Sri Lanka produces around 22 metric tons of cinnamon every year. However, it isn’t the same cinnamon found on most people’s spice racks. It’s over 10 times as expensive and requires long, backbreaking work to harvest and process. Known as Ceylon cinnamon, it’s referred to by many as “true” cinnamon. But Ceylon’s cheaper, inferior alternative, called cassia cinnamon, dominates the world market, as it’s easily grown throughout Southeast Asia. We visited one of Sri Lanka’s largest Ceylon cinnamon producers to learn what it takes to make one of the world’s most valuable spices.
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00:00 (sizzling)
00:01 This cinnamon was once as valuable as gold.
00:06 It's known as Ceylon cinnamon, or true cinnamon,
00:10 and it's healthier and sweeter than other kinds.
00:13 Sri Lanka produces 90% of the world's supply,
00:18 but true cinnamon is up against a powerful rival,
00:23 a lower-quality kind called khasia.
00:28 It can be unhealthy in large amounts,
00:30 but it's up to 10 times cheaper,
00:33 so it dominates the global market.
00:38 The problem is khasia and ceylon
00:41 look nearly identical in powder form,
00:44 and loose labeling laws make it easy
00:47 for brands to mix in cheap khasia
00:49 with the more expensive stuff or replace it completely.
00:53 So why is this Sri Lankan spice
00:57 considered to be the best cinnamon in the world?
01:00 And how do you know it's actually what's in your spice rack?
01:03 Suneth harvests cinnamon for Rathna,
01:11 one of Sri Lanka's largest producers.
01:14 He starts working in the fields before sunrise,
01:17 so he can harvest the spice while there's moisture in the air.
01:20 Ceylon comes from the inner bark of cinnamon tree branches.
01:26 They have to be cut at an inward angle.
01:29 If Suneth cuts carefully,
01:31 he can harvest each tree for half a century.
01:34 After about four hours of cutting,
01:50 he hauls the last batch of branches
01:52 back to the estate's main building.
01:54 Each bundle of branches is soaked in a water tank
01:58 for at least 15 minutes.
02:00 This will make the bark easier to peel off.
02:02 Suneth's work has just begun.
02:07 Until at least 10 p.m.,
02:09 he works with a team of peelers like Saman
02:12 to scrape each branch one by one.
02:16 It exposes a softer inner bark.
02:18 This is the actual cinnamon.
02:22 (speaking in foreign language)
02:26 Brass rods smooth the surface
02:37 and loosen the cinnamon from the hard wood.
02:40 Then, with surgical precision,
02:44 they carve and slice the bark into thin strips
02:47 known as quills.
02:49 (upbeat music)
02:52 The quills are so thin
02:53 that they immediately curl up as they dry.
02:56 Small pieces of inner bark called quillings prevent rips.
03:01 (upbeat music)
03:04 Saman gets paid by the weight.
03:06 (speaking in foreign language)
03:10 (upbeat music)
03:12 The quills typically need to dry for a week.
03:35 Then, they're sent off to the factory to be processed.
03:39 (upbeat music)
03:42 15 minutes down the road,
03:43 sorters determine the value of each quill.
03:46 The thinner the quill, the more expensive it is.
03:51 Just like meat, cinnamon gets a grade.
03:56 Rathenau uses eight in total, all based on diameter.
04:00 The highest quality, known as alba,
04:03 is as thin as a pencil.
04:05 It's twice as valuable as H2FAQ,
04:08 the lowest grade.
04:10 Only one in about 25 quills gets the alba grade.
04:14 Sorters like Violet grade thousands of quills a day,
04:19 and she can grade each one in a few seconds.
04:22 (speaking in foreign language)
04:26 Once the quills are sorted,
04:34 they cut them into different lengths
04:36 and package them up for shipping.
04:38 The long cuts are packaged in bulk to be sold wholesale.
04:42 Shorter three-inch sticks go to grocery stores.
04:45 But for much of human history,
04:47 a sack of this cinnamon would have been worth a fortune.
04:50 The spice was traded across the ancient world
04:54 since at least 2000 BC.
04:57 Merchants peddled legends that the sweet-smelling bark
05:00 came from the nest of a mythical bird.
05:03 At one point, cinnamon was more valuable than gold.
05:08 By the 13th century, Sri Lanka had begun exporting the spice
05:11 directly to Egypt,
05:13 and Arab traders brought it to medieval Europe.
05:16 Ceylon cinnamon was so sought after,
05:18 it became a status symbol for the rich.
05:21 Soon, European countries wanted to profit
05:24 off the trade themselves.
05:25 For more than 300 years,
05:27 the Portuguese, Dutch, and British fought over the island
05:30 in control of its valuable exports.
05:33 The country declared independence
05:35 and regained control of its cinnamon lands in 1948.
05:39 But by then, a cheaper alternative, kasya,
05:42 had already begun to dominate the market.
05:45 Kasya comes from a totally different tree,
05:47 which grows taller and has thicker bark.
05:51 Most of it is produced on farms in East or Southeast Asia,
05:55 like this one in Indonesia.
05:57 The country has roughly twice the amount
05:59 of cinnamon plantations as Sri Lanka.
06:02 Producers can harvest entire trees at one time.
06:06 The process requires fewer workers
06:08 and makes it easier to produce in bulk.
06:11 Kasya farmers can harvest 10 times the amount
06:14 of cinnamon per acre than Ceylon farmers.
06:18 But kasya could pack hidden health risks.
06:21 Ceylon cinnamon boosts the immune system,
06:25 lowers blood pressure, and stabilizes blood sugar.
06:29 Kasya has health benefits, too.
06:32 But it contains high levels of a compound called coumarin,
06:36 which can cause liver damage if consumed in high doses.
06:40 Kasya can have 250 times more of it than Ceylon,
06:44 but you'd have to eat roughly a teaspoon of kasya a day
06:47 for weeks to put yourself at risk.
06:49 Countries like Germany have rules
06:53 to limit coumarin in foods.
06:55 The US doesn't regulate the amount of coumarin in cinnamon.
07:01 So how do you spot the difference in the spice aisle?
07:05 It's easier when you're buying cinnamon sticks.
07:08 Ceylon quills have more of a brown hue.
07:10 If they look red, there's a good chance
07:13 you're eating kasya.
07:14 Kasya sticks are also thicker.
07:17 They're usually half an inch and hard to break.
07:20 Meanwhile, ceylon can be as fragile as cigar paper.
07:24 Taste can be another giveaway.
07:27 Kasya usually has a strong and spicy flavor.
07:31 Ceylon is sweeter and milder.
07:33 But powdered cinnamon is harder to verify.
07:37 Some fraudsters have been caught
07:39 mixing powdered kasya with ceylon,
07:42 but marketing it as pure ceylon.
07:45 One study found that over half of the products
07:47 in European and US grocery stores
07:50 contained mixed cinnamon.
07:52 Once it's mixed with ceylon, cinnamon, and kasya,
07:55 it's hard to detect what is there.
07:57 Only the coumarin content help the people to know this one,
08:01 but the consumers, they are far away
08:04 from that kind of test.
08:06 But she says no one in the US or the EU is stopping this.
08:10 In the US, it's estimated that the FDA
08:13 only physically inspects 1% to 2% of imported foods,
08:18 like spices.
08:19 The regulatory authorities, they are kind of
08:22 in a deep, in a silence in this adulteration.
08:25 Even their health consequences,
08:27 they are not taking any action.
08:29 So how is Sri Lanka supposed to compete
08:33 in an industry filled with fraud?
08:35 In 2022, it scored a major win.
08:40 The European Union granted a coveted
08:42 geographical indication tag to Ceylon cinnamon.
08:46 That means any spice bottle labeled Ceylon in the EU
08:49 has to come from Sri Lanka.
08:51 It's like how real champagne can only come
08:54 from one region of France.
08:55 The tag could reduce competition,
08:58 increase Ceylon's value, and boost sales.
09:02 But it only goes so far.
09:04 In both the EU and US, brands don't have to add the tag
09:08 or indicate what type of cinnamon they're selling.
09:11 So it's hard for customers to know what they're eating.
09:15 Da Silva says adding the botanical or species name
09:18 of Ceylon on the ingredients list
09:20 will help inform customers.
09:22 So the consumer knows that cinnamon comes
09:24 from which area of the Sri Lanka even,
09:28 and then who did the processing,
09:29 which conditions they use.
09:31 She hopes this will help Sri Lanka's thousands
09:34 of producers earn more for their salon.
09:37 It's a culture.
09:39 How many people depend on this industry?
09:42 (upbeat music)
09:44 (chopping)
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