Star Anise

Sweet, warm, spicy, pungent and licorice like with a deep woody glow underneath it all.

This is an amazing ingredient with a wide range of uses that can give a flavour combination a leading edge.

Star Anise reminds me of Chai tea. It is a major player in my Chai spiced mead and accompanies cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and allspice nicely. It brings a soft and spicy aromatic sweetness with it. If over used or left too long, it can become less spicy and sweet woods and more of a licorice flavour. Finding balance with this ingredient is not hard, moderation of quantity and more importantly, of the time of exposure, those licorice notes come after the woody sweet spiciness.

Star Anise is not the same as true anise however the two are fairly interchangeable, they contain the same active flavour ingredient. True Anise is much more potent and has less of the sweet warmth to it. They are from completely different plants, Star Anise grows on a tree, true anise is part of the clover family.

Star Anise is picked green and ripened in the sun. It can be purchased whole or in powdered form, it loses its aromatic qualities quite quickly once powdered, so buying whole is recommended. 

To get the most of those aromatic sweet flavours out of this wonderous little spice I dry toast it just before use, then smash it around a bit with the mortar before putting it into the mead: which has usually stopped fermenting at this point. 

I do the same when using with spirits/liqueurs. Steeping overnight tends to draw a sufficient flavour, after three days the returns are diminished and becoming licorice dominated.