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Cinnabark

If you like cinnamon you like tree bark. Cinnabark, on today's Moment of Science.

You probably didn't know that cinnamon is actually made from tree bark. The cinnamon tree is in the laurel family, and is grown in Sri Lanka. When you want to make cinnamon from one, you break off a branch and peel away the outer bark. Inside that you find an inner layer of yellowish bark. Scrape this yellow bark off and let it dry, then crumble it up into a powder.

A second kind of cinnamon comes from a cassia tree. The Chinese developed this darker kind of cinnamon, but the process is the same.

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