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00:01 This cinnamon was once as valuable as gold.
00:06 It's known as Ceylon cinnamon, or true cinnamon,
00:10 and it's healthier and sweeter than other kinds.
00:13 Sri Lanka produces 90% of the world's supply,
00:18 but true cinnamon is up against a powerful rival,
00:23 a lower-quality kind called khasia.
00:28 It can be unhealthy in large amounts,
00:30 but it's up to 10 times cheaper,
00:33 so it dominates the global market.
00:38 The problem is khasia and ceylon
00:41 look nearly identical in powder form,
00:44 and loose labeling laws make it easy
00:47 for brands to mix in cheap khasia
00:49 with the more expensive stuff or replace it completely.
00:53 So why is this Sri Lankan spice
00:57 considered to be the best cinnamon in the world?
01:00 And how do you know it's actually what's in your spice rack?
01:03 Suneth harvests cinnamon for Rathna,
01:11 one of Sri Lanka's largest producers.
01:14 He starts working in the fields before sunrise,
01:17 so he can harvest the spice while there's moisture in the air.
01:20 Ceylon comes from the inner bark of cinnamon tree branches.
01:26 They have to be cut at an inward angle.
01:29 If Suneth cuts carefully,
01:31 he can harvest each tree for half a century.
01:34 After about four hours of cutting,
01:50 he hauls the last batch of branches
01:52 back to the estate's main building.
01:54 Each bundle of branches is soaked in a water tank
01:58 for at least 15 minutes.
02:00 This will make the bark easier to peel off.
02:02 Suneth's work has just begun.
02:07 Until at least 10 p.m.,
02:09 he works with a team of peelers like Saman
02:12 to scrape each branch one by one.
02:16 It exposes a softer inner bark.
02:18 This is the actual cinnamon.
02:22 (speaking in foreign language)
02:26 Brass rods smooth the surface
02:37 and loosen the cinnamon from the hard wood.
02:40 Then, with surgical precision,
02:44 they carve and slice the bark into thin strips
02:47 known as quills.
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02:52 The quills are so thin
02:53 that they immediately curl up as they dry.
02:56 Small pieces of inner bark called quillings prevent rips.
03:01 (upbeat music)
03:04 Saman gets paid by the weight.
03:06 (speaking in foreign language)
03:10 (upbeat music)
03:12 The quills typically need to dry for a week.
03:35 Then, they're sent off to the factory to be processed.
03:39 (upbeat music)
03:42 15 minutes down the road,
03:43 sorters determine the value of each quill.
03:46 The thinner the quill, the more expensive it is.
03:51 Just like meat, cinnamon gets a grade.
03:56 Rathenau uses eight in total, all based on diameter.
04:00 The highest quality, known as alba,
04:03 is as thin as a pencil.
04:05 It's twice as valuable as H2FAQ,
04:08 the lowest grade.
04:10 Only one in about 25 quills gets the alba grade.
04:14 Sorters like Violet grade thousands of quills a day,
04:19 and she can grade each one in a few seconds.
04:22 (speaking in foreign language)
04:26 Once the quills are sorted,
04:34 they cut them into different lengths
04:36 and package them up for shipping.
04:38 The long cuts are packaged in bulk to be sold wholesale.
04:42 Shorter three-inch sticks go to grocery stores.
04:45 But for much of human history,
04:47 a sack of this cinnamon would have been worth a fortune.
04:50 The spice was traded across the ancient world
04:54 since at least 2000 BC.
04:57 Merchants peddled legends that the sweet-smelling bark
05:00 came from the nest of a mythical bird.
05:03 At one point, cinnamon was more valuable than gold.
05:08 By the 13th century, Sri Lanka had begun exporting the spice
05:11 directly to Egypt,
05:13 and Arab traders brought it to medieval Europe.
05:16 Ceylon cinnamon was so sought after,
05:18 it became a status symbol for the rich.
05:21 Soon, European countries wanted to profit
05:24 off the trade themselves.
05:25 For more than 300 years,
05:27 the Portuguese, Dutch, and British fought over the island
05:30 in control of its valuable exports.
05:33 The country declared independence
05:35 and regained control of its cinnamon lands in 1948.
05:39 But by then, a cheaper alternative, kasya,
05:42 had already begun to dominate the market.
05:45 Kasya comes from a totally different tree,
05:47 which grows taller and has thicker bark.
05:51 Most of it is produced on farms in East or Southeast Asia,
05:55 like this one in Indonesia.
05:57 The country has roughly twice the amount
05:59 of cinnamon plantations as Sri Lanka.
06:02 Producers can harvest entire trees at one time.
06:06 The process requires fewer workers
06:08 and makes it easier to produce in bulk.
06:11 Kasya farmers can harvest 10 times the amount
06:14 of cinnamon per acre than Ceylon farmers.
06:18 But kasya could pack hidden health risks.
06:21 Ceylon cinnamon boosts the immune system,
06:25 lowers blood pressure, and stabilizes blood sugar.
06:29 Kasya has health benefits, too.
06:32 But it contains high levels of a compound called coumarin,
06:36 which can cause liver damage if consumed in high doses.
06:40 Kasya can have 250 times more of it than Ceylon,
06:44 but you'd have to eat roughly a teaspoon of kasya a day
06:47 for weeks to put yourself at risk.
06:49 Countries like Germany have rules
06:53 to limit coumarin in foods.
06:55 The US doesn't regulate the amount of coumarin in cinnamon.
07:01 So how do you spot the difference in the spice aisle?
07:05 It's easier when you're buying cinnamon sticks.
07:08 Ceylon quills have more of a brown hue.
07:10 If they look red, there's a good chance
07:13 you're eating kasya.
07:14 Kasya sticks are also thicker.
07:17 They're usually half an inch and hard to break.
07:20 Meanwhile, ceylon can be as fragile as cigar paper.
07:24 Taste can be another giveaway.
07:27 Kasya usually has a strong and spicy flavor.
07:31 Ceylon is sweeter and milder.
07:33 But powdered cinnamon is harder to verify.
07:37 Some fraudsters have been caught
07:39 mixing powdered kasya with ceylon,
07:42 but marketing it as pure ceylon.
07:45 One study found that over half of the products
07:47 in European and US grocery stores
07:50 contained mixed cinnamon.
07:52 Once it's mixed with ceylon, cinnamon, and kasya,
07:55 it's hard to detect what is there.
07:57 Only the coumarin content help the people to know this one,
08:01 but the consumers, they are far away
08:04 from that kind of test.
08:06 But she says no one in the US or the EU is stopping this.
08:10 In the US, it's estimated that the FDA
08:13 only physically inspects 1% to 2% of imported foods,
08:18 like spices.
08:19 The regulatory authorities, they are kind of
08:22 in a deep, in a silence in this adulteration.
08:25 Even their health consequences,
08:27 they are not taking any action.
08:29 So how is Sri Lanka supposed to compete
08:33 in an industry filled with fraud?
08:35 In 2022, it scored a major win.
08:40 The European Union granted a coveted
08:42 geographical indication tag to Ceylon cinnamon.
08:46 That means any spice bottle labeled Ceylon in the EU
08:49 has to come from Sri Lanka.
08:51 It's like how real champagne can only come
08:54 from one region of France.
08:55 The tag could reduce competition,
08:58 increase Ceylon's value, and boost sales.
09:02 But it only goes so far.
09:04 In both the EU and US, brands don't have to add the tag
09:08 or indicate what type of cinnamon they're selling.
09:11 So it's hard for customers to know what they're eating.
09:15 Da Silva says adding the botanical or species name
09:18 of Ceylon on the ingredients list
09:20 will help inform customers.
09:22 So the consumer knows that cinnamon comes
09:24 from which area of the Sri Lanka even,
09:28 and then who did the processing,
09:29 which conditions they use.
09:31 She hopes this will help Sri Lanka's thousands
09:34 of producers earn more for their salon.
09:37 It's a culture.
09:39 How many people depend on this industry?
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