sca-cooks Greetings

[MaryGraceB@aol.com]

>This isn't quite so, in two dimensions.  First, while ceylon and cassia are
>not precisely the same, they are closely related (they are the only members
>of the genus Cinamomum, being Cinamomum cassia and Cinamomum zeylonica).
>And the bark of the two is not all that different.

There is also a third type of cinnamon  which is white cinnamon or
Cinamonium alba.  In appearance it is very similiar to zeylonica.
Zeylonica is much harder to find because for many years that was what was
harvested.  Now the cassia is the primary harvested cinnamon.  I was very
lucky to work for an incense maker for a while who had zeylonica in the old
gathered mode. (This was about 12 years ago) The cinnamon he gave me was at
least 15 years old, and smelled very strongly and was a very thick density
rather than the thin paper weight quills you get in cinnamon today. This
also gave me a clue that some spices do not loose strength with age.  The
zeylonica he had was not kept in very airtight or contained areas yet it
was strong and very pungent.

Clare R St John