When I buy "cinnamon" from my local spice shop, it's usually cassia bark but labeled as cinnamon. How can they do that? Also which one is best to use for my curries?

I think it is general ignorance. I found cassia labeled as cinnamon in Indian supermarkets (in India). I once swapped emails with a friendly supplier, who admitted he was a little confused, as he had many variants in stock.

I prefer cassia in savory dishes, it seems to go better with other spices. My normal garam masala is just cassia, cloves, green cardamom and mace (preferred to nutmeg for same reason as cassia preferred).

The name for cassia in Hindi is dal chini, which means 'wood from China', though actually it means wood from outside of India, so it could refer to cassia or cinnamon, (which originates from Sri Lanka).

In India, it is cassia bark that is generally recognised as cinnamon (Dalchini). As Lapis says, it is good for all savoury dishes. I do however use cinnamon bark, which is slightly more expensive, for biryanies and some delicate dishes, also for sweets.

Most Indian stores sell cassia as cinnamon because they don't know that it is not cinnamon. I had this discussion with my local Indian supermarket owner once. he didn't know what I was talking about!

Thank you both for the quick replies. All my questions have been answered. I'm happy that cassia is prefered because it's much cheaper. I made a fresh batch of garam masala last night using cassia and must remember to break it up more before I put it in my electric coffee/spice grinder. Thanks again!

Savs after grinding cassia in your garam masala, sieve it to remove the unground lumps of bark.

Cheers

james