By Rafe Calder
A cinnamon stick is not one thing. Two families of bark sell under the same name, they behave differently in a pot, and Mexican cooks have a word for the softer one. The word is canela.
One name, two kinds of bark
Wikipedia says Cinnamomum verum, also listed as C. zeylanicum, is called “true cinnamon” and Ceylon cinnamon because it comes from Sri Lanka. It says most cinnamon in international trade comes from four other species, usually called cassia. CulinaryLore, a food-reference site, says Mexican cinnamon is “technically Ceylon cinnamon.” A chef’s website, in a post from 2013, says canela is true cinnamon and that the “cinnamon” sold in U.S. markets is cassia. CulinaryLore makes the same point: in the United States, it says, cinnamon is usually cassia unless labeled otherwise, so look for “Ceylon cinnamon” or “canela” on the package.
How the bark is taken
According to Wikipedia, the stems are cut and processed while the inner bark is still wet. The outer bark is scraped off, the branch is beaten to loosen the inner bark, and that is peeled off in long rolls. Only about 0.5 millimeter of inner bark is used. The strips curl into rolls, called quills, as they dry, which takes four to six hours in a well-ventilated, relatively warm place, and the dried bark is cut into lengths of 5 to 10 centimeters for sale.
What it looks like
Here the sources agree on the direction and differ on the words. Wikipedia says Ceylon cinnamon is lighter brown, with many thin layers and a finer, more crumbly texture, and that cassia is medium to light reddish-brown, hard and woody, 2 to 3 millimeters thick because all the bark layers are used. CulinaryLore calls canela bark “thinner and more papery” and says it is “so soft it crumbles in your hands.” Zarela’s site says the bark is softer and thinner, with concentric layers that “splinter easily,” and that the color is “medium tan, not reddish-brown.”
One more point from Wikipedia matters to anyone who judges by shape. It says Indonesian cassia is often sold as neat quills with one thick layer, while two other kinds are always sold as broken pieces. So a tidy quill alone does not prove Ceylon. Our reading: the layers, the color and the way it crumbles tell you more than the roll does.
What it tastes like
CulinaryLore describes cassia as “a thick, woody bark with a punchy, aggressive heat,” and says canela is milder and sweeter, with less essential oil and some eugenol. Zarela’s site says canela blends subtly with other seasonings and “will not drown out other spices like the harsher cassia.” Both are opinion from food writers, not tasting panels.
Where it goes in a Mexican kitchen
Wikipedia says cinnamon is used in preparing chocolate, especially in Mexico. CulinaryLore calls canela an integral ingredient in Mexican hot chocolate and also lists tomato sauces, moles, chili, black beans and lentils. Wikipedia’s article on aguas frescas adds that rice, cinnamon and barley became the basis of horchata, and says sugar arrived after the Spanish conquest.
Buying and storing, as the sources put it
CulinaryLore says canela is best bought in stick form, though it is also sold pre-ground, and suggests international aisles, Latin markets or online sellers. Zarela’s site says to buy sticks and grind them just before use because the aroma fades quickly. It says canela is grown in Sri Lanka and brought into the U.S. mainly for re-export to Mexico; that is one chef’s statement, and we found no trade figures to confirm it. It also says that if only U.S. cinnamon is on hand, one can use a third to a half of the powdered amount or take the stick out halfway through cooking, but adds that neither works well, because “there is still a wrong note.”
The coumarin question
Wikipedia says cassia usually contains well over 1 milligram of coumarin per gram, sometimes up to 12 times that, while true cinnamon has only trace amounts. It cites one analysis in which authentic Ceylon bark contained 12 to 143 milligrams per kilogram while some market samples held up to 3,462, which it reads as a sign of cassia contamination. It says the European Food Safety Authority set a tolerable daily intake of 0.1 milligram of coumarin per kilogram of body weight in 2008. We report these as the encyclopedia states them and give no health advice.
Dates in order
- 2000 BC or earlier: cinnamon imported to Egypt, according to Wikipedia.
- 1638: the Dutch establish a trading post in Sri Lanka, according to Wikipedia.
- 1796: the British seize Ceylon from the Dutch, according to Wikipedia.
- 2008: the European tolerable daily intake for coumarin is set, according to Wikipedia.
- 2013: the post on Zarela’s site on soft-stick canela.
Side by side
Species name: C. verum (Wikipedia) and C. zeylanicum (Zarela’s site) for the same plant; Wikipedia lists both. Color: “lighter brown” (Wikipedia) against “medium tan” (Zarela’s site). Texture: “crumbly” (Wikipedia), “papery” and “crumbles in your hands” (CulinaryLore), “concentric layers that splinter” (Zarela’s site). None of them contradicts the others, but none gives a test with numbers.
Questions a buyer would ask
- Is canela the same as cinnamon? In the sources, canela is Ceylon cinnamon, and the cinnamon on most U.S. shelves is cassia.
- Does a rolled stick mean it is Ceylon? Not by itself, according to Wikipedia, which says some cassia is also sold as neat quills.
- Can I swap one for the other? Zarela’s site says it does not work well.
What kind of sources these are
Wikipedia (open encyclopedia, plus its aguas frescas article); CulinaryLore (a food-reference website, 2016); Zarela’s site (a chef’s personal and restaurant website, 2013). All three pages are secondary, and two are opinion.
What we left out
We left out production tables by country, prices, brand names, and the long Roman and Venetian spice-trade stories. We also left out a fourth source, a cooking magazine page we could not load.
Quick answers
- What is canela? According to CulinaryLore, Mexican cinnamon is technically Ceylon cinnamon, Cinnamomum verum, which is milder and sweeter than cassia.
- How can you tell canela from cassia? Wikipedia says Ceylon is lighter brown with many thin, crumbly layers; cassia is reddish-brown, hard and 2 to 3 millimeters thick.
- Is U.S. supermarket cinnamon canela? Usually not. CulinaryLore and Zarela’s site both say the cinnamon sold in the United States is generally cassia.
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