IngredientsSpicesEasy to get wrong
Zimtcinnamon
The dried inner bark of a cinnamon tree. Two different trees reach the shops: Cinnamomum verum, Ceylon cinnamon, and Cinnamomum cassia.
Both get their tone from cinnamaldehyde. Cassia carries much more of it, so it tastes hot and sweet and pushes to the front of a dish.
Ceylon und CassiaCeylon and cassia
Lebkuchen, cinnamon stars, red cabbage, apple compote and mulled wine are built on cassia. A German recipe means cassia even when it only says Zimt.
Canela in a Mexican mercado is almost always Ceylon: floral, mild, fine. Right for arroz con leche, too quiet for a Lebkuchen dough.
Am Bruchtell them apart
Ceylon breaks crumbly. The quill is many thin layers rolled up like a cigar and crushes between your fingers.
Cassia is hard and single rolled: one thick layer of bark curved into a tube. A mortar has to work at it.
Ersatzwhat to use
For Lebkuchen and cinnamon stars ask for canela cassia. Tiendas de especias stock it and Mercado Libre ships it.
If you cannot find it, use noticeably more canela than the recipe asks for and taste the dough. Cassia carries through, Ceylon disappears between honey and flour.