Cinnamon tea, the way it is made in southern Sri Lanka

In the south of Sri Lanka, cinnamon tea is not a wellness product. It is what is in the pot in the afternoon, made from a quill that came off the drying rack that week. There is no tea leaf in it at all, which surprises visitors. The name refers to the infusion, not to Camellia sinensis.

The basic method

1. Break a 7 cm Ceylon quill into three or four pieces so the water reaches the inner layers.
2. Bring 500 ml of water to a boil in an open pan, not a kettle.
3. Drop in the cinnamon, lower the heat and simmer gently for eight to ten minutes.
4. Take it off the heat, cover, and let it stand a further five minutes.
5. Pour through a small strainer into cups.

The result is pale gold, slightly viscous and sweet without sugar. That sweetness is the marker of true cinnamon. If your infusion comes out hot and sharp with a hard edge at the back of the throat, you have cassia, and no amount of steeping will change it.

Why simmer instead of steep

Cinnamon bark is dense compared with a tea leaf. Pouring boiled water over a quill and leaving it for three minutes extracts almost nothing but colour. The compounds that carry the perfume need sustained heat and time in water. Eight minutes at a bare simmer, then a covered rest so the volatile aromatics settle back into the liquid rather than leaving with the steam, is the whole trick.

Do not boil it hard for twenty minutes either. Past about fifteen minutes the bright top notes have gone and you are left with a woody, tannic base. If the tea tastes like bark, you overcooked it.

Three variations worth knowing

With ginger and jaggery. Add a thumb of sliced fresh ginger at the start and a small piece of kithul jaggery at the end. This is the version made when someone in the house has a cold, and it is the one most people remember from childhood.

With cardamom and cloves. Crush three green cardamom pods and add two cloves along with the cinnamon. The cardamom lifts the whole cup and the cloves give it depth. Good after a heavy meal.

As a milk tea. Simmer the cinnamon in water first, strain, then return the liquid to the pan with an equal quantity of milk and a spoon of black tea. Bring just to the point of rising, take it off, and sweeten. The cinnamon must be extracted in water first, because milk fat blunts the extraction if you add it too early.

One quill will take two pots. Dry the used pieces on a windowsill, use them a second time, then put them in the compost.

Cold, and in quantity

Make a strong infusion with half the water, cool it, dilute with cold water and ice, and add a squeeze of lime. It keeps three days in the fridge in a sealed bottle and it is far better than anything sold as spiced iced tea. In Galle you will also see it left to cool in a clay pot and drunk at room temperature through the hottest part of the afternoon, which is honestly the best version of all.