Cassia Bud Substitutes: Cinnamon Sticks, Ceylon Cinnamon and Indian Bay Leaf

Can’t find cassia buds? They’re hard to find, so you’re in good company. A piece of cassia cinnamon stick is the closest swap, since it comes from the same tree, though the bark doesn’t share the buds’ low coumarin, which matters if you use a lot. Which stand-in to pick depends on whether you’re infusing a liquid with whole buds or grinding them into a dish.

Quick answer

How the ratios on this page are labeled

Every ratio carries one of four labels.

• Computed: based on a measurable physical relationship.
• Attributed: a named source publishes this ratio. We quote it as theirs.
• Disputed: named sources give different answers to the same swap. You get each one, side by side.
• Method: our starting point, based on how the two compare. Taste and adjust.

Silk Road Spices suggests the swap in the other direction too: buds in place of cinnamon sticks or chips “for a more nuanced and peppery flavour.”¹

If you use the buds whole, to infuse a liquid

1. Cassia cinnamon stick

This is the closest substitute because it comes from the same tree. The buds are fruits of Cinnamomum cassia, the same species that gives you Chinese cassia bark, sun-dried into reddish-brown quills, and cinnamon and cassia barks are interchangeable in many uses.²

Both get their aroma mostly from the same compound, cinnamaldehyde.³ The bark will taste close but not identical, since the buds are more floral and peppery than cinnamon.

Cinnamon sticks are easy to find, and NCCIH says cassia is the most common type of cinnamon sold in North America.⁴

Coumarin is the real difference. Cassia bark is known for its coumarin. The German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR) reports an average of about 3,000 mg per kg in cassia cinnamon.⁵ The one analysis of cassia buds we found measured “comparably low” coumarin, below 0.48 mg per gram (480 mg per kg).³ Those figures come from different sampling programs, so they show a difference in scale, not an exact ratio. EFSA’s tolerable daily intake is 0.1 mg of coumarin per kg of body weight,⁶ and BfR estimates that a 60 kg adult hits it with about 2 g a day of cassia with average coumarin content.⁷ NCCIH notes that long-term use of cassia cinnamon could be a problem for sensitive people.⁴

Ratio (Method): Start with about a 1-inch (2.5 cm) piece of cassia stick for each teaspoon of buds, simmer, taste, and add more if you need it.

2. Ceylon cinnamon stick

Ceylon cinnamon is a different species, often called “true” cinnamon, and it’s milder and finer than cassia.⁸

It wins on coumarin: a US study found only traces in C. verum bark.⁹ The trade-off is flavor. It’s milder than cassia, so you drift further from the buds’ cassia character.

Ratio (Method): Start with about a 1-inch piece per teaspoon of buds, and expect to need more for the same strength.

3. Indian bay leaf (tej patta), for rice dishes and curries

Indian bay leaf isn’t a cassia leaf. It’s the foliage of a close cinnamon relative, and Katzer describes its aroma as “strongly aromatic, somewhat reminiscent of cinnamon or cloves.” It’s used almost only in northern Indian cooking, including Mughal rice dishes and biryanis. Flavor and strength vary, Katzer warns, because the leaves usually come from wild or semi-cultivated plants.¹⁰

Save it for savory dishes where whole spices simmer in the pot. It’s not for syrups or desserts.

Ratio (Method): Start with one leaf per teaspoon of buds and taste.

For looks only: whole cloves

Cassia buds look a lot like cloves.¹ They don’t taste alike, though: cloves are built on a different main compound.¹¹ Only use cloves if looks matter more than taste, and use far fewer.

Ratio (Method): Start with one or two cloves in place of a teaspoon of buds.

If you use the buds ground

Ground cinnamon

You can grind cassia buds in an electric blade grinder, though they’re usually used whole.¹ If your recipe calls for ground buds, plain ground cinnamon is the practical swap, and in North America that’s usually cassia.

Ratio (Method): Start with about three quarters of the amount of ground buds called for, and taste.

Grinding a stick yourself

Ratio (Computed): McCormick’s conversion is one 1 1/2-inch (4 cm) cinnamon stick to 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon.¹² That’s a volume figure. It tells you how much powder a stick makes, not how strong it is next to buds.

What isn’t known

• We found only one analytical study of coumarin in cassia buds, and its abstract doesn’t give the number of samples.³
• You’ll sometimes see cinnamon extract suggested in place of buds. We found no source for that swap or for a conversion, so we don’t recommend it.

Related

• Cassia buds, cassia cinnamon and Ceylon cinnamon
• Ceylon vs. cassia cinnamon, Saigon cinnamon and Korintje cinnamon
• Cinnamon, cinnamon substitutes and ground cinnamon vs. cinnamon sticks
• Cloves and cloves vs. cinnamon
• Too much cinnamon? and French toast spices