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True · Pure · Ceylon
The world's finest cinnamon grows here
Sri Lanka grows the only true cinnamon in the world. We buy it straight from the gardens that peel it by hand, grade it ourselves, and pack it in small batches — thin, pale bark that is sweet rather than hot.
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What it is, what it tastes like, and what to do with it. The same bark in all five, handled five different ways.
Whole quills of inner bark, peeled by hand and rolled while still damp, then shade-dried for four days. Alba is the thinnest grade Sri Lanka produces at six millimetres or under. Hold one up and you can see the layers; squeeze it and it collapses into papery curls.
Stone-ground from C5 quills in small runs, the same week your order ships. We hold bark rather than powder for exactly this reason: ground cinnamon starts losing its volatile oil to the air immediately, which is why most supermarket powder smells of so little.
Distilled from leaf and bark in small batches and bottled in amber glass with a dropper cap. Fifteen millilitres goes a very long way. This is a concentrated material, not a cosmetic — always dilute it, and keep it away from eyes and children.
Twenty-five bags of cut bark, sealed individually so the last one tastes like the first. Nothing added — no black tea, no flavouring, no sweetener. Three to four minutes in just-boiled water, and most people find they stop reaching for sugar after the first week.
Cold-process soap made with coconut oil and shea butter, with our own bark powder folded through it for a light exfoliating grain. Cured four weeks so the bar is hard and lasts in the dish. No palm oil, no synthetic fragrance, no dye.
Most spices grow in a dozen countries. This one effectively grows in one. For five hundred years that fact has made a small island on the Indian Ocean worth sailing halfway around the world for — and it is the reason the bark in your kitchen can carry a protected name.
Close to ninety per cent of the world’s true cinnamon is grown on this island. Nearly everything else sold under the name is a different bark from somewhere else entirely.
On the second of February 2022, “Ceylon Cinnamon” became a Protected Geographical Indication in the European Union — the island’s first. The name is held in trust for the country by Sri Lanka’s Export Development Board.
The Portuguese reached these coasts in 1505. The Dutch East India Company seized the cinnamon lands in 1658 and ran the trade as a monopoly. The British took the island in 1796. Three empires came, in part, for one bark.
The United States and Mexico are the largest markets for it today, with Spain, Colombia, Peru and Ecuador close behind. It leaves the island in sacks and arrives on tables everywhere.
And it is still cut, scraped and rolled by hand, because no machine has been built that can lift bark this thin without tearing it.
That is the whole reason a thin quill costs what it does — and why we buy from the gardens that still know how.
Production and designation figures · Sri Lanka Export Development Board
Both are sold as “cinnamon” in most of the world, but they are different species and they behave differently in the pan. Here is how to tell them apart.
The quickest test at home: try to snap the stick. A true Ceylon quill crumbles between your fingers into fine layers, like a rolled cigar made of paper. Cassia is a single hard tube that resists — you will need a knife or a mortar. If your cinnamon survives being squeezed, it is cassia.
Ceylon cinnamon is sorted by the diameter of the rolled quill, not by where it was grown. Thinner bark is more delicate and harder to produce, which is what you are paying for.
Our retail sticks are Alba. The powder is ground from C5 or better. Wholesale is available in every grade above.
New Arrivals
Five steps, and we are involved in all of them. This is the part most spice brands leave to a broker.
Smallholder gardens in the wet zone south of Colombo, where high rainfall and sandy soil give the thinnest bark. No synthetic pesticide or fertiliser.
Shoots are cut, the outer bark scraped away and the inner bark lifted off in sheets with a brass knife. It is skilled work and it cannot be done by machine.
Sheets are telescoped into quills, filled with offcuts and dried in the shade for four to five days. Shade, not sun — direct heat drives off the oil that matters.
Every sack is opened and sorted by quill diameter against the Sri Lanka export standard, then sampled for oil content and moisture before it is accepted.
Whole bark is stored, not powder. We mill and pack the week your order ships, seal it in foil-lined pouches and label it with the garden, grade and harvest month.
Ceylon cinnamon is milder than cassia, so you can be generous with it. A rough rule: use about half again as much as a recipe written for supermarket cinnamon asks for.
Drop two whole quills into the oil at the start of a curry, a biryani or a beef stew and leave them in. They perfume the whole pot and soften as it cooks, so there is nothing to fish out.
Use the powder, and add it to the dry ingredients rather than the wet so it disperses evenly. One and a half teaspoons where a recipe says one. It will not turn bitter the way cassia can at high heat.
Half a quill in the coffee pot, or one bag of the tea in just-boiled water for three to four minutes. Both are sweet enough that most people stop adding sugar after a week or two.
Three or four drops of the essential oil in a diffuser, or a few in the water when you mop. Never neat on skin — it is strong enough to irritate. For the bath, use the soap instead.
Snap one quill into a pot with three bruised cardamom pods and 500 ml of water. Simmer gently for eight minutes, never boil hard. Take it off, add a strip of orange peel, cover and leave five minutes. Strain. Milk and honey optional, sugar unnecessary.
Toast a teaspoon of the powder in a dry pan for thirty seconds until it smells sweet. Mix through 100 g of fresh grated coconut with a chopped shallot, lime juice, chilli flakes and salt. Eat with rice and curry, or on toast with butter. Takes four minutes.
Three things customers mention most when they come back for a second order.
100% Organic
No chemicals in the garden and none in the mill. Certified organic bark from smallholders we have bought from for years.
Premium Quality
Every sack is graded by hand before it is weighed. If it is not good enough for our own kitchen, it does not ship.
Delivered Anywhere
Two to three days islandwide, six to ten days abroad, tracked from our warehouse door to yours.
We grade by hand and then check the work with a lab, because “trust us” is not good enough when the product is a brown stick. Every batch is sampled before it is packed, and every consignment carries its paperwork.
Retail packs are labelled with the garden, the grade and the harvest month. If you want the lab report for the batch in your cupboard, email us the lot code on the back of the pouch and we will send it.
Request a Lab ReportFROM OUR CUSTOMERS
Kind Words
If yours is not here, write to us and a person will answer, usually the same day.
What makes Ceylon cinnamon different from the cinnamon in my supermarket?
Almost all supermarket cinnamon is cassia, a different species with thick dark bark, a harsh hot flavour and high coumarin. True cinnamon — Cinnamomum verum — grows commercially only in Sri Lanka. The bark is thin and pale, rolls into brittle quills you can snap with your fingers, and tastes sweet and floral rather than fiery.
What does the grade mean, and which should I buy?
Grades describe the diameter of the rolled quill, not the quality of the farming. Alba is the thinnest at six millimetres or under and the most delicate; C5 Special and C5 are slightly thicker and taste almost identical once cooked. For everyday cooking, C5 Special is the sensible buy. For a cheese board, mulled wine or a gift, Alba is worth the difference.
How long does it keep, and how should I store it?
Whole quills hold their character for two to three years in a sealed jar away from light and heat. Powder is best inside twelve months — it does not spoil after that, it simply fades. Keep both out of the fridge; condensation is the enemy. Do not decant into a clear jar on a sunny shelf.
Is it really milled to order?
Yes. We hold whole bark, not powder. Orders placed early in the week are milled and packed the same week they ship. It is the single biggest reason our powder smells stronger than what you are used to: ground cinnamon loses its volatile oil to the air from the moment it leaves the mill.
What about coumarin? I have read warnings about cinnamon.
Those warnings are about cassia, which contains coumarin at levels that can matter if you eat a lot of it daily. True Ceylon cinnamon contains only trace amounts, which is why it is the variety usually recommended where cinnamon is eaten regularly. We are not able to give medical advice, so if you are managing a health condition please ask your doctor rather than us.
Is your cinnamon organic and certified?
The gardens we buy from grow without synthetic pesticide or fertiliser, and our Alba and C5 Special lines are available with organic certification on request. Every consignment ships with a certificate of origin, and wholesale orders include a phytosanitary certificate and lab report as standard.
Can I use the essential oil on my skin?
Not undiluted. Cinnamon oil is strong and will irritate skin neat. It is intended for diffusers, for soap and candle making, and for blending into a carrier oil at well under one percent. Keep it away from eyes and out of reach of children.
Do you ship internationally, and will customs be a problem?
We ship worldwide by tracked airmail from Colombo. Dried spice is accepted into most countries, and we include the paperwork customs normally wants. A few destinations restrict plant products, so if you are unsure about yours, ask us before ordering. Any duty or import tax is the buyer’s responsibility.
Can I buy in bulk for a cafe, bakery or shop?
Yes. Wholesale starts at twenty-five kilos for Alba, powder and cut-and-sifted, and fifty kilos for the C5 grades. Tell us the grade, the volume and the destination and we will come back with a firm price, a sample offer and lead times, usually within one working day.
What if I do not like it?
Tell us within fourteen days and we will refund the order. Unopened packs can come back; opened ones do not need to. We would rather know what disappointed you than keep the money.
Everything leaves our Colombo warehouse sealed in foil-lined pouches inside unbleached paper, with the grade and harvest month on the label.
Rest of the island: 2–3 working days.
Flat LKR 400, free over LKR 5,000.
Cash on delivery available.
UK, EU, Australia: 7–10 days.
North America: 8–12 days.
Tracked airmail, calculated at checkout.
Local bank transfer.
Cash on delivery islandwide.
Wholesale accounts on 30-day terms.
THE SERENDIB LETTER
Harvest Notes in Your Inbox
When a new harvest comes in, which grades we have, and the occasional recipe worth making. One letter a month and nothing else.
One Spice, One Island, Done Properly
Serendib Organics works with one spice and tries to do it properly. Our cinnamon comes from smallholder gardens in the wet zone south of Colombo, where the bark has been peeled by hand for generations — thin, pale, and sweet rather than hot.
We buy direct, grade it ourselves, and pack in small batches so nothing sits in a warehouse losing its oil. Every order leaves the island sealed and labelled with its garden and its harvest month.
That is the whole business. No blends, no fillers, no cassia quietly mixed in to stretch the weight.
True Ceylon cinnamon, hand-peeled in the wet zone of Sri Lanka. Bought direct, graded by hand, milled to order and shipped worldwide from Colombo.
9:00 AM – 6:00 PM, Sri Lanka time
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