August 2021
Last week I noticed an older post on EatSomethingSexy.com came out of nowhere to become the 5th most viewed on the site. The page is called Aphrodisiac Cinnamon: the benefits of cinnamon sexually.
This sudden uptick tells me there are a lot of people out there thinking about cinnamon…and getting lucky.
I have no idea if you're among the suddenly cinnamon obsessed but I figured, based on the law of averages, at least some of you will enjoy a newsletter dedicated to cinnamon right now.
I, personally, am not really ready to start thinking about cinnamon. I consider it an aroma and flavor of the holiday season.
But the scents and flavors of fall will soon be upon us and so I'm reluctantly taking the plunge and talking cinnamon, just for you.
The history of cinnamon as an aphrodisiac is lengthy. To say it was a key ingredient in centuries of love tonics might be an understatement. The ancient Romans were into it. The Queen of Sheeba supposedly charmed King Solomon with cinnamon. It has also been used in cleansing rituals and, according to Erotic Cuisine, it was used at one time as a perfume.
Wedeck's Dictionary of Aphrodisiac Foods offers a love tonic "recipe." If you're interested in trying it, you will need to crush one ounce each of cinnamon, vanilla bean, dried rhubarb and ginseng. Add it to two pints of Chablis and stir daily for two weeks before straining. (Whether or not it will help you in the games of seduction any more than a nice bottle of spice-free Chablis, I cannot say!)
You might be thinking to yourself, "Cinnamon is perfectly ordinary and I've been eating it my whole life." And you're right. Cinnamon is perfectly commonplace to those of us who are used to eating snickerdoodles and sticky buns.
But cinnamon was once worth fifteen times its weight in silver. Fifteen!
In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, Arab traders kept the origin of cinnamon a closely guarded secret, keeping their lips sealed and their pockets full of gold. In those days, if cinnamon was used in a love potion, it was for very purposeful effects and it clearly produced the desired results.
If you're still thinking you've never been turned on by a slice of cinnamon toast, think again! You actually might have been seduced by cinnamon without ever giving the spice its due. In a controlled study on scent and arousal at the Smell and Taste Treatment and Research Foundation, cinnamon was proven to be a sexually arousing scent. Surprised? It surprised the researchers, too. They were planning to use cinnamon as the control for the study!
Beyond an arousing aroma, cinnamon brings some noteworthy nutrition to the table. It turns out that those ancient cultures were really on the right track when it came to using a food to stimulate sexual desire and sexual health.
Cinnamon will not only make you more kissable by freshening breath and reducing bacteria in the mouth, it can fight the signs of aging and it may even improve your circulation. But since I figure you're here more for the sex than the health class, I'm going to point you to my trending cinnamon article, where you can find greater details on all the nutrients in cinnamon beneficial to sexual health.
If you're a spice enthusiast, then you're probably aware that there are two kinds of cinnamon, true cinnamon, or Ceylon cinnamon and cassia or Chinese cinnamon. You might be surprised to learn that it's actually cassia, not cinnamon, that's sold in the bottles on grocery store shelves.
Most people today do not even make a distinction between the two. But to the ancient Greeks, there was a considerable difference. In fact, they classified the two spices distinctly differently but mostly because of the methods of collection. Cinnamon was of air whereas cassia was of water.
Although there are differences, does it matter which of these two spices you use when cooking? (From a nutritional standpoint, there's very little difference. In fact, most studies on the benefits of cinnamon fail to distinguish which type is used.)
So the difference really comes down to flavor. But because I don't cook with a lot of spices, I'm not the best cook to weigh in on the cassia vs true cinnamon debate. Luckily, I know a chef and author, Nandita Godbole of Curry Cravings Kitchen, who is skilled with the use of spices.
Nandita says that she uses cassia and cinnamon interchangeably in savory dishes. However she reserves her true (Ceylon) cinnamon for desserts. (I've met other bakers who share this passion for Ceylon in sweets.)
True cinnamon has more delicacy in flavor but more complex, floral aromatics than you find from cassia.
Do you have to use Ceylon cinnamon in desserts?
No! Not at all. But if you're making a simple dessert in which you want the cinnamon flavor to shine, Ceylon is the way to go!
Scroll down to see the latest stories on Eat Something Sexy. If you want my favorite recipes, come follow me on Pinterest. If you want to talk cinnamon with me directly, the best place to find me is twitter, @forkmespoonme. | |
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