Excellent flavor, somewhat difficult to use but absolutely worth it
tl;dr: This isn’t regular cinnamon and needs to be prepared properly to get the full flavor out of it, but it is so good I think it’s worth it. An alcohol extract was the easiest form to use, but if you grind it up you will need to use more powder to get the full flavor you want. Roasting intensifies the flavor. The sticks store well. I would highly recommend trying this out. Ceylon cinnamon is not as strong as other varieties that are more commonly used, and at first I struggled figuring out how to best use this form. I ended up finding a few really, really good methods and just ordered a second bag because Ceylon is definitely unique. When you’re buying 1lb, it seems like a lot, and it will last a while with infrequent use, but you need to use considerably more Ceylon cinnamon in a recipe than you would for a stronger variety like Cassia or Saigon, which are more common. You might also want to lightly roast this variety to intensify the flavor- when ground up, just throw the powder in a pan without any oil on low heat and agitate until fragrant. You can also roast whole sticks in the oven. The best method I found was to place several sticks in a bottle of high-proof liquor. I used an expensive whiskey, which was heavenly, but everclear or vodka would work very well if you want to isolate the cinnamon flavor. I slowly used it as an extract over months and noticed with only three sticks in a fifth of liquor that the flavor gradually intensified and was quite strong by the bottom of the bottle. It definitely needed a few months before the extraction was especially potent, but I could clearly taste the cinnamon about a week in. I’m absolutely prepping a few bottles for the future, and will use more sticks to get a more intense flavor. As a bonus, the sticks I steeped in whiskey retained a weaker cinnamon flavor, but also took on the flavors from the whiskey, which turned out to be delicious and when combined with unsteeped sticks that created a very unique cinnamon I love to use. If you don’t want to wait, though, I found that a pressure cooker made quick work of the whole sticks and produced a very strong cinnamon tea after about 15 minutes under pressure. If boiling on a stove, it will take much longer to get the same result- I let it simmer on low for three hours once and that also produced a very strong tea. Grinding into a powder and roasting was also well worth it, and you can do it in advance, but the flavor is strongest when done fresh so I ended up doing this only when I needed to use it. The sticks store fairly well in a dry, cool environment, so if you don’t plan on using it soon I would recommend keeping them in stick form for best results. The flavor itself is kind of spicy when concentrated, and it definitely has a slight kick, but it’s also very floral and not overpowering at all. The first time I made a tea, it made my house smell strongly like cinnamon, and the tea itself made me pause for a moment while I processed how different yet familiar the cinnamon flavor was. It works really well with other spices, especially orange zest, star anise, and vanilla. The oak notes from the whiskey extract complemented it perfectly and there will never be any substitute for that combination. If you want real, OG cinnamon, this is it. Read more
