Cassia

• dalchiniदालचीनी

  Hindi

  Dalchini in South Asian shops is almost always cassia rather than Ceylon cinnamon, which is why recipes translated from Hindi rarely distinguish the two.

• rougui肉桂

  Mandarin

• kayu manis

  Indonesian

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".

Strong, sweet and direct, with a spicy, almost hot edge and none of the citrus-floral complexity of Ceylon cinnamon.

Deep red-brown to dark brown bark; the ground spice is a noticeably darker, redder brown than ground Ceylon cinnamon.

Hard, thick, single-layer scrolls that resist breaking and are difficult to grind in a domestic grinder.

• Cinnamaldehyde — Present at a higher proportion than in Ceylon cinnamon, giving the greater intensity.
• Coumarin — Present at substantially higher levels than in Ceylon cinnamon. Contributes a sweet hay-like note and is the basis of the intake guidance below.

Use sticks whole for infusion and retrieve them; buy ground for baking rather than attempting to grind the bark at home.

Cassia is the right choice wherever cinnamon needs to be the point: sweet baking, spiced biscuits, mulled drinks, and savoury braises in Chinese and Southeast Asian cooking. In delicate custards or poached fruit it can bully everything else off the plate, and Ceylon cinnamon serves better.

• grinding — Hard cassia bark is difficult to grind domestically and can damage a light spice grinder. Most cooks buy it ready-ground for this reason.
• baking — Holds its character well through baking, which is why it dominates in sweet baking where Ceylon cinnamon would be lost.
• boiling — Whole scrolls infuse steadily in braises and stocks and are easy to retrieve.

Smell a fresh break in the bark, or rub the ground spice warm in the palm. Cassia should be immediately and obviously sweet-spicy; if it is merely brown-smelling, replace it.

• Weak aroma at a fresh break
• Flat, dusty taste
• Caking

• Volatilisation of cinnamaldehyde from the ground spice
• Oxidation of the volatile fraction on air exposure
• Light-driven breakdown of the aroma compounds
• Moisture uptake and caking

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.

• A single thick, hard scroll of dark red-brown bark, rather than the layered papery quill of Ceylon cinnamon.
• Strong, immediate sweet-spicy aroma.
• A named origin — Vietnamese/Saigon, Indonesian/korintje, Chinese — since these differ appreciably in intensity.

Commercial grading turns on origin species, volatile oil content and cleanliness rather than on a consumer-facing scheme.

Lauraceae

Evergreen trees of the laurel family native to southern China, mainland Southeast Asia and Indonesia depending on species.

Southern China and mainland Southeast Asia, with Indonesian species native to the archipelago.

• Indonesia — major producer. The largest source of cassia in world trade, chiefly korintje.
• China (Guangxi and Guangdong) — origin
• Vietnam — major producer. Saigon cassia, generally the highest in volatile oil and the most assertive.

Bark is stripped in sections and dried, curling into thick single-layer scrolls.

1. Bark stripping — Bark is cut and prised from trunk and branches in broad sections.
2. Drying — Sections dry and curl into thick, hard, single-layer scrolls.Why: Produces the characteristic cassia quill, structurally quite different from a compound Ceylon quill.
3. Cutting and grading — Dried bark is cut to length and graded on thickness, appearance and volatile oil content.

Graded chiefly on species/origin, volatile oil content and cleanliness. Vietnamese material typically tests highest for volatile oil.

The principal integrity issue runs the other way from most spices: cassia is not usually adulterated so much as it is sold under a name — "cinnamon" — that consumers reasonably take to mean a different species. In many jurisdictions this is entirely lawful.

Grown as trees and harvested by stripping bark from trunks and branches, typically after several years of growth rather than on the short coppice cycle used for Ceylon cinnamon.

Warm, humid subtropical to tropical conditions.

Cassia has been traded from China and Southeast Asia since antiquity and appears alongside cinnamon in classical sources, though which botanical species those sources meant is not securely established. In the modern era it has become the dominant commercial "cinnamon" by volume in most Western markets.

Cassia now accounts for the large majority of bark sold as cinnamon worldwide, driven by lower production cost and a flavour profile better suited to industrial baking.

Rou gui has a long-established role in traditional Chinese medicine. Recorded as tradition, not as a health claim.