a year, starting when the trees are about three years old, one year after pruning. Cinnamon is always harvested immediately after each of the two rainy seasons, when the rain-soaked bark can be more easily stripped from the trees.

History

Cinnamon dates back in Chinese writings to 2800 B.C., and is still known as kwai in the Chinese language today. In the first century A.D., Pliny the Elder wrote of 350 grams of cinnamon as being equal in value to over five kilograms of silver, about fifteen times the value of silver per weight. Medieval healers used cinnamon in preparations to ease the discomfort of coughing, hoarseness and sore throats. And in ancient Rome, as a gesture of remorse, the Emperor Nero ordered a year’s supply of cinnamon be burned after he murdered his wife.

In the 17th century, the Dutch seized the world’s largest cinnamon supplier, the island of Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), from the Portuguese, thus acquiring a monopoly on the prized spice. In 1795, England seized Ceylon from the French, who had snatched it away from Holland during the Revolutionary Wars. However by 1833 the downfall of the cinnamon monopoly had begun when other countries discovered that cinnamon could be easily grown in Java, Sumatra, Borneo, Mauritius, Réunion and Guyana. Cinnamon is now also grown in South America, the West Indies and other tropical countries.