Cinnamon buds (cassia)

Cinnamon buds (kwei tze in Chinese) are the flower beds with the budding seed of the cassia tree. The buds are used both whole and ground in savory and sweet dishes. They are very aromatic, without bitter notes.

The Chinese cassia (Cinnamomum aromaticum sinens) is a cinnamon variety. It is the only species whose flower beds are picked on a larger scale and traded as a spice. The buds look a bit like cloves, but looks can be deceiving.

The buds are the fleshy receptacles (receptaculum), which enclose the budding seed, as is the case with the acorn. The buds are picked shortly after flowering. When the buds are properly dried, the flower base becomes a deep brown, in contrast with the light brown, sometimes barely visible berry. You can recognize fresh cassia buds by this color contrast. Because the seeds shrink as they dry, the berries sometimes fall out. When cassia buds are stored for too long, the buds become faded brown and lose their aroma.

The buds are less than 1 cm long and half a centimeter in diameter. Although they are less aromatic than the dried bark, they are 'more colorful' and without the bitter notes of cassia.

Cassia buds are traditionally used in Chinese medicine. Around 2700 BC they are first described in the Chinese herbal book Shen-nung. The Romans used them, thanks to Arab and Phoenic traders who brought them from India. They regularly sailed the Orient in their sailing ships thanks to their knowledge of the winds, a skill that the Romans did not possess.

This spice usually comes from China or Myanmar (formerly Burma), but is increasingly being picked in other cinnamon countries as well. Our buttons come from the south of China (Guangdong).

Smell and taste

The most important fragrance in cinnamon buds is the fairly sweet cinnamyl acetate, which smells like flowers (roses) in addition to cinnamon. The buds contain hardly any cinnamaldehyde, the most important odor and taste component in cinnamon and cassia bark. The buds also contain relatively little coumarin compared to the cassia bark, and are therefore less bitter than the bark.

Use

The buds are used finely ground in desserts, or whole in curries and pulaos, in marmalade and mulled wine. The wine drink Hippocras dates back to the Middle Ages, in which ginger, corn of paradise and cinnamon buds are used.

Attributes:

• 100% dried flower bottoms of the Cinnamomum aromaticum
• origin: China, Guandong

• available in glass and pouch (no test tubes)
• glass jar contains 45 grams
• stand-up pouches with a content of up to 30 to 300 grams
• larger quantities on request

Gift Wrap

• the jar is available in a tasteful gift box, consisting of a cube box filled with black tissue paper
• for an overview of our gift packaging, please refer to the category gift packaging

Health

Cinnamon from the cassia plants contains a lot of coumarin, the sweet taste, but in larger quantities also slightly bitter undertone of this type of cinnamon. There is hardly any coumarin in real cinnamon (Ceylon cinnamon). These cinnamon buds of the cassia do contain that, but the coumarin content is smaller than in the bark of the cassia.

Coumarin is an aromatic substance that inhibits blood clotting and in exceptional cases can cause liver damage. The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has banned the addition of synthetically produced coumarin to foods, and has set a maximum tolerable daily intake (TDI) of 0.1 mg per kilogram of body weight per day for natural coumarin.

Cinnamon buds contain almost 20 times as much coumarin as Ceylon cinnamon (0.31 compared to 0.017 grams per 100 grams).

Save:

• keep your cinnamon buds in closed packaging
• preferably store in a dark, dry and cool place
• best before February 2025 (02/25)
• this best before date is an indication