Cinnamomum verum (the ‘true cinnamon’!)
The spice itself is the inner bark that is peeled from the branches but care needs to be taken not to ‘ring bark’ the tree, and should only be attempted when the tree is 1.5m or taller. Scrape the outer bark, peel the inner bark, leave for a week, so that it curls into cinnamon sticks.
An aromatic with a warm sweet flavour it is also used to flavour curries, drinks, bakery goods. Essential oils are used in food, liqueur, perfume, drugs. The flowers on this tree are not spectacular, but the new leaf growth is something to behold!
The leaves are used in tea, dried and used in savoury dishes, or the base chewed for a cinnamon flavour. Scrunch a leaf and smell it.
In Egypt it was sought for embalming and religious practices.
Native to Sri Lanka, the Malabar coast of Indian, and Myanmar.
The spice itself is the inner bark that is peeled from the branches but care needs to be taken not to ‘ring bark’ the tree, and should only be attempted when the tree is 1.5m or taller. Scrape the outer bark, peel the inner bark, leave for a week, so that it curls into cinnamon sticks.
An aromatic with a warm sweet flavour it is also used to flavour curries, drinks, bakery goods. Essential oils are used in food, liqueur, perfume, drugs. The flowers on this tree are not spectacular, but the new leaf growth is something to behold!
The leaves are used in tea, dried and used in savoury dishes, or the base chewed for a cinnamon flavour. Scrunch a leaf and smell it.
In Egypt it was sought for embalming and religious practices.
Native to Sri Lanka, the Malabar coast of Indian, and Myanmar.