It’s one of those scents that is ingrained in our memories. Cinnamon rolls, cinnamon oatmeal, cinnamon cookies… Okay, so maybe not everyone else’s mom baked like mine, but you have to admit that cinnamon plays a major role in our culture. Can you imagine not smelling the spicy warm scent of cinnamon at least once sometime between Thanksgiving and Christmas? Well, I hate to break it to you, but you probably haven’t ever smelled cinnamon.
Wait, before you get all riled up and call me a liar, let me explain. What you call cinnamon and have always called cinnamon, isn’t cinnamon, it’s actually a spice called Cassia. It looks and smells a lot like cinnamon but it’s not cinnamon. Geez, talk about your false advertising. For nearly a century, the spice industry has been pulling a bait and switch. But they had good reason.
Way back in the early 1900s, a spade was a spade, a cinnamon was a cinnamon and a cassia was a cassia. Then true cinnamon got to be pretty darn fashionable in Europe and the cost to import it to the United States got to be too expensive. Cassia was used as a supplement and eventually just came to be known as cinnamon in the United States.
So what is the difference between cassia and cinnamon? Well, it’s kind of like the difference between satin and silk. Satin/cassia is nice but silk/cinnamon is oh so much better. True cinnamon is more aromatic though the flavor is a more delicate and complex. True cinnamon is truly a treat for the gourmand.