Is Supermarket Cinnamon Real Cinnamon?

Here is a small experiment for your next grocery run. Pick up the jar of ground cinnamon in the spice aisle and read the ingredients. If it does not say “Ceylon cinnamon” or “Cinnamomum verum,” you are almost certainly holding cassia, a different spice that shares the name.

This is not a secret, and it is not a scandal. It is printed right on the label. Woolworths’ own products spell it out in the ingredient list as “Cinnamon (Cassia).” Cassia is cheaper to grow, bolder in flavour, and perfectly legal to sell as cinnamon in Australia. But it is not the spice that recipes from Sri Lanka, or your grandmother’s Ayurvedic remedies, were written for.

What the label tells you

Two different trees, one shelf label:

Cassia (Cinnamomum cassia) comes mostly from China and Indonesia. Dark reddish brown, thick, hard sticks, and a hot, punchy flavour. It carries significantly more coumarin, a natural compound worth limiting if you eat cinnamon every day. We wrote a full comparison with sources in Ceylon Cinnamon vs. Cassia.

Ceylon cinnamon (Cinnamomum verum, “true cinnamon”) comes from Sri Lanka. Tan brown, papery layers you can crumble by hand, and a delicate, sweet, layered flavour. Naturally low in coumarin, which is why it is the sensible choice for a daily cup.

The quick test in the aisle: no origin stated almost always means cassia. “Product of Sri Lanka” or “Cinnamomum verum” on the label means Ceylon cinnamon.

The freshness you cannot see on a shelf

Ground spice fades from the day it is milled, and a jar may have travelled through brokers, blenders, and warehouses before it reaches the shelf. That part of the supply chain is invisible to you, and honestly, to the supermarket too.

We can only tell you how ours works, because we grow it. Our powder is ground in small batches from quills harvested on our own estate, sealed, and shipped directly from Sri Lanka. When you open the bag, the aroma tells you the difference before your first taste.

Compare the price the honest way

Premium Ceylon cinnamon costs more than a basic jar of cassia, and anyone who tells you otherwise is selling something. The honest comparison is price per gram, the number in small print on every supermarket shelf tag.

Our bulk 850g sticks work out from about 9 cents per gram of estate-grown, hand-rolled true cinnamon. Next time you are in the aisle, check the per-100g price on a supermarket quill packet like this one at Woolworths and do the maths. Buying in bulk, direct from the grower, is how true cinnamon becomes an everyday spice instead of a luxury.

Where your dollars land

There is one more difference the label will not show. A cinnamon quill usually passes through several sets of hands before it reaches a Western shelf, and each one takes a margin. Buying direct changes that arithmetic: our orders fund fair wages, a free on-site clinic, and schooling for the children of the estate families who hand-roll every quill. Same grocery budget, different destination.

Cassia has its place. If you love a fiery cinnamon roll, it does the job. But if cinnamon is part of your daily routine, in your tea, your coffee, your morning oats, it is worth knowing exactly what is in the jar, where it grew, and who grew it.

Pro tip: whichever cinnamon you buy, store it airtight, away from heat and light. And if a stick snaps easily in your fingers with a sweet, gentle scent, that is Ceylon cinnamon.

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Sources: Woolworths product ingredient listings (Cinnamon (Cassia)) · Healthline: Ceylon cinnamon vs Cassia · our own Ceylon cinnamon vs Cassia guide with full references