Anise Tincture & Alcohol-Free Extract

Anise (Pimpinella anisum) is a slender annual of the carrot family, Apiaceae, native to the eastern Mediterranean and southwest Asia and cultivated since antiquity around the Mediterranean, in Egypt, Turkey, Spain, and India. It grows 30 to 60 centimeters with rounded, lobed lower leaves, finely feathery upper leaves, and loose umbels of small white flowers in midsummer. The fruits, sold as aniseed, are small, ribbed, greyish-brown ovals about 3 to 5 millimeters long, downy to the touch, with the unmistakable sweet licorice scent of anethole; they flavor cookies, breads, ouzo, pastis, and sambuca. We extract the dried seed.