The Traveler's Journal
Kay Wright, Director of Botanicals Purchasing
Kay has been working at Celestial Seasonings for more than 30 years, and travels the world to find the finest ingredients for our teas. In many cases, her relationships with family farmers have been developed over three generations!
June 1, 2007
The Exotic Life of Cinnamon
For one of the most common spices in use today in baked goods, chewing gums and teas, cinnamon actually has a very exotic story. It is mentioned in the Bible, it appears in a Greek poem penned in the 7th century BC, and it is featured in the mythology of many civilizations. Cinnamon’s inviting aroma and warm, spicy flavor make it a favorite for aromatherapy and food flavorings, and it has long been used medicinally by people of many cultures.
Many people confuse “cinnamon” and “cassia”, but they are one and the same. The names are often used interchangeably, and rightfully so, because they refer to plants of the genus Cinnamomum. Sri Lankans have long held that the species of cinnamon plant growing on their island is the only “true” cinnamon, but botanists do not generally support this view, and the bark of all plants in the Cinnamomum genus is used to make the spice we know as cinnamon.
The real difference between the species of cinnamon is in the oil content. The oil is where the flavor is concentrated, and the higher the oil content, the more intense the flavor. The cinnamon we use at Celestial Seasonings comes from Vietnam, and is some of the highest quality cinnamon in the world.
High in the mountains north of Hanoi, several villages have grown up around the plantations of cinnamon trees, which live for about 100 years if not harvested. Vietnamese cinnamon is cultivated rather than grown in the wild, so the farmers are careful to protect their resource and only sell when the price is right. If cinnamon prices on the world market fall too low, the farmers simply do not harvest the bark.
Cinnamon is harvested by shaving the bark from the trees and allowing it to dry in the open air. As it dries, it curls into the familiar cinnamon “quills” that are depicted on so many packages of food containing the spice. After harvesting, the cinnamon tree is left to regenerate its bark for another harvest, which generally takes about two years. Sometimes the whole tree is used during a harvest, but the trees are continually being replanted so the plantations are sustainable.
Celestial Seasonings began purchasing cinnamon directly from Vietnam in 2000. On my last trip to meet with the cinnamon farmers there, I ran into a little trouble with some rival cinnamon farmers from a different province. As my colleague and I crossed a river with our host, we were detained by provincial police. They had been advised that our travel passes only allowed us into certain areas, and that we had strayed outside the allowed space.
It turned out that the rival farmer wanted our business, and thought he might scare it out of us! We were finally allowed to return to Hanoi that evening, and I’ve never been so glad to get back to a hotel in my life! Needless to stay, we stuck with our tried and true cinnamon farming partner.
