Anis Seeds

Anise

Eastern Medi terranean (Egypt) or West Asia. Turkey is still an important producer in our days, but still better qualities come from Spain.In Far Eastern cuisines (India, Iran, Indonesia), no distinction is made between anise and fennel . Therefore, the same name is usually given to both of them. On the Philippines, star anise is a popular spice and referred to as anise for short. Anise bears a strong family resemblance to the members of the carrot family, that includes dill, fennel, coriander, cumin andcaraway. Many of these relatives have been described as having a licorice flavour, to some extent, but anise is the true taste of licorice— its oils are distilled into the flavouring for licorice candy (not from the herb licorice, which has a different taste). Anise is native to the eastern Mediterranean region, the Levant, and Egypt. The early Arabic name was anysum from which was derived the Greek anison and the Latin anisun. It is one of the oldest known spice plants used both for culinary and medicinal purposes since ancient times. There is evidence that anise was used in Egypt as early as 1500 B.C.