‘Cinnamon is not original’
spices are important nutritional supplements and many foods become tasteless without spices. the european food, for example, was tasteless for thousands of years until they discovered the spices. they even fought wars to claim possession of these spices after they were the produce first traded in by arabs and the indians.
the prices of some of the spices at that time were close to the price of gold, and this prompted the portuguese and the spanish to go on long voyages in the fourteenth century in search of them and the portuguese arrived in malaga where king a l b u q u e r q u e clashed with the arab merchants and was able to occupy it in 1511 to become masters of spices in europe.
other colonial states entered the trade after the success of the portuguese and spanish envied them, but this was not possible without a revolution in the lowlands and belgium. england assisted them under the leadership of sir francis dirk, who in 1577 invaded the spanish colonies. this ignited the war between the two countries, and england settled the battle in its favor by destroying the myth of the armada.
after this victory, the english and the people of the lowlands attacked the countries of the east, which were under the control of spain and portugal and sovereignty of the english and the dutch. cinnamon is one of the oldest spices used by man and was part of the causes of europe’s spice war on the east. it is a spice known to man bc, and is obtained from the branches of the cinnamomum (cinnamomum is a genus of evergreen aromatic trees and shrubs belonging to the laurel family, lauraceae) trees and it is reported that its origin is from the caribbean, south america, and southeast asia, and was of great interest in ancient egypt, where doctors used it in the treatment of some cases.
cinnamon has a sweet aroma and is the second most popular spice in the united states and europe, after black pepper. cinnamon is divided into two types, chinese known as cassia, and ceylon cinnamon. there is confusion between the genuine sri lankan cinnamon and the chinese or vietnamese so-called cassia which is less useful.
ninety percent of the cinnamon served by prestigious cafes on your coffee, or the cinnamon that you buy to sprinkle on the ‘harissa’ in ramadan, is chinese cinnamon which is not original and of little use, and sometimes harmful to some.
differentiating between the two types is not difficult, the price of sri lankan is higher and consists of fragile fingers and easy to grind, and from inside it looks like a cigarette rolled in tobacco. chinese cinnamon is the only available in the market, difficult to grind, and from the inside looks like a semi-empty cylinder finger.
when grinding the chinese cinnamon, its color tends to blonde compared to sri lankan, which tends to brown, which is recommended. because of the large differences between the two types, price and interest and health effects, we ask consumer protection department in the ministry of commerce to address the dealers of cinnamon and international and the global mills on the need to identify the source of cinnamon, whether they are sold or packed in plastic bags without any information on them.
i searched for the original sri lankan cinnamon at coffee mills and spice sellers but i did not find it, but not everyone hesitated to claim that he has an authentic sri lankan, although, in fact, it was chinese.
