Cinnamon (Cinnamomum verum) is a botanical in the Cinnamomum family native to India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and Myanmar. Commonly confused with its botanical cousin, cassia, cinnamon comes from the inner bark of several tree species and has long been celebrated for its sweetness.

Since the beginning of time, there has been cinnamon. Records show the botanical was imported to Egypt as early as 2000 BCE, where it was used to embalm mummies. The prized spice was considered a gift fit for monarchs and deities, and evidence points it was even gifted to the temple of Apollo at Miletus.

Herodotus and Aristotle wrote of "cinnamon birds" that collected cinnamon sticks from an unknown land and used them to construct their nests, while Pliny the Elder said that cinnamon had been brought around the Arabian peninsula on "rafts without rudders or sails or oars."

The aromatic botanical was burned in funeral rites and rituals, and though it was far too expensive to be used frequently in funeral pyres in Rome, in 65 AD Emperor Nero purportedly burned a year's worth of the city's cinnamon supply at the funeral for his wife, Poppaeae Sabina.

Through the Middle Ages, the spice remained shrouded in mystery, its sourcing whereabouts unknown to the majority of the Western world. When the Sieur de Joinville accompanied Louis IX to Egypt in 1248, he believed that cinnamon was fished up in nets at the end edge of the world - what we now know as Ethiopia.

Eventually the mystique surrounding the plant dissipated, and cinnamon became a common culinary spice, used in Persian, Portugese, and Turkish cuisine for both sweet and savory dishes. In early Modern English, the names canel and canella were used interchangeably with cinnamon, and were derived from the Latin word cannella meaning "tube" for the way cinnamon bark curls up as it dries. These cinnamon sticks are used to flavor everything from rice to mulled wine, while powdered cinnamon is often sprinkled on top of desserts.

Though most commercially produced cinnamon available for purchase today is actually cassia, Cinnamomum verum, or "true cinnamon," is still prized for its distinctively sweet flavor and aroma.

In AMASS Four Thieves, cinnamon lends a warm, comforting scent that pairs well with other baking spices like allspice and clove.