The spice-drawer secret
Here's a small secret of the spice trade: the "cinnamon" in most Western kitchens isn't cinnamon at all — at least, not the spice that made the word famous. It's cassia, the bark of a related but different tree. The two look similar enough on a supermarket shelf and different enough in every way that matters. This page explains how to tell them apart, and why we only sell one of them.
True cinnamon — botanists call it Cinnamomum verum, literally "true cinnamon" — is native to Sri Lanka and grows almost nowhere else in commercial quantity. Cassia comes from several related species grown across China, Indonesia and Vietnam. Cassia is cheaper to produce in bulk, which is why it quietly took over the world's spice aisles. In many countries it can legally be labelled simply "cinnamon", so most people have never knowingly tasted the original.
Hold a stick of each and the difference is obvious. A cassia stick is a single, thick curl of hard bark — you could knock on a table with it, and you'll struggle to grind it at home. A true Ceylon quill is completely different: dozens of paper-thin layers of inner bark rolled together like a cigar or a scroll of parchment. It's brittle, light, and snaps softly. The colour differs too — cassia is a dark reddish-brown, Ceylon a lighter tan.
Cassia hits with a hard, hot, one-note sweetness — familiar from cinnamon-flavoured sweets and supermarket pastries. Ceylon cinnamon is subtler and far more complex: delicately sweet, with citrus and floral notes and a gentle warmth that doesn't overpower. Bakers prize it because it seasons a dish without shouting over it; in Sri Lankan kitchens it goes into savoury curries and rice as comfortably as into desserts.
Part of what you're paying for with Ceylon cinnamon is human skill. The outer bark is scraped away and the inner bark peeled off in wafer-thin strips by hand — a craft called cinnamon peeling that takes years to learn and has been passed down through Sri Lankan families for generations. The strips are layered and rolled into quills, then dried slowly. No machine does this well; there is no industrial shortcut. It's the reason true cinnamon costs more than cassia, and the reason it's worth it.
Go and look at the cinnamon sticks in your cupboard. One thick, hard curl? That's cassia. Many fine layers rolled together? That's the real thing — congratulations. Ground cinnamon is harder to judge by eye, which is exactly how cassia hides in plain sight; if the label doesn't say "Ceylon" or Cinnamomum verum, it's almost certainly cassia.
Every Quill & Clove quill is grown and hand-peeled in Sri Lanka and packed by our family near Colombo — layered, fragrant, and posted to you within weeks of peeling rather than after months in a container. Once you've tried it, the cupboard stuff never quite tastes the same again.