SRI LANKA HOLIDAYS: CEYLON CINNAMON

SRI LANKA HOLIDAYS: CEYLON CINNAMON bunpeiris

Tour the beautiful island of Sri Lanka with My Sri Lanka Holidays.

Are you sure what you have in your hand is Ceylon Cinnamon from Sri Lanka? The botanical name Cinnamomum zeylanicum is derived from Sri Lanka’s name during 1815-1972, Ceylon.

The finest cinnamon is Ceylon cinnamon from Sri Lanka. Indonesian cinnamon too of similar taste yet with inferior quality & in larger quills. Much of what is sold as cinnamon is not really true Sri Lankan or southern Indian cinnamon, but rather Chinese cassia cinnamon, which is native to that country. That’s not the Right Stuff. In Sri Lanka we reveal the Right Stuff for you to revel.

Cinnamon Rice Pudding by GIGI, Pasadena, California, United States

“Its cinnamon is the best in the world”

Captain Joao Ribeiro in his book on Sri Lanka titled
“The Historic Tragedy of the island of Ceilao”
Lisbon, 8^th January 1685 dedicated to His Most Serene Majesty Dom Pedro The Second

• 1 heaping cup of arborio rice.
• Cinnamon stick
• 1 vanilla bean, split and scraped
• 32 ounces of skim milk (yes, skim)
• 1 cup of heavy cream
• ½ cup of sugar
• 1 teaspoon of cinnamon

Sri Lanka’s recorded unbroken civilization runs back to 543 BC. Tthougout the period of 16th-18th centuries, cinnamon was the Holy Grail of Portuguese, & Dutch invaders. Such was the value of Ceylon cinnamon, it became the main article of trade for Dutch East India Company whose main seaports were Colombo & Galle. VOC Galle Dutch Fort of Sri Lanka is the best preserved colonial sea fortress in the whole of Asia.

“The Helen or the Bride in Conteft of this isle is the fineset & purest Cinnamon, which growing only in this island”
Philip Baldaeu: A Description of the Great & Most Famous isle of Ceylon 1671, Amsterdam

Place the rice, cinnamon stick, vanilla seeds, vanilla bean, skim milk, heavy cream, and sugar in a 2-quart saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium-low heat, stirring often. Next, reduce the heat to low and simmer for 25-30 minutes. Discard the vanilla bean and cinnamon stick. Stir in the 1 teaspoon of cinnamon. Divide the pudding into (4-6) ramekins. You can serve it warm if you’re like me or wrap them up tightly and enjoy when cooled.

Well, that’s how rice pudding is cooked in America. In Sri Lanka, you can even steam cook rice pudding on a cone-cupped leaf of a plant called ‘Kanda” by means of a dressed up bamboo steamer set on a clay pot. Moreover, “Pudding spice" which is a compound of nutmeg, clove, cardamom, mace and all spice would serve the purpose much better.

All this stuff are well produced & marketed in Colombo, Sri Lanka. You can buy all these spices in Spice Gardens in the Royal city of Kandy, the gateway to Central Highlands of Sri Lanka

Cinnamon quills
Cinnamon quills are inner bark of a tropical evergreen tree, harvested during the rainy season when pliable and then dried into curls sold as sticks or ground into a powder. With its warm, sweet flavor, cinnamon is a vital ingredient in flavoring baked goods, in cooking stews and & making sauces

Cinnamon Jungles
Captain Joao Ribeiro in his book on Sri Lanka titled
“The Historic Tragedy of the island of Ceilao” narrates of Cinnamon jungles of Ceylon (Sri Lanka)

…these are so dense that a man cannot walk through them a stone’s throw. In shape the leaves of the cinnamon resemble those of the plantane in that they have three ribs, & in texture the laurel; when crushed between the fingers their smell is as of the best cloves of Rochella. The trees are not very tall, for they do not exceed two bracas at the most;& as there is rain here daily they do not shed their leaves,& most of them bear two crops of fruit, which is similar to the laural berry, in the year. When this falls on the ground, it immediately starts growing in consequence of the heat & moisture; & it is for this reason that the inhabitants have a law that they should clear their roads frequently; unless they do so, they would be all thick forest in one year

First cultivation of cinnamon
In the year 1770, Dutch East India Company continued to overhaul the methods of harvesting in the wild, and eventually began to cultivate its own trees.

Cinnamon Today
Today Sri Lanka is a major exporter of cinnamon. According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, Sri Lanka exported 11,068 metric tons of cinnamon in 2003, comprising most of the world production of true cinnamon.

In Westen & Southwestern coast belt –finest beaches of the world
Sri Lanka's cinnamon groves lie exclusively in its western and southwestern regions, north and south of the country's commercial capital, Colombo. The tropical sunshine and abundant rain of these areas provide an ideal habitat, but even here the quality of the spice varies with soil conditions.

The best of the best Ceylon cinnamon today
The sweetest, most prized variety grows in the "silver sand" coastal belt of the Negombo, close to the one & only International airport (CMB) of the Island. The immediate environs of Colombo itself once comprised large spice plantations - even today its prime residential quarter is known as Cinnamon Gardens.

Government support now
Well-tended trees free of diseases such as leaf blight and white root yield about 100 kilograms of cured bark per acre. Cinnamon trees have a productive life span of about 40-50 years after which they have to be replanted, for which cinnamon growers receive generous subsidies from Department of Minor Export Crops, Matale, Sri Lanka. Matale is located close to cultural heartland of the island, Kandy.