Cinnamon is a widely known and consumed product globally due to the various significant positive health outcomes possessed. Which has made this product to be consumed dating more than 1000 years by our ancestors whereas till today we see a significant or rather consistent demand for this spice. So what makes this product so unique, special, and effective? To understand this we must first sequence back in time to Egypt and then to the Arab traders who popularized Cinnamon today globally.
Cinnamon in Egypt
When we talk about Cinnamon it is important to consider Egypt as it is one of the countries which derived cinnamon in large quantities giving birth to this product's popularity worldwide today. So how exactly did the Egyptians use Cinnamon? Egyptians consumed large quantities of Cinnamon as a part of their embalming process (mummification) as this spice agent contained anti-bacterial substances which the Egyptians understood this to be an important recipe to prevent decaying of the body. To what extent or how the Egyptians knew on the specialty of this spice product is still questionable even today due to the lack of resources (modern technology) to assist them. However, it is important to know that the Egyptians placed a great deal of value in the mummification process where they viewed it as a “crucial” and had many other expensive substances involved in the process. Cinnamon in Egypt was not only used for mummification rather it was also used for cooking and was also considered as a perfuming agent. This as a result caused the cinnamon demand to increase as the supply of this product was limited or rather kept as a secret.
Arab Traders
With the growing demand of Cinnamon, the Arab traders understood their potential this product has. Therefore, as a result of this, they tend to keep it as a secret to maintain the demand and touch newer markets such as the Western world (Europe). Popularizing Cinnamon to the Western world was not a difficult task for the Arab traders as the product was well prominent given the health benefits processed by it. Moving back to the Arab traders by popularizing Cinnamon further resulted in an increase in price for this product due to the limited supply as the traders were reluctant to give out the location of the product. The outcome of this resulted in a high price for this spice product were consuming this product was considered as a status symbol (a sign of wealth).
Cinnamon in Ceylon
Although the source of Cinnamon was kept as a secret to maintain the price. Like every secret, it eventually comes out. Where later people found the origin of Cinnamon which the Egyptians and the Europeans consumed was from a small island known as Ceylon (Sri Lanka). Sri Lanka showed promising weather and soil conditions which promoted the quality of this product to be grown here compared to the rest of the world. In addition to this Sri Lanka is widely popular with the contribution or the natural habitat the Island has. Due to these aspects, it was, without doubt, the best Cinnamon which was consumed by our Ancestors and even the Egyptians was from this Island (Sri Lanka).
In Conclusion
It is without a doubt that Cinnamon is a product with various immense health benefits which has made the product stand out compared to the other spice products. Where it is important to know that for the Cinnamon to provide you the maximum benefits the right cinnamon is to be consumed. And when we mean the right cinnamon we mean the best cinnamon with the right soil conditions and other aspects which promote for a healthy Cinnamon to derive the health benefits associated with it. To put this in simple terms Ceylon Cinnamon has shown promising resulted throughout generations proving that there is no substitute for this product which can be grown in other countries to match the same quality aspects provided where every Sri Lankan can be proudly said that the best Cinnamon is sourced from Lanka.