An Anna by any other name
An Anna by any other name would smell as sweet… Do they still make aniseed balls – those round, hard, black sweets with the licorice flavour? We know they are pronounced “anna-seed”, as are the little dull-brown seeds from the anise plant (pimpinella anisum) which blooms and goes to seed annually. (Anise seeds, in fact, commonly abbreviated to aniseed.) Anise is native to the Middle East, and on the other side of the globe there is an evergreen tree of the magnolia family, known as Illicium verum, or Illicum anisatum. The Chinese call the woody fruit of this tree ba chio (or other names depending on the dialect of the region), but because its taste and aroma is so like aniseed, Westerners called the fruits “star anise”. Somewhere in the transfer from one spice to another, anise(anna)seed became star anise(anees). Strange … perhaps it’s been the influence of French-inspired chefs!An Anna by any other name
An Anna by any other name would smell as sweet… Do they still make aniseed balls – those round, hard, black sweets with the licorice flavour? We know they are pronounced “anna-seed”, as are the little dull-brown seeds from the anise plant (pimpinella anisum) which blooms and goes to seed annually. (Anise seeds, in fact, commonly abbreviated to aniseed.) Anise is native to the Middle East, and on the other side of the globe there is an evergreen tree of the magnolia family, known as Illicium verum, or Illicum anisatum. The Chinese call the woody fruit of this tree ba chio (or other names depending on the dialect of the region), but because its taste and aroma is so like aniseed, Westerners called the fruits “star anise”. Somewhere in the transfer from one spice to another, anise(anna)seed became star anise(anees). Strange … perhaps it’s been the influence of French-inspired chefs!