Sri Lankan Cinnamon Eco Project
Ceylon Cinnamon, the world’s only true cinnamon, is grown in Sri Lanka.
Distinct from the more common cinnamomum cassia, Sri Lanka’s ceylon cinnamon is widely available from Indonesia and China. Cinnamomum verum (also called cinnamomum zeylanicum or "true cinnamon") earns its name from its exceptional superior “true” quality. Ceylon cinnamon is indigenous to Sri Lanka and is warm, subtle and zesty.
We’ve partnered with a cinnamon farm stewarding 25 pristine acres of Sri Lankan cinnamon. They grow, nurture, harvest and peel cinnamon quills for distribution. They keep the leaves and let them dry in the sun before bundling them for distillation. The leaves are steam distilled with pure, deep well water to extract gorgeous Ceylon Cinnamon essential oil.
The traditional distillation equipment is hand made with wood, stainless steel, mud and coconut husk rope as it has been done for many generations. The distillation process has been passed down and perfected from generation to generation. Each slow steam “cook” takes about 9 hours for each batch, and afterwards the essential oil is carefully separated by hand yielding about 3 kg, a small amount of expertly crafted essential oil.
In this sustainable distillation process, the residual aromatic water is used in the next batch, the wet leaves are dried in the warm breeze and used as fuel for the next cook, and the remaining ash is used as fertilizer.
Gold Top cinnamon oil can be distinguished from other oils by it's light density. While density
varies slightly, even in the same batch, this oil will often float in water. This property allows the
distiller to separate this very unique oil early on in the distillation process, as the rest of the oil
sinks readily. The oil must be removed in the first hour of distillation and the process is done by
hand with a ladle – a very painstaking process!
This "Gold Top" oil has about half of the Eugenol and twice the cinnamaldehyde as traditional
cinnamon essential oil. It's suspected that the high levels of cinnamaldehyde are what makes
this oil such a superior repellent. Tests were performed by the London School of Hygiene and
Tropical Medicine on repellent spray made with regular cinnamon oil and that made with Gold
Top. The Gold Top oil spray was 100% effective for at least an hour!
We’re proud to support this eco-project and offer this extraordinary Cinnamon essential oil.
