Most cinnamon is not cinnamon. The hard, dark-red dalchini sold in Indian markets is cassia. True cinnamon — Cinnamomum verum, native to Sri Lanka — is a different tree. The botanical name means true, and it was given because the confusion is old.
The three-second test
You don't need a laboratory. Look at the stick.
Ceylon
True cinnamon
- Under 0.1 mm thick
- Pale tan brown
- Brittle — shatters in the fingers
- A single spiral of fine layers
Cassia
Sold as dalchini
- Around 1.5 mm thick
- Dark reddish brown
- Hard — survives being dropped
- A double scroll, curled from both edges
Papery and single-curled, or woody and double-curled. That's the whole test.
The coumarin gap
Coumarin content, per Sri Lanka's Export Development Board.
Roughly 250 times more, by the same board's figures.
The same board notes that large amounts of cassia are considered unsuitable for prolonged consumption. We're a spice company, not a medical authority, so we'll report that and leave it there — ask a doctor if you have a specific concern.
They don't taste the same
Cassia is loud: pungent, hot, faintly bitter, and it dominates. Ceylon is delicate — sweet, citrus-bright, layered rather than hot.
So they aren't swappable by volume. Ceylon into a cassia recipe, use more. Cassia into a Ceylon recipe, use much less.
What Alba means
Ceylon is graded Alba, Continental, Mexican and Hamburg — finest to coarsest. Alba comes from the innermost bark of young shoots, cut to five-inch quills of five to nine millimetres, and fetches roughly twice the coarser grades.
It's peeled by hand in the Galle and Matara belt, where branches are soaked to soften the bark and the inner layer is lifted off in sheets by a peeler judging thickness against the bones of their own fingers. The craft has passed down through the Salagama and Hakuru communities for generations, and experienced peelers are becoming scarce.
If a seller can't name the grade, they aren't sorting for it.
Buying it
- Look for Cinnamomum verum or zeylanicum on the label — not cassia, and not a blank where the botanical name should be.
- Buy whole quills. Powder hides everything you'd otherwise check.
- Check the curl: a single fine spiral, not a double scroll.
- If the stick survives being dropped, it's cassia.
Questions
Is dalchini the same as cinnamon?
In Indian usage dalchini almost always means cassia. True Ceylon cinnamon is a different species, sold far less widely here.
Which is better?
Neither at everything. Cassia suits robust savoury cooking. Ceylon suits chai, milk desserts, and anywhere you want aroma rather than heat.
Does Ceylon cinnamon come from India?
No — Sri Lanka. It's the one spice in our catalogue that isn't Indian, and we say so on the pack.
VIROOT sells Alba grade Ceylon cinnamon from Galle and Matara. Read the full origin dossier in our Field Notes, or see every VIROOT origin mapped on Our Roots.