Cinnamon powder

A legendary spice ! Cinnamon is initially from Ceylon, but in Ancient times its origins were the source of many a legend. The Egyptians, who used it for embalming, believed that it grew according to secret rites in a far-off mysterious land. To get to the bottom of this mystery, Queen Hatshepsut commanded an expedition to the Land of Punt, "Land of the God", now Ethiopia, and thus opened up the spice route. The Romans' infatuation with Indian luxury goods such as pepper, cinnamon, ginger, pearls and ivory, merged on madness. From the Renaissance onwards, the Portuguese, the English and the Dutch fought fiercely to control the monopoly of these spices that they sent all around the world. Cinnamon is the bark of the cinnamon tree, Cinnanomum zeylanicum . Harvesting cinnamon requires great expertise as the trees can reach up to 10m high. The new branches are cut and the outer bark is removed. Then the fine inner bark is cut and carefully removed, then scored and scratched by hand and dried.