Cassia vs black cardamom
The two assertive spices of a mountain chai, both able to stand up to milk and long simmering, and both wrong in a delicate preparation.
botanical
What is being compared
Point by point
| Aspect | Cassia | Black cardamom |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | The thick hard bark of a southern Chinese and Vietnamese tree. | The large fire-dried pod of an eastern Himalayan ginger relative. |
| Flavour | Hot, sweet and bluntly assertive. | Heavily smoky with a cool camphor note and a savoury edge. |
| Where the character comes from | The bark itself. | The drying — wood fires in bhattis. Kiln-dried pods lack the smoke entirely. |
| Quantity | A short piece per pot; it is forgiving. | One pod flavours a large pot and two overwhelm it. |
| Where it belongs | Chai everywhere, Chinese braises, five-spice, Vietnamese pho. | North Indian, Nepali and Tibetan cooking, and mountain chai. |
| With milk | Holds up completely, which is why chai uses it rather than Ceylon. | Also holds up, though the smoke reads oddly in anything sweet. |
| Naming trouble | Sold as cinnamon almost everywhere; accepted name is Cinnamomum aromaticum. | Shares a name with green cardamom and is a different genus. |
The short answer
Cassia is the base note of a chai and black cardamom is a decision. Both are the assertive members of their pairs, and both make a delicate preparation taste wrong.
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