A clay bowl of golden lentil dhal and a dark black-pepper chicken curry beside white rice on a banana leaf, with cinnamon quills, green cardamom pods, cloves and black peppercorns scattered on dark wood and a glass of amber tea

Sri Lanka in the Pantry: Cooking from the Island's Jars

September 30, 2026

Sri Lanka's Export Development Board calls the island a leading exporter of five spices: Ceylon cinnamon, Ceylon pepper, Ceylon cloves, Ceylon nutmeg and Ceylon cardamom. Add the black tea that the hill country has grown since 1867, and thuna paha, the curry powder, roasted or unroasted, that brings the spices together in a Sri Lankan kitchen, and the island's core pantry is on the table. The table below sets them side by side, and the three dishes at the end between them use every row of it, nutmeg included.

Sri Lanka's pantry, in one table

Jar	Where it grows in Sri Lanka	What defines it	What it does in a dish	First dish to make
Ceylon cinnamon	An indigenous tree; about 70 percent is grown as a pure crop on smallholdings	Cinnamomum verum; quills rolled from several fine layers of inner bark, graded by diameter as Alba (about 6 mm, the most expensive), Continental, Mexican and Hamburg	Soft, sweet warmth in savory pots as much as sweet ones	A stick in the dhal
Black pepper	About 32,800 hectares, mostly in Matale, Kandy, Kegalle and Kurunegala, as a sole crop or climbing through coconut and tea plantations	Piper nigrum berries picked green, blanched and sun-dried; they turn black as they oxidize	Heat and resinous depth	Black pepper chicken curry
Cardamom	Kandy, Matale, Kegalle, Nuwara Eliya, Ratnapura and part of Galle, on land generally called spice forest	Green pods; three types found in Sri Lanka, told apart by the shape of the flowering stem	Perfume, in sweet and savory dishes alike	A cracked pod in the teapot
Cloves and nutmeg	Mostly mixed home gardens; nutmeg and mace in the up country	Two of the five spices the export board names	Deep, sweet warmth in small doses	Cloves in the curry powder; nutmeg grated over the tea
Black tea	Seven regions: Nuwara Eliya, Uda Pussellawa, Dimbula, Uva, Kandy, Sabaragamuwa and Ruhuna	Sorted by altitude into high, mid and low grown; the Lion Logo marks 100 percent Ceylon tea packed in Sri Lanka	The drink beside the meal, strong enough for milk	Tea with cardamom
Curry powder (thuna paha), roasted or unroasted	A must-have in every local kitchen, says the export board	Coriander, cumin, fennel, curry leaves and cinnamon; the roasted version adds peppercorns, cardamom, cloves, pandan, dried chiles and raw rice	A dark, toasty base for meat and vegetable curries	Toast a batch first

Cinnamon: the island's own tree

The export board describes Cinnamomum zeylanicum (the McCormick Science Institute lists it as Cinnamomum verum) as a tree indigenous to Sri Lanka, and calls Sri Lanka the world's largest producer and exporter of pure cinnamon, with its suppliers claiming 90 percent of the global market for it. The harvest is the inner bark: stripped and laid in the sun, it curls into quills. The board calls the quill-making a combination of art and skill handed down from generation to generation. Germany's Federal Institute for Risk Assessment describes the result by its cross section, which resembles a cut cigar: several fine rolled-up layers make up the stick. The board grades the quills by diameter, and the most expensive, Alba, is about 6 mm across.

In the chicken curry below, a whole stick goes into the hot oil at the start with the curry leaves and stays in the pot to the table. The cinnamon guide sets Ceylon cinnamon beside the cassia species, and the guide to how cinnamon, pepper and turmeric are harvested follows the peelers. Burlap & Barrel's Cinnamon Verum is the same species, grown by a cooperative of smallholder farmers on the Zanzibar islands off Tanzania (shop Burlap & Barrel Cinnamon Verum).

Pepper: the vine in the coconut groves

Sri Lankan pepper grows on about 32,800 hectares, the board says, mainly in the districts of Matale, Kandy, Kegalle and Kurunegala, either as a crop of its own or as a vine trained up live or dead supports inside coconut and tea plantations. For black pepper the berries are picked green and slightly immature, blanched and dried in the sun, and the black color comes from oxidation as they dry. The chicken curry below cracks the pepper coarse and adds it by the tablespoon.

Cardamom, cloves and nutmeg: the spice gardens

Cardamom grows mainly in the districts of Kandy, Matale, Kegalle, Nuwara Eliya, Ratnapura and part of Galle, and the board says cardamom lands are generally called spice forests. The board lists three types found in Sri Lanka, Malabar, Mysore and Vazhukka, told apart by whether the flowering stem lies flat, stands upright or leans. Cloves and nutmeg, the other two of the board's five named spices, grow mostly in mixed home gardens, with nutmeg and mace in the up country. Cardamom and cloves go into the roasted curry powder and the chicken curry below, cardamom goes into the teapot as well, and nutmeg is grated over the finished cup. Burlap & Barrel's Cloud Forest Cardamom comes from Alta Verapaz in Guatemala, and the company suggests cracking the pods into rice or dropping a few into a braise (shop Burlap & Barrel Cloud Forest Cardamom).

Tea: from coffee country to the seven regions

Ceylon's hill country was coffee country first. The Sri Lanka Tea Board tells how the coffee enterprise collapsed in the early 1880s, and with it the colony's economy, how more than 120,000 hectares, some 300,000 acres, had to be cleared of dying coffee and replanted in tea, and how within a decade a new plantation enterprise stood on the ruins of the old. The man who showed the way was James Taylor, who arrived in 1852 and settled on the Loolecondera estate at Galaha, in the Kandy district. He began a tea planting there in 1867, 19 acres by the Tea Board's count, and a fully equipped factory ran on the estate from 1872.

The Tea Board now names seven growing regions and sorts them by height. Nuwara Eliya, at 1,868 meters, makes the palest of all Ceylon teas, with a delicately fragrant flavor. Kandy, between 650 and 1,300 meters, is mid grown, full-bodied, with a bright coppery infusion. Sabaragamuwa and Ruhuna, lower down, give stronger cups than Kandy. Since 1999 the Tea Board has held a global trademark on the Lion Logo, which marks 100 percent pure Ceylon tea. The black tea buying guide explains the leaf grades and the logo, and the guide to how tea is made covers withering, oxidation and firing. Mariage Frères, the Paris tea house founded in 1854, describes trading with China and Ceylon, and the Mariage Frères English Breakfast tea guide covers a blend the house pairs with milk.

Thuna paha: the powder that ties them together

The export board calls curry powder, thuna paha in Sri Lanka, a must-have in every local kitchen, used in almost every curry and stew. The unroasted version grinds coriander, cumin and fennel seeds with a sprig of curry leaves and a stick of Ceylon cinnamon. The roasted version adds peppercorns, cardamom, cloves and pandan leaves, roasted with dried red chiles and raw rice, for a stronger flavor and fragrance in meat and vegetable curries. A Jaffna version, featuring dill and turmeric, is used in seafood dishes.

A home roasted curry powder. In a dry heavy pan over medium heat, toast 4 tablespoons of coriander seeds, 2 of cumin seeds, 1 of fennel seeds and 1 of raw white rice, stirring constantly. When they begin to color, add a 5 cm piece of cinnamon, 1 teaspoon of black peppercorns, the seeds of 6 cardamom pods, 6 cloves, 3 dried red chiles, a sprig of curry leaves and, if there is one, a short piece of pandan leaf. Keep stirring until the seeds are a deep, even brown and smell toasted rather than raw, then tip onto a plate to stop the cooking. Cool and grind fine. The cinnamon, pepper, cardamom and cloves from the table all go in. The guide to toasting spices and blooming them in oil explains why the dry pan changes the flavor. Burlap & Barrel's Curry is a different blend, from Stone Town, Zanzibar, made with cumin, coriander, garlic, turmeric, black pepper, fenugreek, fennel, ginger and cardamom, and the company suggests blooming it in coconut oil or ghee before adding coconut milk or chopped tomatoes (shop Burlap & Barrel Curry).

Three dishes that use the whole table

Parippu, red lentil dhal. Rinse 200 grams of red lentils and simmer them in 500 ml of water with half a teaspoon of turmeric, a cinnamon stick, half a sliced onion and a split green chile until soft, about 20 minutes. Stir in 200 ml of coconut milk, a teaspoon of roasted curry powder and salt, and simmer five minutes more. In a small pan, fry a teaspoon of mustard seeds, a sliced shallot, a sprig of curry leaves and a dried chile in oil until the shallot browns, then pour the hot oil over the lentils.

Black pepper chicken curry. Toss 1 kilo of boneless chicken thighs, cut in large pieces, with 2 tablespoons of roasted curry powder, 1 tablespoon of coarsely cracked black pepper and salt. In a heavy pot, fry a sliced onion, four cloves of garlic, a thumb of ginger, a sprig of curry leaves, a cinnamon stick, four cracked cardamom pods and four cloves in oil until the onion is golden. Add the chicken, turn it until coated and colored, add 200 ml of water, cover and simmer 25 minutes. Uncover, cook down until the sauce clings, and finish with another teaspoon of cracked pepper and a squeeze of lime. Serve with rice and the parippu.

Tea with cardamom and nutmeg. Warm the pot, then brew about 3 grams of Ceylon black tea per cup with one cracked cardamom pod for four minutes, add milk and sugar to taste, and grate a little nutmeg over each cup. A low-grown tea stands up to milk; a pale Nuwara Eliya suits drinking plain, without the spice. The black tea recipe to learn first covers the basic pot, and the chai from loose leaf recipe takes the spice further.

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