Cinnamon
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40 free Cinnamon trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Cinnamon is one of the oldest traded spices in the world, and for centuries the people who sold it kept its source a closely guarded secret. Tall tales grew up around where it came from, emperors burned it to show off, and European powers fought over the places where it grew. This quiz turns the best fun facts about cinnamon into trivia. It covers how the spice is grown and harvested, the difference between true cinnamon and cassia, its part in ancient and medieval trade, and the buns, cookies, cereals, drinks and sweets that made it a kitchen staple. A handful of questions look at the cinnamon challenge, the viral dare of the early 2010s, and why doctors warned against it. It suits curious cooks, pub quiz fans and anyone who wants a fun fact about cinnamon to share. Every answer comes with a short explanation.
30 of 40 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which Roman emperor reportedly burned a year's supply of cinnamon at his wife Poppaea's funeral?
Nero
Nero is said to have burned a year's worth of Rome's cinnamon in AD 65, an extravagant gesture because the spice was normally too costly for funeral pyres.
Q 02In which country do friends shower unmarried people with cinnamon on their 25th birthday?
Denmark
Denmark's cinnamon dousing seems to have begun around the 1960s, and anyone still unmarried at 30 can expect pepper instead.
Q 03The ancient historian Herodotus wrote that cinnamon sticks were gathered from which unlikely place?
Nests of giant birds
Nests of giant birds clung to sheer cliffs, he wrote, and traders lured the creatures with heavy chunks of meat until the nests broke and fell.
Q 04People taking the cinnamon challenge must swallow a spoonful of the ground spice without doing what?
Drinking anything
Drinking anything is against the rules of the 60-second dare, so the dry powder coats the mouth and throat and most attempts end in a coughing fit.
Q 05Cinnamon sticks are made from which part of evergreen trees in the genus Cinnamomum?
Inner bark
Inner bark only about half a millimetre thick is pried from the cut stems, and it curls into the familiar rolls as it dries.
Q 06Which fruit grows on a tree in the laurel family, making it a botanical relative of cinnamon?
Avocado
Avocado trees belong to the laurel family, Lauraceae, alongside cinnamon, bay laurel and camphor.
Q 07Kanelbullens dag, a cinnamon bun day held every 4 October, was launched in 1999 in which country?
Sweden
Sweden's Home Baking Council created the day to promote baking, and chose 4 October so it would not compete with other food traditions.
Q 08A 1541 hunt for a fabled Land of Cinnamon sent Francisco de Orellana down the length of which river?
Amazon
The Amazon carried Francisco de Orellana to its mouth in August 1542, after he had set out with Gonzalo Pizarro to find cinnamon east of Quito.
Q 09Imported to Ancient Egypt as early as 2000 BC, cinnamon was put to which use beyond the kitchen?
Embalming mummies
Embalming mummies was one Egyptian use for cinnamon, which was so prized in the ancient world that it was regarded as a gift fit for monarchs.
Q 10True cinnamon, Cinnamomum verum, comes from a tree native to which Indian Ocean island nation?
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka's former name, Ceylon, lives on in the tree's older scientific name, Cinnamomum zeylanicum.
Q 11Which Discovery Channel series had its Build Team attempt the cinnamon challenge in a 2012 episode?
MythBusters
MythBusters saw Tory Belleci get his spoonful down by tucking it in his cheek until saliva built up, though it took him more than a minute.
Q 12Which cookie is rolled in cinnamon sugar before baking and usually leavened with cream of tartar?
Snickerdoodle
Snickerdoodle dough relies on cream of tartar for its signature texture and taste, the other thing that separates it from a plain sugar cookie.
Q 13Which sweet, milky-looking drink made from rice or tiger nuts is typically flavoured with cinnamon?
Horchata
Horchata in Spain means a tiger-nut drink tied to Valencia, while across the Atlantic the rice-and-cinnamon version is served as an agua fresca.
Q 21Fireball Cinnamon Whisky was first developed by Seagram in the mid-1980s in which country?
Canada
Canada's Seagram created it as one of a line of flavoured schnapps, and the Sazerac Company bought the brand and formula in 1989.
Q 22The cinnamon teal, named for the male's bright reddish plumage, is a species of what?
Duck
The cinnamon teal is a small dabbling duck of marshes and ponds in the western Americas, and the female is a much duller brown.
Q 23Which liver-damaging compound is abundant in cassia but found only in traces in true cinnamon?
Coumarin
Coumarin is why European Union guidelines cap how much everyday baked goods may contain, with a higher limit allowed for seasonal treats.
Q 14Which Ohio city is famous for a chili seasoned with cinnamon and served over spaghetti?
Cincinnati
Cincinnati chili was created by immigrant restaurateurs in the 1920s and, despite a popular myth, contains no chocolate.
Q 15Which American food company has made Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal since launching it in 1984?
General Mills
General Mills built the cereal on an idea that an unnamed child sent in to a radio contest asking for the best new Crunch.
Q 16Cinnamoroll, a white puppy with a tail like a cinnamon roll, is a character from which company?
Sanrio
Sanrio, the home of Hello Kitty, introduced Cinnamoroll in 2001, and in his stories the little dog can fly.
Q 17Which country's traditional chocolate is especially known for being flavoured with cinnamon?
Mexico
Mexico is the country most associated with cinnamon in chocolate, while cooks elsewhere often add the spice to savoury dishes of chicken and lamb.
Q 18Which Italian city's merchants held a medieval monopoly on cinnamon reaching Europe via Alexandria?
Venice
Venice lost its grip when rising powers such as the Ottoman Empire disrupted the trade, one reason Europeans went looking for other routes to Asia.
Q 19Which explorer's Spanish fleet found cinnamon on Mindanao in the Philippines in 1521?
Ferdinand Magellan
Ferdinand Magellan's fleet bartered two knives for seventeen pounds of cinnamon off Mindanao in late 1521, months after he was killed in battle on Mactan.
Q 20Which milky tea is commonly brewed with cinnamon, cardamom and ginger?
Masala chai
Masala chai literally means mixed-spice tea, and coffee shops around the world now sell it as a chai latte.
Q 24What name is given to the rolled sticks that strips of cinnamon curl into as they dry?
Quills
Quills of true cinnamon are made of many thin layers and grind easily, while cassia sticks are much harder.
Q 25A French crusader in 1248 reported that cinnamon was fished up in nets at the source of which river?
Nile
The Nile was thought to rise at the edge of the world, and the chronicler Joinville believed the story he heard in Egypt while serving Louis IX.
Q 26Which country's East India Company drove the Portuguese from the main cinnamon island by 1658?
Netherlands
Netherlands traders arrived in 1638, and one Dutch captain claimed the island's cinnamon could be smelled eight leagues out to sea.
Q 27Which Roman author dismissed a tale of cinnamon's origin as a fiction invented to raise prices?
Pliny the Elder
Pliny the Elder wrote that the spice really travelled around Arabia on rafts without rudders, sails or oars, carried by the winter trade winds.
Q 28Which starch-testing chemical turns powdered cassia deep blue but hardly affects true cinnamon?
Iodine
Iodine's starch test gives a quick way to spot cassia passed off as true cinnamon, which shows little effect.
Q 29In Japan, a pungent spice called nikki is made from which part of the cinnamon tree?
The roots
The roots are more pungent than the rest of the tree, and Japan treats nikki as a product distinct from ordinary cinnamon.
Q 30Five-spice powder commonly blends cinnamon, cloves, fennel, Sichuan pepper and which other spice?
Star anise
Star anise completes the usual five, and the cinnamon in the blend is normally Chinese cassia rather than true cinnamon.