Pull out any household spice rack and you’ll find a container of cinnamon. This aromatic and subtly sweet spice has been used for centuries for its unique flavor and strong medicinal properties. Today it’s used in everything from tea to chocolate.
Cinnamon is a key ingredient in our spice blend for Mocha Chip and Apple Spice. To deliver a rich and powerful taste without artificial flavoring shortcuts, we needed high quality and super aromatic cinnamon. After many rounds of taste testing, we selected an organic cinnamon from Indonesia that enhanced both flavors and met our requirements for ethical farming. On our journey to select the perfect cinnamon, we were blown away by the massive differences in cultivation techniques and flavors in this one common household spice.
98% of the world’s cinnamon is natively grown in four countries - Indonesia, Sri Lanka, China and Vietnam. Cinnamon is the name for several species of tree that are harvested to make the spice. Cinnamon is found in the inner layer of bark that comes from the tree. During harvest, the bark is separated from the tree, cut and then dried until they curl into what we would commonly recognize as ‘cinnamon sticks’. From there, the ‘sticks’ are kept in whole form or ground into a powder.
There are two primary types of cinnamon, cassia and ceylon. Cassia comes from China and Indonesia and is the most common type of cinnamon known for its rich color and strong taste. Ceylon comes from Sri Lanka (formerly known as Ceylon) and is known for it’s subtle and delicate taste.
With both ceylon and cassia, taste and quality vary greatly depending on farming practices, post-production grading and product freshness. This became clear when we started testing different types of cinnamon for our breakfasts, the variability in taste was shocking.
After many many rounds of taste tests, we finally landed on organic Indonesian cassia cinnamon sourced from Tripper Cinnamon Suppliers. Tripper has worked hard to form close relationships with organic cinnamon farmers in the Kerinchi region of Indonesia over the last thirty years. These farmers follow organic farming best practices with cover crops, crop cycling, water conservation, soil free of pesticides and receive fair compensation for their products.
Tripper is a special company both for the quality of their products and the values they stand behind. We’re thrilled to have found Tripper and to be able to use the highest quality, ethically sourced organic cinnamon.
If you’d like to learn more about Tripper, the farmers and the cinnamon cultivation process, we encourage you to watch this short video.
