Cinnamon

Cinnamon has been used for thousands of years, and the first mention of this spice is in ancient Egypt 4000 years ago. In the Bible, cinnamon-scented oil was used to sanctify people and objects and was often referred to as the scent of love, and this is directly implied in Solomon’s poems when it is said that his passion and her chambers smelled of divine cinnamon. Obviously, there is something archetypal in the cinnamon scent that arouses a loving desire. The latest scientific research has shown that men like and respond best to the smell of vanilla, pumpkin, and cinnamon.

Cinnamon was so prized in the old days that it was the perfect gift for both kings and gods. There are scriptures stating that cinnamon was offered as a gift to the god Apollo at a temple in Miletus. Over the centuries, many peoples scrambled to trade in cinnamon, in ancient times, the Egyptians and Romans, later the Arabs, to take over the monopoly power of Western European powers by building colonies in faraway Asia: Portugal, the Netherlands, and eventually England. With the discovery of coffee and chocolate, perfect cinnamon companions, the need for it grew more and more first in Europe and then in the rest of the world.