Why Ceylon Cinnamon Is So Expensive | So Expensive — Transcript

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1. 0:00[Music]
2. 0:01sale and cinnamon is native to just
3. 0:03one region of the world and producing it
4. 0:06requires hours of delicate work
5. 0:10even the most skilled workers can make
6. 0:12only a few pounds of quills a day
7. 0:15one pound of cinnamon quills can cost 27
8. 0:18but not all spices labeled cinnamon are
9. 0:20the ceylon variety
10. 0:22many in the western market are actually
11. 0:24cheaper types of cinnamon called cassia
12. 0:27so what makes ceylon cinnamon so
13. 0:29favorable and why is it so expensive
14. 0:40salon cinnamon is named after the old
15. 0:42british name for sri lanka
16. 0:44and it is often considered real cinnamon
17. 0:48it is made from the dried inner bark of
18. 0:49a tree called cinnamom verum
19. 0:54growing these trees is an investment
20. 0:57farmers must wait four years after a
21. 0:58tree is planted before they can begin
22. 1:00harvesting
23. 1:03at harvest workers break down the
24. 1:05branches early in the morning
25. 1:06when the bark is still moist again
26. 1:14[Music]
27. 1:24foreign
28. 1:27must continuously care for the trees
29. 1:29throughout the year
30. 1:30otherwise the branches won't be suitable
31. 1:32for making cinnamon at all
32. 1:52foreign
33. 1:58the rigorous nature of this job has only
34. 2:00just begun
35. 2:04now peelers must do the delicate and
36. 2:06essential work of stripping the inner
37. 2:07bark of each branch by hand
38. 2:29this is the most labor intensive part of
39. 2:31the process
40. 2:32and it's not as easy as simply shaving
41. 2:34the outside of the bark
42. 2:35as you would the skin from a potato to
43. 2:38produce the most valuable cinnamon the
44. 2:40bark must be made extremely thin
45. 2:42the thinner the quills are the more
46. 2:44costly they will be
47. 2:45ruanpora has spent 40 years mastering
48. 2:48this skill
49. 2:51soon after the bark is removed each
50. 2:53piece dries under the sun
51. 2:54and curls up within a few minutes after
52. 2:57drying the small pieces are stuffed
53. 2:59inside a straight piece of bark
54. 3:01forming one 42 inch quill
55. 3:05by the end of a long day workers will
56. 3:07have only produced about three pounds of
57. 3:09quills
58. 3:10those then need to dry for three to four
59. 3:12days before they're packed into bales
60. 3:15and sent off to a separate facility
61. 3:17that's where they'll be graded and
62. 3:18officially priced based on their width
63. 3:22pd romance and sons buys bales of
64. 3:24cinnamon from various peelers
65. 3:26at its facility quills are graded over
66. 3:2710 scales
67. 3:29the most valuable quills are classified
68. 3:31as alba
69. 3:32it takes a peeler four times longer to
70. 3:34produce one kilogram of alba
71. 3:36than to produce the same quantity of
72. 3:38lower grades
73. 3:52the leftovers smaller cuts are turned
74. 3:54into ground cinnamon
75. 3:55and make up the cheapest form but even
76. 3:58the most valuable quills are often
77. 4:00confused with a more widely accessible
78. 4:02and cheaper variety of cinnamon
79. 4:06[Music]
80. 4:12um
81. 4:20comes from another kind of cinnamon tree
82. 4:22called cinnamom cassia
83. 4:24and it doesn't require as much time or
84. 4:26effort to make cassia bark is hard and
85. 4:29sturdy
86. 4:29so quills are made as one curled piece
87. 4:31of bark without the fillings
88. 4:33ceiling cinnamon on the other hand is
89. 4:35tender and soft
90. 4:37and needs those inner layers to prevent
91. 4:38the quill from breaking
92. 4:40me
93. 4:51is very fragrant and brown whereas real
94. 4:54cinnamon is paler with a milder
95. 4:56flavor cassia also contains on average
96. 4:59higher levels of coumarin an organic
97. 5:01compound
98. 5:02that can cause liver damage if consumed
99. 5:04in large amounts
100. 5:05this is why researchers say ceylon
101. 5:07cinnamon is ultimately the healthier
102. 5:09option
103. 5:11but if you're buying cinnamon in the u.s
104. 5:13it can be hard to tell the difference
105. 5:14between them
106. 5:15part of the confusion between the two
107. 5:17comes from the use of the label cinnamon
108. 5:20in the u.s it is legal to label both
109. 5:22ceylon and cassia cinnamon as cinnamon
110. 5:25while in the uk and other countries
111. 5:27cassia must be labeled cassia
112. 5:29and cannot be classified simply as
113. 5:31cinnamon
114. 5:32regardless of what it's called in the
115. 5:34u.s consumers worldwide prefer the real
116. 5:36thing
117. 5:39in 2018 ceylon accounted for more global
118. 5:42cinnamon revenue than any other variety
119. 5:45but even as demand is expected to grow
120. 5:47through 2025
121. 5:49climate change poses a serious threat to
122. 5:51cinnamon production
123. 5:53in recent years sri lanka has
124. 5:54experienced droughts over several months
125. 5:57and these long periods of dry weather
126. 5:59can kill cinnamon trees
127. 6:01which need marshy wet soil to survive
128. 6:04there's also a shortage of cinnamon
129. 6:06peelers another threat to production
130. 6:08that's likely to drive up prices
131. 6:11this industry relies on experienced
132. 6:13peelers who can practice the difficult
133. 6:15work
134. 6:16of making these quills over many years
135. 6:25[Music]
136. 6:46foreign
137. 6:56foreign