Indonesian Cassia Cinnamon: A Buyer's Guide
If you buy cinnamon in the United States, you have almost certainly already bought Indonesian cinnamon, whether or not the label said so. Cinnamomum burmannii, known in the trade as Korintje cassia, accounts for roughly 70 to 75 percent of the cinnamon sold in the American market. Most buyers never learn the name, because US labelling rules don't require cassia and Ceylon cinnamon to be distinguished on the package.
That gap between what's actually in the jar and what the label says is worth closing if you're sourcing at wholesale. Here's what matters when you specify an order.
What Korintje Actually Is
Korintje is the dried inner bark of Cinnamomum burmannii, grown in the highlands of western Sumatra. The name comes from the Kerinci Valley, rendered "Korintje" by Dutch colonial traders, a high caldera region straddling West Sumatra and Jambi where the species has been cultivated for export since the seventeenth century.
It sits in the cassia family alongside Chinese cassia and Vietnamese (Saigon) cassia, and it is distinct from Ceylon cinnamon (Cinnamomum verum), which is a different species entirely. Among the cassias, Korintje is generally considered the sweeter, rounder one: Saigon is sharper and higher in oil, Chinese cassia is harsher. Korintje's cinnamaldehyde content typically runs around 2 to 4 percent, which is why bakers tend to prefer it. It's the flavour most Americans mean when they say "cinnamon."
It's also stable under heat, which matters more than it sounds. A spice that loses its aroma at 180°C is a problem in a commercial bakery. Korintje holds through the bake.
The Grading System
Indonesian cassia uses its own grading convention, usually written KA, KB, and KC (sometimes just A, B, C, or AA for the top tier):
KA (Grade A) — the thinnest, most tightly rolled quills, with the highest volatile oil content and the most pungent flavour. This is the premium tier, used where flavour intensity and appearance both matter.
KB (Grade B) — thicker bark, slightly lower oil content. The practical middle ground for most manufacturing use.
KC (Grade C) — thickest and woodiest, lowest oil content, and it can carry a bitter edge. Priced accordingly, and generally destined for grinding or extraction rather than whole-stick use.
As with vanilla grading, these terms are conventions rather than regulated standards. Two exporters can label a lot "KA" with meaningfully different volatile oil readings. Ask for the actual number rather than trusting the letter.
What to Specify When You Order
A serious cinnamon order should name more than a grade. The specifications worth putting in writing:
Volatile oil content, expressed as a percentage. This is the single most useful quality indicator, and it's the one most directly tied to how your finished product will taste.
Moisture content, which affects both shelf life and mould risk in transit.
Form — quills (sticks), broken, or ground. Ground cinnamon loses volatile oil faster than whole bark, so if you're not grinding immediately, whole is usually the better buy.
Quill length and thickness, if appearance matters to your end product.
Sieve size, if you're buying ground.
The Coumarin Question
This is the part most buyer's guides skip, and it's the part your regulatory team will ask about.
All cassia cinnamons naturally contain coumarin, a compound that is subject to consumption limits in the European Union and elsewhere because of liver toxicity concerns at sustained high intake. Ceylon cinnamon contains very little. Cassia contains meaningfully more, with Korintje generally falling below Saigon and Chinese cassia but well above Ceylon.
For most food applications the levels involved are not a practical problem, and cassia is sold legally and at enormous volume worldwide. But if you're selling into the EU, or producing something consumed daily in quantity such as a supplement or a breakfast product, coumarin limits are a real constraint you should design around rather than discover late. Ask your supplier whether coumarin testing is available for your lot, and what the reading was.
A supplier who deflects this question is telling you something.
How Indonesian Cinnamon Compares on Price
Indonesia is among the world's largest cassia exporters, and the scale of production keeps pricing competitive relative to Ceylon cinnamon, which is grown in far smaller volumes. For buyers whose recipes are built around the bold, sweet cassia profile rather than Ceylon's lighter, more floral one, Indonesian cassia usually delivers the flavour at a considerably lower cost per kilogram.
That said, the cheapest available lot is rarely the right one. Low-oil KC bark bought on price alone tends to require more of it to hit the same flavour target, which erodes the saving.
Before You Commit to Volume
The same advice applies here as with any origin-sourced spice. Request a sample before ordering. Ask for the actual specifications rather than the grade name. Start with a small trial order with any new supplier, and confirm what documentation will accompany the shipment.
At CV Suria Pangan Lestari (SPL Export), we supply Indonesian cassia cinnamon alongside our vanilla, with documentation and traceability on every shipment, and we're happy to work with trial-sized first orders so you can verify quality before scaling up.
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