Te De Canela - Cinnamon Stick Tea

Te De Canela - Cinnamon Stick Tea

This is the authentic Mexican Te de Canela recipe like they make it in Mexico. It is remarkable good for your digestion and helps your stomach feel good. Naturally sweet and aromatic it can only be made with Ceylon Cinnamon.

Adding sugar is a definite no, because this cinnamon tea is naturally sweet and beautifully fragrant. You will be quite surprised at how sweet it is. Not sugar sweet but an earthy sweet. Besides adding sugar would make it something else. and not Te de Canela.

Only Ceylon Cinnamon can and should be used for this recipe. Ceylon Cinnamon is often called Mexican Cinnamon  to distinguish it from the cheap Cassia Cinnamon found in the United States.

Prep Time : 1 minute 
Cook Time : 45 minutes

  • 1 three inch Ceylon Cinnamon stick
  • 1.5 cups water
  1. Place 1.5 cups water into pot or glass kettle.
  2. Add one Ceylon Cinnamon Stick (3 inch length)
    (Break the Cinnamon sticks into small pieces for better brewing if you wish but it is not necessary). Close lid.
  3. Cinnamon sticks have to be slow boiled to extract all the Cinnamon, so bring the water to a  slow boil in a pan or stove top kettle. Set the heat setting to medium low so it boils slowly.. This usually takes about 15-25 minutes. Boiling fast will not brew the Cinnamon properly. You will note even after the water has come to a full boil, the color of the water is still only a pale yellow.
  4. Only when the Cinnamon stick cools does the balance of the Cinnamon gets released. When the water starts bubbling remove from heat and let it steep/rest for 15 minutes.
  5. As the water cools you will see the Cinnamon will start to release from the Ceylon Cinnamon stick and it will go from the pale yellow color to a lovely golden red color.

  6. Strain the tea through a very fine strainer to ensure none of the small slivers of cinnamon end up in the cup. If you had not broken the sticks into smaller pieces this is not an issue.
  7. You may have to reheat the tea before serving, unless you kept the stove top kettle or pan on a heating tray to keep it warm.
    Yield: 1.25 cups

    Notes:     
    You always add an extra ¼ cup of water because the water evaporates when you boil it, leaving you with exactly 1.25 cups.

The ideal ratio of Cinnamon to water is 3/4 (75%) of a 3 inch sticks to one cup. But since most cinnamon sticks come in a 3 inch size and we don't want to break off just a quarter, we used the whole stick and made 1.25 cups which fits perfectly into a oversized mug.

The ideal ratio of Cinnamon to water is 3/4 (75%) of a 3 inch sticks to one cup. But since most cinnamon sticks come in a 3 inch size and we don't want to break off just a quarter, we used the whole stick and made 1.25 cups which fits perfectly into a oversized mug.

Please note you can boil the same stick about 4 times, each time with fresh water. Simple adding more water to the initial boil does not seem to work, possibly due to some level of osmosis that is possible by adding water and boiling it again for the 2nd,3rd and 4th cup.