Organic Ceylon cinnamon sticks | whole | 8 cm |

Cinnamon - who doesn´t immediately think of the Christmas season? In recent Central European history, cinnamon has been used primarily as a winter spice, especially in pastries, desserts, punch and mulled wine. In fact, cinnamon is one of the oldest known spices and has been in use in South Asian countries for several thousand years. In Europe, cinnamon only gained importance from the Middle Ages onwards, but was initially used primarily as a remedy for numerous ailments. From the 16th century cinnamon became more and more popular as a spice, but was considered precious and prohibitively expensive. Accordingly, the spice was reserved for the nobility and wealthy merchants. Botanically one distinguishes mainly 2 types of cinnamon: Cinnamomum Cassia - Cassia Cinnamon and Cinnamomum Zeylanicum - Ceylon Cinnamon (also Canehl or Kaneel) The Ceylon cinnamon is also called real cinnamon. It comes mainly from Sri Lanka and South India. It is extracted from the inner bark of the cinnamon bush, which belongs to the laurel family. Several of these wafer-thin layers are placed on top of each other or pushed into each other, whereby they roll up during drying. The Ceylon cinnamon thus resembles a rolled cigar as a stick, is light brown in colour, highly aromatic and has a fine, sweet taste. The cheaper Cassia cinnamon is today the most widespread cinnamon variety, mostly coming from China, Indonesia or Vietnam. To obtain the coveted spice, the bark of the cinnamon tree is removed and the inner bark, several millimetres thick, is freed from the outer cork layer. Cassia cinnamon sticks are much thicker than Ceylon cinnamon. The sticks only consist of a single layer. Ceylon cinnamon is darker and sharper, the aroma is more intense. Compared to Cassia Cinnamon, Ceylon Cinnamon contains significantly lower amounts of coumarin. Cinnamon lovers and especially families with children should therefore choose Ceylon Cinnamon, which is considered safe for consumption.