What do you know about Cinnamon?

[Lady TS]

It has recently been brought to my attention that not all cinnamon is equal. I guess I had figured that cinnamon is cinnamon and it's grown all over the place but it all had similar health benefits (immune boosting, helping regulate blood sugar, lower cholesterol, anti-clotting effects).

Not so, I suppose. I just read this morning that Cassia type of cinnamon can actually have toxic effects if you take too much of it and it might not have the good qualities I thought it had.

Now, I don't take or give Cinnamon medicinally, but I am interested in having the "good kind" that has the most health benefits.

This is something I want to learn more about, but can anyone give me the Cliff's Notes on the different varieties and what the best kind is(assuming our spice bottles/labels aren't lying to us ).

I have Simply Organic Cinnamon from Frontier(Cinnamomum burmannii or Cinnamomum loureirii) or Frontier cinnamon from the HFS (not sure of the type)

[mamacat]

First I have hard that it would take massive amounts of the "bad" kind to caue ill effects.That said the "good" kind is also called Ceylon and we bought some in bulk from a natural foods store

[Katigre]

You can buy ceylon cinnamon from www.penzeys.com or www.thespicehouse.com - both have excellent quality. I have some cinnamon from penzey's right now that is likely cassia (it's titled 'Tung Hing' cinnamon that I love on different foods in place of sweeteners - the flavor is amazing. I'll get Ceylon the next time I'm there though.

Seriously, once you are used to fragrant, fresher spices from places like the above (their stores are so much fun to visit and the prices are ) then you'll pretty much ignore the so-called 'spices' sold in stores that have much less flavor and are plain OLD.

[Psyche]

I heart Penzy!

[mamacat]

The Ceylon kind is yummy and sweeter and more concentrated - the other kind tastes wierd to me now - more bitter or something?

[Lady TS]

So...would ya'll consider Frontier's cinnamon to be inferior (talking Ceylon if they have it ) to the "spice house" ones? The Simply Organic(from Frontier) are jarred, but the Frontier from the hfs is bagged in foil bags and they stock as needed.

No spice house near here that I am aware of, though I'd love to visit one. Our hfs has that "smell" to it b/c of all the herbs and spices they stock.

[Katigre]

Originally Posted by Lady TS

So...would ya'll consider Frontier's cinnamon to be inferior (talking Ceylon if they have it ) to the "spice house" ones? The Simply Organic(from Frontier) are jarred, but the Frontier from the hfs is bagged in foil bags and they stock as needed.

No spice house near here that I am aware of, though I'd love to visit one. Our hfs has that "smell" to it b/c of all the herbs and spices they stock.

Yes, I absolutely would consider Penzeys/Spice House far superior. Frontier doesn't specialize in spices specifically, they focus on offering a wide array of products. Does Frontier have direct contact with the spice growers or do they go through a middle man(men) for their spices? The Spice House (for example) has almost daily shipments of various spices and contracts with growers directly world-wide. Their entire business is spices, nothing but spices, and they are smaller and family-owned (Penzeys and Spice House are owned by different family members and are different companies, but are related in terms of how they function in procuring and selling spices. I have found their quality to be comparable). With P/TSH there is no long period of sitting in a warehouse where the flavors dissipate.