Spice
True Cinnamon
S tier
True cinnamon is the plain-language label for Cinnamomum verum products as opposed to cassia sold generically as “cinnamon.” Expect pale, crumbly quills and a perfume that is sweet-woody with floral lift, not the aggressive red heat of Saigon or Korintje cassia. The phrase exists because grocery law in many countries allows cassia under the cinnamon name. Choose true cinnamon when you want nuanced spice or lower coumarin intake from bark. It performs beautifully in custards and fruit. If a cheap jar is dark red-brown and fiercely pungent, it is likely cassia mislabelled by habit.
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Characteristics
Preparations
Traits
History
Botanists and traders used “true cinnamon” to separate C. verum from cassia barks.
Mass markets blurred the distinction by selling cassia as cinnamon.
Consumer education campaigns revived the true cinnamon versus cassia contrast.
Specialty brands labelled true cinnamon explicitly on quills and powders.