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Comment by esperent | Hacker News Reader

There's two types of cinnamon commonly used as a spice:

Cassia cinnamon

Ceylon cinnamon

The latter is what this article is calling "real" but they are both real. Ceylon originates in India and is used in Indian cooking. Cassia originates in SEA/China Asia and is used in recipes there.

They are simply two different varieties of the same tree and they are both cinnamon. In fact there are many more varieties than just that two, same as with apples, tea, coffee or any other plant and it makes no sense to designate only one variety of cinnamon as "real". They have different flavors and neither is better.

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In fact, the genus Cinnamomum which contains cassia and ceylon (C. cassia and C. verum, respectively) is pretty large and diverse. Sometimes what people refer to as cassia can actually be one of several species, e.g. C. burmannii, which is also often referred to as korintje. There are others that can be ambiguously named. E.g. the aromatic compound camphor is harvested from camphorwood (Cinnamomum camphora), which is not to be confused with the tree known as camphorwood in Australia, Cinnamomum oliveri.

I have no real point here other than cinnamon (i.e. the genus Cinnamomum) is fascinating and confusing in equal measures and people should definitely read up on it.

> Ceylon originates in India and is used in Indian cooking.

As an Indian, I can assure you that the cinnamon we use in our cooking is indeed Cassia.

Ceylon is in Sri Lanka, a bit south of us.

Ah, thanks for the info, I didn't know that - I have only travelled in the south of India and found that mostly Ceylon was used.

Cassia does originally come from China though, although I guess it has spread a long way.

it's not, however, "unfair" to teach people that there are actually different varieties of a product they buy, and that one is more expensive and maybe presumed to be better. I agree with you that they did not make all these distictions clearly, but it was interesting to learn and I plan to taste test them when I can.

They are literally calling other varieties "fake" and telling you to avoid them at all costs. Not really what I would call teaching.

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