Cinnamon Cultivation

Cinnamon is harvested by growing the tree for two years and then coppicing it. The next year, about a dozen shoots will form from the roots.

The branches harvested this way are processed by scraping off the outer bark, then beating the branch evenly with a hammer to loosen the inner bark. The inner bark is then prized out in long rolls. Only the thin (0.5 mm) inner bark is used; the outer, woody portion is discarded, leaving meter-long cinnamon strips that curl into rolls ("quills") on drying. Once dry, the bark is cut into 5–10 cm lengths for sale.

The bark must be processed immediately after harvesting, while still wet. Once processed, the bark will dry completely in four to six hours, provided that it is in a well-ventilated and relatively warm environment. A less than ideal drying environment encourages the proliferation of pests in the bark, which may then require treatment by fumigation. Bark treated this way is not considered to be of the same premium quality as untreated bark.

Cinnamon has been cultivated from time immemorial in Sri Lanka, and the tree is also grown commercially at Kerala in southern India, Bangladesh, Java, Sumatra, the West Indies, Brazil, Vietnam, Madagascar, Zanzibar, and Egypt. Sri Lanka cinnamon has a very thin, smooth bark with a light-yellowish brown color and a highly fragrant aroma. In recent years in Sri Lanka, following considerable research by the Universities in that country led by the University of Ruhunu, mechanical devices to ensure premium quality and worker safety and health have been developed.

Any pieces of bark less than 106 mm long is categorized as quillings. Featherings are the inner bark of twigs and twisted shoots. Chips are trimmings of quills, outer and inner bark that cannot be separated or the bark of small twigs.