Anise, Fennel, Star Anise and Licorice: Similarities and Differences

Almost anyone you talk to has a confusion between one or more of these licorice tasting herbs. Even in supermarkets they sometimes don't have it straight. This is what confused me. I started to think that Anise and Fennel were the same thing because the supermarket was selling Fennel and labeled it Anise and I thought this was the answer to my longterm question on the subject.

When I was growing up in NJ, which used to be one big Italian neighborhood, we called fennel by its Italian name, finocchio, which rhymes with Pinocchio. We only had finocchio during Thanksgiving and Christmas. I am talking about the celery-like vegetable. It was the only vegetable that tasted like dessert and I looked forward to having it every year.

We had fennel seeds too. We put them in sausage meat before stuffing it in the casings. But when making cookies or biscuits someone would call them anise seeds. They looked like fennel seeds and I asked what the difference was and was told, “I don't know, I think it's pretty much the same.” But still they didn't buy fennel seeds to bake, they bought anise seeds. 

When I saw many years later that finocchio was being sold as anise I thought I had it nailed. It IS the same thing. But then I was reading a label recently and fennel, anise AND star anise were listed separately.

So for you and me, I intend to get to the bottom of this confusion.

The main similarity is they all have a taste recognizable as licorice. Fennel and anise seeds look alike. You can't really see the seeds of a star anise unless you break them out of the star shaped pod which is usually used whole. And who has seen licorice in its natural form? I haven't. Most only know the candies.

Licorice: A Sweet Root With a Rich Flavor

So I will start with Licorice. It is defined as a confection that is flavored and colored from the root extract of the Glycyrrhiza glabra plant, Licorice. The root is actually yellow from flavonoids, but the extract is black. Black cohosh if you remember is tricky like that too. Glycyrrhiza literally means sweet root from Glykys, Greek word meaning sweet and rhiza meaning root. Glabra refers to smooth, like in hairless, but might also refer to the soothing taste of licorice.

The main compound, glycyrrhiza, is 30-50 times sweeter than sugar but is modified by many essential oils, most prominently anethole. So it has a very sweet, rich taste. 

Black licorice is made with the black root extract. The red licorice and the whole slew of modern flavored “licorice” are only copying the shape and texture of the real licorice candy, not its flavor. There is no licorice in them.

Licorice is native to Southern Europe, Northern Africa and West Asia.

Fennel: The Licorice-Flavored Vegetable

Fennel is used as a nice refreshing vegetable raw or cooked. It looks like celery except that its stalks come down to overlap and form a bulblike base at ground level. The bulb has the most concentration of licorice flavor, but it is present all the way up to the stalk and into its feather-like leaves. 

It resembles dill leaves. They are both in the same family. In fact if you ever grow them both you have to keep them apart because they can pollinate each other, which would ruin both of their distinctive flavors. They both have yellow flowers in umbel formations, but the fennel's tiny flower is flute-like and the dill flower has tiny petals.

Fennel flavor is predominantly licorice-like but it has about ten other essential oils that make the overall taste a little different and less strong than licorice. One of those oils is limonene which on its own tastes like lemon.

Foeniculum vulgare is the latin name and the plant is native to the shores of the Mediterranean Sea.

The Truth About Anise

Anise (Pimpinela anisum) -  This was the hardest to find information about because even farmers were calling it anise and showing fennel.

It doesn't help that the flowers of both are arranged in an umbel pattern, so when you are looking at the dried up plant at seed harvest time it is very similar. When in bloom however anise, also called aniseed, even though that is just the flavoring obtained from the seeds, has little white flowers that look like a cross if you look up close. It is a compound flower made of all these little white cross-like flowers.

With anise there is not much to the plant but fibrous stems, so people don't eat it, but wildlife love it. But this plant has more anethole than licorice! 

Although Anise is also native to the Mediterranean area it became established in the wilds of the American Northwest and was used by the Native Americans. And provides food for the wildlife in the area.

Now I remember that the anise seeds had the same stripe-like appearance as the fennel seed, but the stripe is blacker. Fennel seeds have that stripe but they are longer and not as black and sometimes they curve. They tend to be more yellowish or greenish yellow.

The anise has blunter or more rounded ends and the fennel tapers off so it is pointier at the ends. 

Anise seed has more anethole than licorice, let alone fennel. I was shocked to learn that sometimes licorice has added anise to enhance the licorice flavor. Who'd have guessed that? Licorice had always been the standard taste I thought. 

Maybe we should be saying that they all have an anise taste. In fact there were a couple of authors that were doing that in articles I read. They were saying that licorice had an anise taste which annoyed me at the time I read it, but now I see that they could be right.

Star Anise: The Spice from the East

Star Anise is from way over in China. I would have thought India since the first time I encountered it, except as an extract, was in an Indian restaurant. It was in my soup. I took notice of this because I love licorice. I was feeling feverish and thought I was coming down with something and this soup was making me feel better. I had no idea at the time that this was star anise. It was a round pod-like thing with segments and I just started chewing it. It was woody. The taste was wonderful and it made me feel wonderful. And it stopped all my symptoms completely. 

Star anise has that licorice taste from anethole, but it is enhanced by a small amount of four other essential oils with strong tastes. It is not as sweet as fennel, anise or licorice, but it is more aromatic so the very pleasant taste penetrates more.

It is used in cooking and it also makes a nice extract for flavoring. Its Latin name is Illicium verum. 

So how does it feel to finally know that all four are separate plants, three of which are Mediterranean and in the same family (Apiaceae), if I didn't mention that, and one from East Asia. I for one feel smarter. I hope you do too.

*This article is intended for informational purposes. The statements above have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.