The most difficult part of cinnamon production starts the next day. Seated on the floor of the peeling shed, the peelers snip off the leaves and twigs, and scrape off the rough outer bark from the twigs. The inner bark is then rubbed and beaten down thoroughly with a smooth brass block to break up and homogenize the tissues and free the bark from the twigs. Then the peeler, using the distinctive tool of his trade, a small curved knife called a kokaththa, deftly marks two parallel slits on the stick and eases the bark free in one piece. Experienced peelers do this swiftly and with the precision of a surgeon, making clean and true cuts - all without fragmenting the bark.

Next, the barks are carefully packed in layers, one inside the other, in several plys, telescoped and overlapped end to end to produce long, rolled and layered "quills."

The bark rolls are covered in jute sacking again and left to cure lightly for a day, after which they are air-dried indoors on hammocks for two days. When dried, the bark is curled round into golden-brown quills, which are again dried outdoors in filtered sunlight for one or two days. By this time the cinnamon is dried to a crackling, papery texture and possesses the true cinnamon colour. The bark is then trimmed precisely to the 106.7cm (42-inch) quills specified by the world cinnamon market.  Continued...

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