Compound quills, measuring 42 ins. long (just over 1 m), are sorted into grades according to the thickness of the hark. Three main qualities are exported: the 'Tine' or 'Continental' grades, the intermediate `Mexican' grades, and the 'Hamburg' grades.
Within each category, there is a further classification according to the thickness of the quills. Ceylon cinnamon quills imported into the United Kingdom are mainly used industrially in the manufacture of a wide variety of processed foods or for the production of cinnamon bark oil or cinnamon oleoresin. A small quantity is either cut up into pieces about 15 cm or ground into a fine powder or mixed with other spices by spice merchants or millers for the retail pharmaceutical and grocery trades.
The quality of cinnamon and the various cassias is primarily assessed on the basis of their appearance and on the content and aroma/flavour character of their volatile oil. The relative importance of these quality attributes is dependent, however, on their intended end-use. The appearance of the spice is rather more important when it is to be sold in the whole form on the retail market than if it is to be used for grinding or for the preparation of the essential oil or the oleoresin.
The spices are prepared and supplied to the market in various forms, the most elaborate type of product being the compound cinnamon quills from Sri Lanka.
Malagasy cinnamon was customarily offered to the market in both its unscraped and scraped forms; but latterly the bark has been offered as 'mixed', whereby sometimes the scraped bark is packed separately within the bales composing the lot, and at other times it is packed unscraped and scraped within the same bale. Its essential-oil content averages about 0.7 per cent. The use of Malagasy cinnamon are similar to those of Seychelles cinnamon, which it closely resembles.
The Korintji and Padang (syn. Batavia) forms are graded by appearance into A, B, C and D types according to length, colour and quality, and are sold on their content of volatile oil. The USA is the main importer of Indonesian cassia, and experience there shows that the volatile-oil content usually varies between 1.3 per cent for Korintji C and 4 per cent for Korintji A, and between 1 per cent for Batavia C and 2.7 per cent for Batavia A. There is one other grade, Batavia AA, where the oil content is of little importance since the product is sold (in the USA) for packing in glass bottles where appearance is all-important. - 15790
Within each category, there is a further classification according to the thickness of the quills. Ceylon cinnamon quills imported into the United Kingdom are mainly used industrially in the manufacture of a wide variety of processed foods or for the production of cinnamon bark oil or cinnamon oleoresin. A small quantity is either cut up into pieces about 15 cm or ground into a fine powder or mixed with other spices by spice merchants or millers for the retail pharmaceutical and grocery trades.
The quality of cinnamon and the various cassias is primarily assessed on the basis of their appearance and on the content and aroma/flavour character of their volatile oil. The relative importance of these quality attributes is dependent, however, on their intended end-use. The appearance of the spice is rather more important when it is to be sold in the whole form on the retail market than if it is to be used for grinding or for the preparation of the essential oil or the oleoresin.
The spices are prepared and supplied to the market in various forms, the most elaborate type of product being the compound cinnamon quills from Sri Lanka.
Malagasy cinnamon was customarily offered to the market in both its unscraped and scraped forms; but latterly the bark has been offered as 'mixed', whereby sometimes the scraped bark is packed separately within the bales composing the lot, and at other times it is packed unscraped and scraped within the same bale. Its essential-oil content averages about 0.7 per cent. The use of Malagasy cinnamon are similar to those of Seychelles cinnamon, which it closely resembles.
The Korintji and Padang (syn. Batavia) forms are graded by appearance into A, B, C and D types according to length, colour and quality, and are sold on their content of volatile oil. The USA is the main importer of Indonesian cassia, and experience there shows that the volatile-oil content usually varies between 1.3 per cent for Korintji C and 4 per cent for Korintji A, and between 1 per cent for Batavia C and 2.7 per cent for Batavia A. There is one other grade, Batavia AA, where the oil content is of little importance since the product is sold (in the USA) for packing in glass bottles where appearance is all-important. - 15790
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