History of Ceylon Cinnamon

Over 4000 years ago, in the ancient world, there was a mystic spice which governed the whole world. It had amazing healing properties, a magical fragrance, awe-inspiring flavor as well as unmatched preservative qualities. Owing to all these mystical properties presented in a single plant, it was considered more valuable than gold or ivory! Regarded as a highly divine substance, it possessed a place in religious rituals, and in fine gifts for monarchs.

Over millennia, the trading of this exorbitantly priced spice called “Cinnamon” was exclusively in the hands of Arabs. They enchanted the whole Europe including the Roman Empire with the magical properties of Cinnamon. It was traded as a fragrance, a powerful medicine, an aromatic condiment to flavor their finest dishes and beverages. The Egyptians used it in the embalming process of the dead bodies.

To keep the monopoly of this highly lucrative trade, the Arabs mystified the origin of Cinnamon with various mythical stories. It was a well kept secret that this spice was coming from a tiny island in the Indian Ocean, which they called “Serendib”, the native land where this fortune commodity was grown.

With time, the demand for this spice magnified in Europe, hence the European spice traders were in incessant search of the origin of this spice. The story begins when Portuguese merchant ships set on the ocean on a quest to uncover the mystery of the destination where True Cinnamon came from. In 1505 they discovered this secret destination, a small island which they started calling “Ceylon”, where the True cinnamon, the species of Cinnamon Zeylanica, world's finest cinnamon came from.

For centuries Portuguese dominated the world's spice market making a fortune with trading Ceylon Cinnamon to the world. In 17th century, the Dutch seized the world's largest cinnamon supplier, the island of Ceylon from the Portuguese, and built their monopoly over another century, until the British took control of the island from the Dutch in 1796.