Ceylon Valley › Ceylon cinnamon grades
Specification guide
Ceylon cinnamon grades, explained
Alba, C5 Special, C5, C4, M5, Hamburg. What the letters mean, what each one looks like, and which to choose for what you are actually selling.
Grade is diameter
Ceylon cinnamon quills are graded chiefly by the diameter of the rolled quill. A thinner quill is rolled from finer inner bark, contains more layers, is paler, and is more costly to produce because it takes more skilled peeling to make. That is the whole logic.
Cross-sections drawn to relative scale. Alba, on the left, is the finest and most tightly layered; H1 on the right is the thickest.
The grades in order
| Grade | Approx. quill diameter | Character | Best used for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alba | 6–8 mm | The finest and palest. The most expensive Ceylon grade. | Premium retail in glass, gifting, anywhere the quill is visible. |
| C5 Special | 7–9 mm | Immediately below Alba in fineness and price. | Premium retail where Alba's price is hard to recover. |
| C5 | 10–12 mm | A strong retail grade with good appearance and better economics. | Pouches, jars, e-commerce and Amazon. |
| C4 | up to ~13 mm | The workhorse. Most Ceylon cinnamon sold at retail sits here or at C5. | General retail, subscription boxes, blends. |
| M5 (Mexican) | 16–18 mm | Thicker and noticeably cheaper. Still genuine Cinnamomum verum. | Grinding, foodservice, bulk supply, cost-sensitive lines. |
| H1 (Hamburg) | Thickest of the commercial grades | Coarser bark, the most economical quill grade. | Grinding, oleoresin and extraction, industrial use. |
Diameters are indicative and vary between processors and seasons. The certificate of analysis and the processor's own specification govern any given lot. There are further sub-grades within each family, and quills are also assessed on colour, oil content and the number of whole quills per kilogram.
How to choose, honestly
If the customer can see the quill — a glass jar, a gift set, a photograph that carries the listing — buy the finest grade you can afford. Alba and C5 Special look like nothing else on a shelf and that visual difference is the entire argument for Ceylon over cassia.
If it is going in a pouch, C5 or C4. The customer is buying on the photograph and the story, and the unit cost has to leave you a margin. This is where most successful e-commerce spice brands sit.
If you are going to grind it, buy M5 or H1 and do not apologise for it. Paying an Alba premium for bark you are about to reduce to powder is money set on fire. Ground Ceylon cinnamon from a thick grade is still true Ceylon cinnamon.
Grades are not the cassia question
Every grade on this page is Cinnamomum verum, true Ceylon cinnamon. The difference between Alba and H1 is fineness and price. The difference between any of them and cassia is species.
Cassia forms a single thick curl of hard bark and contains coumarin at roughly one percent by weight; Ceylon is rolled from ten or more paper-thin layers and contains only trace amounts. The European Food Safety Authority has set a tolerable daily intake for coumarin of 0.1 mg per kilogram of body weight. We note that as a compositional fact rather than a health claim.
If you would like the visual comparison, our consumer brand has a page on Ceylon versus cassia.
Questions
What do the Ceylon cinnamon grade letters mean?
They describe the diameter and appearance of the rolled quill, not the quality of the tree. Alba is the thinnest, then the C or Continental grades, then M or Mexican, then H or Hamburg which are the thickest. Within each family the number narrows it further, so C5 Special is finer than C5, which is finer than C4.
Which grade is best?
Best depends entirely on what you are selling. Alba is the finest and most expensive and looks extraordinary in glass. C5 and C4 are the practical retail choice and are what most Ceylon cinnamon on the market actually is. M5 and H1 are thicker and cheaper and make more sense if the product is going to be ground, because you are otherwise paying for an appearance you then destroy.
Is a thinner quill better cinnamon?
It is a finer and more delicate one, and it costs more. It is not a different species and not more authentic. All of these grades are true Ceylon cinnamon, Cinnamomum verum. If your product is ground powder, a thinner grade buys you very little.
Does grade affect flavour?
Somewhat. Thinner quills come from younger, finer inner bark and tend to taste sweeter and more delicate. Thicker grades are more robust. The difference is real but far smaller than the difference between any Ceylon grade and cassia.
What grade should I use for a pouch on Amazon?
C5 or C4 in most cases. They look convincingly like true cinnamon in photographs, they survive handling, and the unit cost leaves room for a viable margin. Alba is beautiful but the price is difficult to recover in a pouch that a customer cannot see through.
Not sure which grade you need?
Tell us what you are making and who it is for, and we will tell you which grade we would buy in your position — including when the cheaper one is the right answer.