Cinnamon (Mdalisini)
The dried inner bark of a laurel-family tree, grown in Zanzibar's spice plantations and sold as rolled quills or ground powder.
HOW TO IDENTIFY IT
Quills are papery, rolled tubes of layered bark, light brown with a sweet woody smell. Fresh bark scraped with a fingernail smells sharply sweet - the freshest quills curl tightly and snap cleanly.
CULTURE & KITCHEN
In Swahili kitchens cinnamon goes into pilau spice mixes, desserts and halua sweets. Spice-farm guides love demonstrating it: every part of the cinnamon tree - bark, leaf, root - yields a different flavor.