the.com/cinnamon
Tree bark so seductive it launched empires, fueled wars, and crowned itself spice royalty.
means A warm, sweet-spicy spice made from the dried inner bark of several tropical trees in the genus Cinnamomum, used in everything from pastries to curries.
from From Greek 'kinnamon,' which the Greeks borrowed from a Semitic source (compare Hebrew 'qinnamon'), and the word traveled west into Latin 'cinnamomum' and on into English. The trade itself is far older than the etymology can show: Phoenician and Arab merchants guarded their sources fiercely, and ancient writers like Herodotus passed along wild tales — that giant birds carried cinnamon sticks to their nests, for instance — likely cover stories spun to hide where the precious bark really came from.
- actual bark
- It's the inner bark of evergreen trees, peeled and dried.
- ancient luxury
- Once worth more than gold by weight.
- trade secret
- Arab traders invented monster myths to hide its source.
- funeral fuel
- Nero burned a year's supply at his wife's funeral.
- toxic cousin
- Most cheap cinnamon is cassia, packed with liver-stressing coumarin.
cassia cinnamon — indonesia produces 75% of world's cassia cinnamon, harvested from cinnamomum cassia trees
ceylon cinnamon — sri lanka produces premium ceylon cinnamon from cinnamomum verum, accounting for 80% of global supply
saigon cinnamon — vietnam's cinnamomum loureiroi variety, highest coumarin content at 0.01-0.9%, prized for spice markets