The History of Cinnamon — The Spice That Colonizers Fought Over, and Still Fake Today

For most of ancient history, European traders were told an elaborate, completely false story about where cinnamon actually came from, specifically because the merchants who controlled it wanted to protect their monopoly. When Europeans finally located the real source, a small island now called Sri Lanka, first the Portuguese and then the Dutch fought brutal colonial wars to control it, forcing an entire hereditary caste of local peelers to strip cinnamon bark under conditions enforced with corporal punishment for failing to meet quota. And here's the part almost nobody knows: most of what's labeled "cinnamon" on a grocery store shelf today, in the United States specifically, isn't the real thing at all. It's a cheaper, related bark called cassia, and the difference isn't just cosmetic — cassia contains a compound that can genuinely harm your liver in large enough doses. In this episode, we trace cinnamon from an ancient Egyptian embalming ingredient and a deliberately fabricated Greek myth designed to protect a trade secret, through Dutch colonial forced labor in Ceylon, into the modern spice aisle fraud most people have never heard of. This is the real story hiding inside the jar you might not even realize is fake. 🔔 Subscribe for weekly deep dives into the hidden, uncomfortable history behind the foods we eat every single day. #FoodHistory #HiddenHistory #Cinnamon