Hello!
Today we will tell you about spices that can be found in almost every housewife in the
kitchen.
This brown powder with a pronounced pleasant, slightly tart aroma is known to everyone as
cinnamon.
For many, this delicious taste and aroma of the spice is clearly associated with sweet
pastries, rich or yeast dough, fruit fillings in pies and buns.
However, this is not the only area where cinnamon is used.
It is added to hot and tonic drinks, mulled wines, punches, coffee, milk and berry jelly.
The spice is able to turn the most ordinary food into a royal treat.
Due to its preservative and bactericidal properties, it is added to perishable products.
The spice gives an amazing taste and aroma to jams, jams, creams, ice cream, mousses,
jelly, milk porridges, curdled milk, kefir, products made from cottage cheese.
Cinnamon can and should be added to various dishes, its small use is safe for human health.
Cinnamon thins the blood, lowers blood pressure, reduces blood sugar.
Cinnamon is taken to prevent colon cancer and diseases of the central nervous system.
The antibacterial properties of cinnamon in relation to fungi located in the oral cavity
and respiratory tract have been proven.
So how do you get this fragrant spice?
Ceylon cinnamon is native to the forests of Sri Lanka, but is also found in Malaysia,
Guiana, Indonesia, Brazil, and South India.
Making cinnamon sticks takes hours of painstaking work.
Even the most skilled workers can make just a few pounds of cinnamon sticks in a day.
One pound of cinnamon sticks can cost $27.
Ceylon cinnamon is rarer than Chinese cinnamon and is more expensive.
Its soft and slightly sweet taste was appreciated by pastry chefs.
It is mainly Chinese cinnamon or, as it is also called, cassia, that goes on sale.
Almost 95% of all varieties of spices are seasoning from South China.
Its price is low.
The spice is used for confectionery purposes, has a bright aroma and a burning taste.
So what makes Ceylon cinnamon so healthy and so expensive?
Cinnamon is one of the oldest spices.
It has been used for several thousand years.
The first mentions can be found in Chinese sources dating back to 2700 BC.
The ancient Egyptians used cinnamon in the embalming process.
With the entry of mankind into the Age of Discovery, the Portuguese found the island
of Ceylon (Sri Lanka), where cinnamon was grown from time immemorial.
Since then, it has become known as Ceylon.
So, starting from the 16th century and for another one and a half centuries, the exclusive
right to trade in cinnamon was concentrated in the hands of the Portuguese colonialists.
In the Middle Ages, cinnamon continued to be on the tables of only very wealthy Europeans.
The high cost of cinnamon was due to the large number of resellers.
From the moment of maturation in Ceylon to the final consumer in Europe, it could go
through a dozen or even more hands.
However, Portugal's dominion came to an end when they were forced out by the combined
forces of local authorities under the patronage of Dutch merchants, who had long had views
of the island.
In 1656, the Portuguese were finally driven out of Ceylon.
In 1796, Ceylon fell into the sphere of influence of the English Crown.
With increased competition, the cost of cinnamon fell, it became more affordable for Europeans,
which, of course, affected the increase in its use in cooking and medicine.
It is Ceylon cinnamon that is considered “real” and “noble”.
It is made from the dried inner bark of a tree called CinnamOmum vErum or Ceylon cinnamon.
In height, it reaches 10-15 meters.
Growing these trees is an investment as farmers have to wait two years after planting the
trees before they can start harvesting.
Then every 2 years, after the rains, the inner layer of the bark is cut off from them.
The collection of bark usually begins early in the morning.
Workers break branches at this time, when the bark is still wet.
Up to 100 trees are cut down per day.
The trees need constant care throughout the year, otherwise the branches will be completely
unsuitable for making cinnamon.
Collecting branches is only part of the story.
Next, the cleaners must perform the most delicate and important work - remove the inner bark
from each branch by hand.
It's pretty hard work.
Dry and twisted branches are cut from the trunk, and only straight ones are left.
The bark is removed with a special rod to expose the inside, which is cinnamon.
Cutting the bark correctly is not so easy.
To get the most valuable cinnamon, the bark must be very thin.
The thinner the cut of the bark, the more expensive the cinnamon sticks will cost.
The most delicate layer of bark has a thickness of only 0.5 mm.
Some masters have to spend about 40 years to achieve perfection in this craft.
Immediately after removing the bark, each piece is placed in the sun to dry.
Under the influence of sunlight for several minutes, cinnamon rolls up into multilayered
tubes.
After drying, the small pieces are stuffed inside a large, solid piece of bark, thus
forming one 42-inch tube.
This is done so that in this form the cinnamon can be hung under the ceiling of the work
shop and continue to dry.
Each light brown cinnamon stick contains 6-10 layers of strips.
By the end of a long day's work, workers will have produced only about 3 pounds, or less
than a kilo and a half, of cinnamon tubes.
These straws will then dry for another three to four days before being baled and sent to
a special facility where they will be certified.
Here, the tubes will be evaluated based on their width.
After evaluating the products, entrepreneurs can purchase cinnamon bales of various qualities.
Usually quality is evaluated on a 10-point scale.
The most valuable cinnamon tubes belong to the Alba class.
It takes a worker four times as long to produce one kilogram of Alba as it does to produce
the same amount of lower grades.
Such cinnamon is very expensive.
You can see that such tubes are similar in size to pencils.
During the peeling process, the inner bark is made 1 inch wide.
From the remaining small pieces make ground cinnamon.
This is the cheapest form of the product.
Expensive Ceylon cinnamon rolls are often confused with more affordable and cheaper
varieties of cinnamon.
This is primarily cassia, the Latin name is Cinnamomum cassia.
It comes from the bark of another tree, originally from South China - Chinese cinnamon.
Its production does not require as much time and effort as the production of Ceylon cinnamon.
The bark of cassia is hard and strong, so the pieces of cassia are difficult to break
and grind even with a coffee grinder, its thickness is up to 2 mm, so it is perfectly
stored in the form of a single twisted piece of bark.
Ceylon cinnamon, on the contrary, is tender and soft.
She needs these inner layers to keep the tube from breaking.
Ceylon cinnamon has a warm and mild aroma and a sweet and spicy taste.
Its color is lighter than cassia.
Cassia, on the other hand, has a pungent smell, burning-spicy taste, tart and astringent.
Cassia contains more essential oils, so its aroma may even be a little camphor.
Cassia also contains, on average, higher levels of coumarin, an organic compound that can
cause liver damage when consumed in large amounts.
That's why researchers say Ceylon cinnamon is the healthier option in the long run.
Therefore, consumers all over the world prefer real products.
So in 2018, the sale of Ceylon cinnamon brought in more global revenues than any other variety.
And while demand is expected to rise until 2025, climate change is already posing a serious
threat to cinnamon production.
In recent years, Sri Lanka has experienced drought for several months.
And those long periods of dry weather can kill cinnamon trees, which need swampy, wet
soil to survive.
There is also a shortage of cinnamon cleaners, another threat to production.
All this is likely to raise prices.
After all, this industry relies on experienced purifiers, those who can skillfully carry
out the complex work of making these straws for many years.
Many young people are simply not interested in this work.
Cinnamon is the most important and valuable spice produced in Sri Lanka.
The country has a huge potential for the export of Ceylon cinnamon.
Today, cinnamon is the third largest agricultural export from Sri Lanka, with 31,000 hectares
under cinnamon cultivation.
About 400,000 people are directly or indirectly employed in its cultivation.
The main consumers of cinnamon are the United States, Mexico, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Spain,
Guatemala, Chile and Bolivia.
Sri Lanka's exports account for 41% of the world's exports of this product.
Ceylon cinnamon is currently exported to the world market under the national brand name
"Pure Ceylon Cinnamon".
However, the lack of trained personnel with the necessary knowledge of cinnamon cleaning
skills as well as best manufacturing practices has hampered the progress that Ceylon Cinnamon
had planned to achieve in the global market.
After the introduction of a generally accepted classification that makes it possible to distinguish
cassia from cinnamon in the international classification by allocating a separate HS
code to cinnamon, the price of cinnamon on the international market has
increased.
In order to expand the possibilities of this export product, the manufacturers decided
to establish a Cinnamon Training Academy in Sri Lanka.
The academy aims to provide a complete education to cinnamon pickers as well as purifiers in
Sri Lanka by providing them with
the right education and understanding on how to maintain the product
and hygienic quality of Ceylon cinnamon.
Thus, with the necessary knowledge and skills to produce cinnamon that meets the requirements
of the world market in terms of product quality, Sri Lankan cinnamon pickers will be able to
expand the presence of Ceylon
cinnamon in
the world market.
That's all.
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