Walk into a grocery store in Philadelphia, Denver, or Austin and pick up a jar labeled “cinnamon.” In nearly every case, what you are holding is Cinnamomum cassia — a bark with a sharper bite and up to 250 times more coumarin than its Sri Lankan counterpart. The label does not tell you this. The FDA does not require it.
True cinnamon — Cinnamomum verum — is a different species entirely. It grows primarily in Sri Lanka’s southern wet zone, where it has been cultivated for centuries. Its bark is thinner, its flavor is more delicate, and its coumarin content is a fraction of cassia’s. Yet it accounts for roughly 36.7% of the global cinnamon market, while cassia dominates supermarket shelves because it is cheaper to produce and easier to source in bulk.
That gap between what consumers think they are buying and what they are actually getting is why WeeSpice exists.