Chinese Cassia: Choose the Right Form

Chinese cassia (Cinnamomum cassia, also traded as Chinese cinnamon) is different from Ceylon cinnamon (Cinnamomum verum). Within Chinese cassia, sheets, rolls, bark cuts, twig sections and powder describe different plant parts or preparations—not different botanical species.

Start with the intended use. Keep bark cuts separate from twig sections: a twig section has a woody core, while a bark cut is a piece of bark. Natural or scraped describes surface preparation; it does not by itself prove a quality grade.

Bulk / Processing supply is prepared for further cutting, grinding, extraction or repacking. Retail & Foodservice supply is business-to-business supply in an agreed unit pack for wholesalers, shops, cafés, hotels, restaurants or bakeries. It is not direct-to-consumer retail.

Not every cassia form is offered in both formats. Use the product directory to see the formats currently offered for each form.

Define dimensions or particle size, surface preparation, selection, treatment, intended use, destination and required tests. For powder, state the mesh or sieve aperture, the sieve standard and the percentage required to pass; finer does not automatically mean better.

The minimum order is 500 kg. Packing, labels, sample records and lot evidence are agreed for the order. Use the Quality Control page for the shared processing, packing and evidence approach instead of treating a photograph as a test result.

About 70% of Chinese cassia is stripped in spring, from March to May and mainly in April, when the bark peels easily but is thinner, wetter and slightly lower in oil. The autumn strip in August and September is harder work but gives thicker, oilier bark, which trades about 15–20% higher. Fangchenggang and Qinzhou start in late March, Yulin and Wuzhou in mid-April, and Baise and Yunnan in late April or May.

Tree age matters as much as season. Seed-grown trees are stripped from 8–10 years and usually felled at 10–15; grafted dwarf trees can be harvested at 5–7 years but give thinner bark with less oil. Thickness in millimetres is therefore the most useful single number to put in a specification.

Scraping removes the grey outer cork by hand. It costs 15–20% of the bark's weight plus the labour, so scraped forms are usually quoted 20–30% above natural ones. It changes the look, not the tree the bark came from.

Purple-oil cassia (you gui) is a different grade: bark from mature trees of 15–20 years, mainly in the Fangcheng area, 4–6 mm thick and heavy, with an oily purple cut surface and a sweet, lingering taste. It trades at 80–150% above ordinary cassia. If you need it, name it in your enquiry.