13 December 2021

Join botanist Gunvor Larsson of the Bergius Botanic Garden who shows us the Garden's cinnamon tree.

Cinnamon is made of bark

Cinnamon trees belong to the family Lauraceae and is related to laurel and avocado. The spice cinnamon is made from the inner bark from the tree's branches. There are more than a hundred species of cinnamon and all have more or less aromatic bark.

True cinnamon, Cinnamomum verum, mainly grows in Sri Lanka and is considered to have the finest flavour. The Latin name verum can be translated to "the real one." True cinnamon is recognized by its thin bark.

Most spice jars at grocery stores contain Indonesian cinnamon, also known as cassia. It has a different flavour than true cinnamon. Indonesian cinnamon/cassia has a hard and thick bark, in one single layer.