Harvesting cinnamon (cassia)

A quick look at where cassia cinnamon comes from and how it's harvested. Now go make some cinnamon syrup and mix up a Jet Pilot.

One of the most beloved spices in the world, Cinnamon is actually the dried and curled up inner bark of one of several varietals of trees in the genus Cinnamomum. Cassia Cinnamon is one of those varietals and the majority of it grows in the lush Kerenci Valley on the island of Sumatra in Indonesia.

Link: How Pegu Club Forever Changed the Cocktail Game →

 Each drink worked hard to get on the list: Saunders's trial-and-error system became legendary. She’d enlist the staff to make, say, 25 versions of the same drink, each slightly different, until they hit on the right proportions and ingredients.

“Wrestling over details like a dash of bitters or not, or quarter-ounce versus a half-ounce, could go on for almost an hour for one cocktail,” remembers former Pegu bartender Phil Ward. “It was a lot to taste and sometimes a bit hazy to finish your shift afterward.”

Getting a good cocktail recipe right is not an accident. (courtesy @cocktailnotes)