From Tree to Your Table — Our Cinnamon Journey
Growing cinnamon is a labor of patience. Unlike most crops, a cinnamon tree takes many years before it produces quality bark. Here’s exactly how we do it in our village in Lao Cai.
🌱 Step 1: Planting & Nurturing (Year 1–5)
We plant cassia cinnamon seedlings (Cinnamomum cassia) on mountain slopes at 200–1,000m elevation. The cool climate, rich soil, and natural rainfall of Lao Cai create perfect growing conditions. During the first 3–5 years, we focus on nurturing the young trees — watering, fertilizing, and protecting them. The trees develop strong roots, trunks, and canopy during this stage.
🌿 Step 2: Leaf & Branch Harvest (Year 3–7)
From year 3–5, we can start harvesting leaves for essential oil distillation. Cinnamon leaf oil is used in aromatherapy and traditional medicine, though it’s lighter and less valuable than bark oil. As trees grow, we also prune and thin the plantation — removing smaller trees to give the best ones room to develop thicker trunks. Pruned branches and leaves are also distilled for oil. This provides early income while we wait for the main bark harvest.
🪵 Step 3: Bark Harvest (Year 8–15+)
From about year 8–10 onward, the bark is thick enough to harvest. We test by peeling a small section — if the bark comes off cleanly without breaking or sticking, the tree is ready.
How we harvest bark:
- About one week before harvesting, we cut a ring around the bark near the base of the tree. This reduces moisture in the bark, making it easier to peel and improving quality.
- Using a specialized curved knife, we cut a horizontal ring around the trunk about 50–60cm from the ground.
- We cut another ring 40–60cm above the first.
- A vertical line is scored between the two rings.
- The knife is gently inserted to separate the bark from the wood. This requires great skill — too rough and the bark cracks; too shallow and it won’t come off cleanly.
- We continue cutting and peeling sections all the way up the trunk and major branches.
Two methods of harvesting:
- Full harvest (most common): The entire tree is cut down, and all bark is stripped — trunk, branches, everything. The tree does not survive. The hillside is cleared and replanted with new seedlings.
- Selective harvest: On some older, valuable trees, bark is harvested in sections over multiple years, allowing parts of the tree to regenerate bark. This is less common but practiced with special trees.
🏆 Step 4: Peak Quality (Year 15–25)
The finest cinnamon comes from trees aged 15–25 years. At this age, the bark is thick, deeply aromatic, with the highest essential oil content (3–5%). Trees over 20 years old produce the most prized bark — darker, more flavorful, and more valuable on the international market.
🗓️ Step 5: Harvest Seasons
We harvest twice a year, following traditional seasons:
- Quế Xuân (Spring Cinnamon): February – March, when sap starts flowing and bark peels easily
- Quế Thu (Autumn Cinnamon): August – September, producing bark with more concentrated essential oils after the summer heat
☀️ Step 6: Drying & Processing
Fresh bark must be processed quickly after peeling:
- Cleaning: Bark is washed to remove dirt and fungi spores
- Sun drying: Bark is spread on clean mats or bamboo racks (never directly on the ground) and dried in the sun for 3–7 days. This slow natural process preserves the essential oils.
- Bundling: Dried bark is bundled into 20–25kg bundles
- Further drying (optional): Some producers use a traditional oven method — bundles are sprayed with tea water at the ends, packed tightly, and covered with rice bran for slow curing
📋 Step 7: Sorting & Grading
Dried cinnamon is hand-sorted into grades by thickness, color, oil content, and form. Nothing from the tree is wasted:
- Thick trunk bark → Premium whole cinnamon sticks (most valuable)
- Branch bark → Split cinnamon and smaller sticks
- Thin bark and scraps → Ground into cinnamon powder
- Leaves and twigs → Distilled for essential oil
- Wood → Used for furniture, construction, or firewood
- Tree stumps and roots → Pressed for oil, or carved into decorative handicrafts
🔄 Step 8: Replanting
After a full harvest, the hillside is replanted with new cinnamon seedlings. This is the eternal cycle of cinnamon farming: plant → nurture for years → harvest → replant. Many trees on our family’s land were planted by our parents or grandparents. And the trees we plant today will be harvested by our children.
📦 Step 9: Packing & Shipping
Orders are carefully packed in food-grade resealable bags, sealed to lock in freshness, and shipped worldwide via Vietnam Post EMS. From our village in Lao Cai to your kitchen — typically in 7–14 business days.
Every Stick Has a Story
When you hold one of our cinnamon sticks, you’re holding something that took a tree 10–20 years to grow. It was carefully peeled by skilled hands using techniques passed down for generations, sun-dried on bamboo racks, sorted by our family, and packed for your kitchen. That’s the difference between commodity cinnamon and Vietnam Cassia.