Warm and toasty Ground Anise Seed brings cozy flavors to your kitchen. A close relative of caraway, cumin, and fennel, Ground Anise Seed taste is primarily licoricey; warm and pleasantly bittersweet and sour, with a mildly camphoraceous quality. When you go beyond the licorice, Ground Anise Seed has a playful bite of pepper and citrus floating around the top notes, before it fades into a gentle, bitter finish. Our Ground Anise Seed has at least 1.5% volatile oil by weight, though it may range upwards toward 6%. We grind anise in our facility in small batches, to protect the volatile oils in Ground Anise Seed from dissipating on a shelf. This provides our customers with the freshest Ground Anise Seed possible.

Anise has long been used to flavor alcohols like sambuca, absinthe, and ouzo. Anethole, the volatile oil in anise, is completely soluble in alcohol and creates a crystal-clear distillate. It is hydrophobic, though, which means it is not soluble in water, and when an anise-based liqueur is mixed with water, it turns cloudy. This clouding is known as the “louche”, and it means that the oils are spontaneously emulsifying into micro-droplets. When you shake the oil and vinegar in your salad dressing they cloud and briefly emulsify, but eventually they separate again. With anise-based liqueurs the cloudy emulsification remains stable for a prolonged period of time (think months, if not years), which is known as “the ouzo effect”. The ouzo effect is being studied to see if this singular phenomenon can be applied to all manner of uses, from detergents to medicinal dispersion.

Tips From Our Kitchen

Ground Anise Seed is a natural in baked goods like gingerbread and the German spice cookie, pfeffernüsse. Add a pinch or two to your hot chocolate or hot apple cider for an extra dose of snug satisfaction or make a seasonally sweet pumpkin bread. In the summer, mix with ginger syrup and pour over fruit salad. But remember, Ground Anise Seed doesn’t have to be relegated to sweets; it works in savory dishes too. Try it in a pork stew with pears and white wine. It goes wonderfully with root vegetables so toss beets, carrots, or parsnips with Ground Anise Seed and roast, or make a beautifully fragrant carrot soup. Mix with honey and use as a glaze for baked chicken thighs. It is a standard spice in Indian curries, so try your hand at aloo gobi. Its flavor is assertive, so it should be used early to give it time to mellow in the cooking. We also have whole Anise Seed available if that is your preference.

Our Ground Anise Seed is cultivated in Turkey.

This item is certified kosher.

Hungry for more information?

What Is Curry?
Indian Spices and Seasonings
Most Popular Spices by Cuisine
The Ouzo Effect