Cinnamon Sticks

I was running out and I kept forgetting to pick up a bunch of sticks from the local supermarket and realized I couldn't get a big container of sticks from Costco, so I ordered off Amazon. What I got was a whole lotta cinnamon sticks! Man that was a big bag. So much so I was a little wasteful with it, handing a stick (two) to my toddler and letting him run around with sticks in his hand, which eventually got on the floor, but enough of my domestic life! I have used a few for cooking. Some sticks are easier to break than others when you're trying to get more of the flavor around. The scent isn't powerful. It's there but it's like the sticks I've gotten from the international grocer, fine for my culinary projects. Just so I can keep them fresh, I broke out the Freshsaver and vacuum sealed them in something else. The bag pictured is only partway full. I had already taken a bunch out to put in the old container I have for cinnamon sticks in the kitchen. What remained was going in storage, so what you see was what I had left over. Still, a lot.

Great value! I love having cinnamon sticks on hand, especially at the holidays, and these are perfect!

Exactly as expected, it was a huge bag of cinnamon. They smelled fresh and delicious, good texture, and the size made them easy to add to a pot and to grate into a powder. Shipping did not damage them so they were durable and packaged well. The flavor is a little hot, as good cinnamon should be.

Product is very good and as promised. The cinnamon sticks were not broken or chipped. Good company to order from will order more item in the furture.

As other reviewers have pointed out... These have no scent. And they give off no taste when used in cooking. When I open a 1.5 lb bag of cinnamon sticks, I expect to be - AND I SHOULD BE - overwhelmed by the scent of cinnamon. I was not, when I opened these. In fact these had no scent at all. But I thought, okay, maybe the plastic bag they were in was too porous to scent, or something, and all the scent dissipated in shipping. I was planning to use them for making chai from scratch (along with green cardamom pods, black peppercorns, fennel seed, star anise bits, and black tea), so I took a bunch of these out & stuck them in a mason jar I keep handy on the kitchen counter, & put the rest in my pantry. I figured if they were in a solid, non plastic, glass and metal jar, their scent would not permeate the glass or metal, so then when I opened the jar of cinnamon sticks, I'd get that great cinnamon smell. A few days later, I opened the mason jar of these cinnamon sticks to make some chai... And there was zero scent. Nothing. But still I thought, well, maybe once they're boiling away, they'll release their scent (and taste). So I continued making the chai. No cinnamon scent. In fact, I used 6 of these cinnamon sticks where normally I'd only need 1-2 cinnamon sticks. And STILL in the chai - while making it, and once it was finished - there was NO scent or taste of cinnamon. AT ALL. I don't know what these are - SOME kind of tree bark, that much is clear - but they are NOT cinnamon. They are not canela (aka Mexican cinnamon aka cinnamomum verum)... nor are they cinnamomum cassia (Chinese cinnamon). These are basically odorless, tasteless dried, curled tree bark of some kind - but it is NOT any species of cinnamomum. I should've believed the reviews that said "This isn't cinnamon!" and "No scent!" If you're looking for cinnamon sticks, do yourself a favor: do NOT buy these. Go to your nearest Mexican or Indian grocery store and buy THEIR cinnamon sticks. You'll get the real thing. This is NOT the real thing!!

Important Note: If you have only used the overpriced Spice Islands or similar 3 ounce bottles, you have been using Grade A cinnamon. This is NOT Grade A. It is commercial grade and very good commercial grade, but let me explain... . You know that cinnamon is a bark and cinnamon sticks are simply "curls" of bark shaved off the tree, right? Well, the innermost shavings are grade A, because they are very consistent in color, highly aromatic and very balanced in flavor. Outer shavings, which this bag will include, are less consistent in color (it IS a bark, after all) and, once dried, may be a bit mottled with dark and light areas that might give the impression of mold, but this is normal. Moldy cinnamon smells BAD, so use the sniff test if you need to. That said, I use this in making my small batch masala chai mix and the results could not be better. It was a better deal when the same price got me 2 lb. At 20 oz., I've lost a full third of the value, but I still don't see a better price on Amazon for whole bulk cinnamon.

I use these in my daily tea for lots of great cinnamon flavor. really good. makes my mouth happy.