National Cinnamon Day

Native to Ceylon, which is modern day Sri Lanka, cinnamon’s first recordings are from Chinese writings that date as far back as 2800 BC. Even today in the Cantonese language, cinnamon is still known as “kwai”. And in the Malay language, it goes by “kayumanis”, which means “sweet wood”. This is certainly an apt description of this spicy but uniquely sweet flavor.

During medieval times, doctors found that cinnamon worked well as a treatment for coughs, sore throats and hoarseness. It may also have been considered a status symbol and was often used as a special imported gift given to monarchs, royalty and other people of importance.