Cinnamon (Ceylon) vs Cassia
The short answer
Different species. Ceylon cinnamon is delicate, layered and low in coumarin; cassia is strong, hard-barked and the "cinnamon" sold in most of the world. If your quill is a single thick scroll, you have cassia.
Side by side
| Cinnamon (Ceylon) | Cassia | |
|---|---|---|
| Botanical identity | Cinnamomum verum J.Presl | Cinnamomum cassia (L.) J.Presl, Cinnamomum burmanni (Nees & T.Nees) Blume, Cinnamomum loureiroi Nees |
| Part used | bark | bark |
| Origin | Sri Lanka, where it grows natively and where commercial production is concentrated. | Southern China and mainland Southeast Asia, with Indonesian species native to the archipelago. |
| Flavour notes | sweet, floral, citrus, delicate, warm | strong, sweet-hot, astringent, bold, red-brown |
| Heat | Scoville does not apply | Scoville does not apply |
| Flavour | Sweet and mild with little astringency, and a lingering finish. It does not have the punchy, almost hot bite of cassia, which is exactly why it suits delicate applications and disappoints anyone expecting a cinnamon bun. | Assertive, sweet-hot and slightly astringent, with a bite at the back. This is the flavour most people in Britain and North America mean when they say "cinnamon". |
| Aroma | Delicate, sweet and complex, with citrus and floral lift over the familiar warm-sweet base. Where cassia announces itself, Ceylon cinnamon unfolds. | Strong, sweet and direct, with a spicy, almost hot edge and none of the citrus-floral complexity of Ceylon cinnamon. |
Can you swap them?
Substitution is directional: the answer is often different in each direction, and both are recorded.
Cassia
Good matchUse: 0.5–0.75× by volume — Use less cassia than the Ceylon cinnamon called for. Cassia is appreciably stronger and more astringent.
The dish becomes bolder, sweeter-hotter and slightly more astringent, and loses the citrus-floral lift that distinguishes Ceylon cinnamon. In most sweet baking this is not a loss — cassia is what most people expect cinnamon to taste like.
| Flavour | Aroma | Colour | Heat |
|---|---|---|---|
| close | close | close | n/a |
Works for
- Sweet baking of every kind
- Mulled drinks
- Braises and savoury slow cooking
- Anywhere the recipe simply says "cinnamon"
Does not work for
- Delicate custards, milk puddings and poached fruit, where cassia bullies everything else
- Mexican dishes specifying canela, where the delicacy is deliberate
- Diets where habitual heavy cinnamon consumption makes coumarin intake a consideration
Cuisine: A Mexican or Sri Lankan dish made with cassia is a different dish. Elsewhere, the swap is usually invisible.
Cinnamon (Ceylon)
AcceptableUse: 1.25–1.5× by volume — Use rather more Ceylon cinnamon than the cassia called for, to compensate for its lower intensity.
Gentler, more complex and less assertive. In a dish designed around a strong cinnamon hit, the result will read as underpowered even at the higher quantity.
| Flavour | Aroma | Colour | Heat |
|---|---|---|---|
| close | close | close | n/a |
Works for
- Delicate desserts
- Anywhere reducing coumarin intake matters
- Dishes where cinnamon is a supporting note
Does not work for
- Cinnamon rolls and similar bakes built around an assertive cinnamon flavour
- Long braises, where the delicate notes are cooked off anyway and the money is wasted
Which should you buy?
Cinnamon (Ceylon)
Buy quills if you want to know what you are getting. The layered structure of a Ceylon quill is visible and hard to fake, whereas ground "cinnamon" is routinely cassia and you cannot tell by looking. Ceylon quills are also brittle enough to grind at home, which is not true of cassia bark.
Cassia
Ground is the sensible default here, which is the opposite of the advice for most spices. Cassia bark is genuinely hard to grind at home and can damage a domestic grinder, and its aroma is robust enough that pre-ground cassia remains usable far longer than pre-ground cumin. Keep sticks for infusing braises and stocks.
Full detail on cinnamon (ceylon) and cassia, including evidence grades and sources for every claim above.
Questions this page answers
- cinnamon vs cassia
- ceylon cinnamon vs cassia
- true cinnamon vs cassia
- difference between cinnamon and cassia
- is my cinnamon cassia
- what kind of cinnamon do I have