Harvesting ‘true cinnamon’: The story of the Ceylon spice | Hacker News Reader

Harvesting ‘true cinnamon’: The story of the Ceylon spice

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117 pointsmooreds35 comments

It’s worth remembering the other downside of Cassia cinnamon. It causes liver damage in higher doses.

The amount it starts becoming unsafe at is something like 1 teaspoon a day, which is a lot, but not that much when I consider how much I might put in an apple crumble or cinnamon bun recipe.

For this reason I always make sure I’m buying Ceylon.

How realistic is it really though? One teaspoon is a lot and even if I use it, I will not eat everything myself in one day. I guess the only real issue is with kids. I also don't eat cinnamon every day. Our small package of cinnamon lasts for months, and it's around 10 tea spoons.

I could easily use a teaspoon on two bagels with some butter and sugar

The cinnamon is just one reason not to do that daily.

To each his own of course. But that's a lot of cinnamon.

The only way I have cinnamon is in the bark form that gets added whole to flavor dishes. The bark itself doesn’t get eaten. I wonder what the problematic amount that way is.

This article [0] has a pretty good overview of the possible side-effects one can have. The substance toxic to the liver (hepatotoxic) is believed to be coumarin. An article that specifically looks at coumarin in food can be found here. [1] It confirms what the parent comment says. Cassia is also the form commonly used in pastries according to the article.

[0] https://doi.org/10.1016/j.clnu.2018.03.013

[1] https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodchem.2007.12.068

Well damn. Cinnamon tea is something I've made often -- and I presume it's the equivalent to a lot?

Chai tea would also have a lot on cinnamon in it. I think it's the main spice.

It's one of the spices. There is no ISO-like standard for making chai and there is variation, but cinnamon is most often not added at all.

(Disclaimer: I spent 12 years operating a tea stall in Shimla)

Most homemade Chai tea recipes I'm familiar with tend to drop a cinnamon stick into the pot to infuse, rather than dissolving ground cinnamon into it. I'm not sure how much realistically leeches out when you drop a stick in, but I'd assume less than a "dissolved" teaspoon (which rarely actually "dissolves", in my experience--usually it just floats on top of the liquid).

cinnamon, cardamom, star anise, cloves, ginger. grind then dry fry on pan then add water and milk (and tea leaves if you want). it's a really great high.

there are of course many local and regional variations.

I don't know about others, bit at home for my daily tea(or is it bi daily now), I use an eighth of a teaspoon of cinnamon, some cardamom, and ginger. I boil the ginger in water, add tea leaves, add milk bring to a near boil and then finally add in the other spices

Ceylon seems much, much weaker to me. Like I use three times the amount of Ceylon, compared to Cassia, and it still tastes not much like cinnamon.

Is it just because my taste buds have been de-sensitized to cinnamon? Or is the specific brand bad?

Because right now I wouldn't buy Ceylon again (and I bought it specifically because it has less cumarin).

They are very different spices. I don't care for cassia. I'll use it, no problem, but I much prefer Ceylon cinnamon. I grind sticks in a coffee grinder (you can't do this with cassia, it's too tough) and the freshly ground stuff is full of woody and citrus notes. Sometimes it smells like a threw in some orange peel, it's that noticeable.

Everything I could find about the difference between the two says that Ceylon cinnamon has a much "milder" and "subtle" flavor than Cassia, and that Cassia tastes much hotter/spicier, so this would seem to be in line with your experience. Ceylon cinnamon essential oil is only 50-65% cinnamaldehyde, while Cassia is about 95% according to an article I read, which explains much of the difference.

It is the quality of the spice you are getting. I have a nice fresh ceylon cinnamon and it is floral, aromatic, sewwt and punchy cinnamon smell. Very nice and puffs up the house with aroma when cooked.

It's been an issue in Denmark for a while that cinnamon buns have too much cinnamon https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2013/12/da...

You would think That’s a lot to consume until you find that something like this exists: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinnamon_challenge

If you want to compare different cinnamons, you can order some from Penzeys [1]. I'm a fan of their Vietnamese:

https://www.penzeys.com/search/?q=cinnamon

I've bought ceylon cinnamon numerous times from this spice trader, would recommend: https://www.thespicehouse.com/products/ceylon-cinnamon-quill...

The phrase "spice trader" has such a lovely old world charm to it! Or maybe it's because I am from the GB.

The spice must flow

Spoken like a true Brit.

Is cinnamon the only tree/wood that we eat?

Does smoked food count? Or aging in wooden barrels?

Sorry, I can’t count those.

What about palm heart?

Palm oil, maple syrup, stone fruit, curry leaves, bay leaves, and also the leaves of several obscure south East Asian trees like Gnetum gnemon. .

One can also make syrup from various birch, alder, and juglans species — and more!

Mesquite, bamboo?

You also have liquorice root. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liquorice

The most famous is willow tree bark that's how aspirin came to be.

quinine, chicle, eucalyptus...

Bay leaves are from trees.

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