Star Anise | Lucky Star Anise
30 grams, whole
The star anise is sweet and anise-like with a creamy mouthfeel and a slightly cooling effect.
Allow the star anise to infuse whole in, for example, a stew, sauce, or cream. You can also make tea from it (you might break it into smaller pieces first). With an electric spice grinder, you can also finely grind the star anise and use it as a powder or in a blend.
Stews (with beef, lamb or duck), (Asian) broths, sauces, cook along in milk, cream or syrup for sweet applications. Rice pudding, stewed pears or fruit compote. Process into syrups, tea or hot drinks.
The star anise is sweet and anisy with a round and creamy mouthfeel and a slightly cooling effect.
The star anise comes from Cao Bằng in the North of Vietnam (close to the Chinese border). Here, our partner DACE works with over 3,000 small-scale farmers who harvest cinnamon and star anise in the hilly landscape in the area where they live.
Star anise from Vietnam is more flavourful and contains more aroma than that from China, but the stars are less uniform in size and shape. This generally means higher sorting costs and lower prices for 'imperfect' stars. We, of course, don't partake in that! For us, it's all about the taste. According to an old Chinese tradition, an 8-pointed star even brings good luck. Because our star anise contains many different shapes, we have named it Lucky Star Anise. There's a good chance you'll find an 8-pointed star among them!
How is this chain structured?
All our chains have their own story. Their own piece of land, their own farmer. It is cultivated and processed in a specific way. Join us on a journey into the story behind this flavour.
The star anise comes from Cao Bằng in Northern Vietnam (near the Chinese border).
Star anise is in fact the fruit of a tree that grows wild in this region, in the existing forests in a hilly area. The local government has made it a protected area, so felling and planting are not allowed without permission.
Many different plants grow intermingled here. Besides star anise trees, you'll also find cinnamon trees. DACE also helps farmers plant other spices, such as ginger, between the trees, so they can get more value from their land.
Star anise is harvested twice a year: in spring and in autumn. The autumn harvest contains more essential oils and therefore has a more intense flavour.
The fruits are picked and dried. The trees continuously produce new fruits.
Let's make an impact!
Each chain not only has its own story but also its own challenges. We would like to share the impact we make per chain and how we address specific challenges.
Our partner DACE is committed to preserving the natural, organic form of agriculture in this region. They ensure that farmers receive a steady income at a better price. They also support projects for women's empowerment and children's education. By working with them, we support their mission.
A challenge is that farmers have to compete with cheap harvests from neighboring China. Ultimately, many traders still buy on price and not on quality. This is a threat to this agricultural method, which produces very good products with very limited damage to nature.
Star anise is very sensitive. Too wet weather conditions can cause mold, too dry weather conditions result in a low yield. Climate change is making weather conditions increasingly extreme. Continued access to capital to deal with this flexibly is essential.
A challenge for farmers is harvesting. It all has to be done by hand, and part of the area is not easily accessible. They ride scooters up the mountain (slippery dirt roads) and then have to ride down the mountain with a scooter full of cinnamon to deliver it. Or they carry the cinnamon on their backs, which is a very heavy burden on the body. Many children therefore no longer want to do this work and leave for the city; parents therefore have to continue working until old age, and it is questionable whether successors for the family business will be found.
Frequently asked questions
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Air, light, and moisture are detrimental to the quality of your spices. Therefore, store them in a tightly sealed jar or tin that is opaque (or in a dark kitchen cupboard or drawer). Also, do not store them above your stove, as cooking fumes can affect them. Make sure to transfer spices from a refill pack into a well-sealing jar or tin as quickly as possible.
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The shelf life of spices is primarily determined by the loss of flavour that occurs over time, as otherwise, they generally don't go bad. We use a best-before date of 2.5 - 3 years after harvest. This depends partly on the time of packaging and also on whether they are whole spices that you need to grind yourself or pre-ground powder.
Spices found in supermarkets are often already 2-3 years old before they are even packaged, and then receive a best-before date of another 3-5 years. Primarily use your senses to determine if they are still good. Eventually, there will simply be no flavour left, which would be a shame for that beautiful meal!
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We do not have organic certification, even though our spices do meet these standards. All farmers work in harmony with nature and without pesticides, but the certification process is unfortunately very expensive. For small farmers, it is actually unaffordable. And we want to show them that it is worthwhile to grow spices sustainably. That there are people who are willing to pay for a quality natural product and that they do not first have to make a huge impossible investment in the form of certification.
Some of our farmers do have the certificate, by the way. Corporations, for example, can jointly apply for the certification process, making it much more affordable. But to be able to put this on the packaging, our entire chain would also have to be certified, including the Social Workshop where the spices are packaged. This is currently not possible, as they also work for other non-organic producers. So in short: no, we are not officially certified, but the quality and way of working are at least as good.
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Single Origin means that a product comes from one specific place. Often, harvests from different places, sometimes even from different countries and different years, are blended. Traders do this to develop the cheapest possible product with a consistent taste. With us, you know exactly where your spices come from, right down to the farmer's name. This also means that the quality can sometimes vary, as it is a natural product. For example, one year might be drier than another, which can lead to a change in taste. But our farmers always strive for the highest possible taste experience, and you can taste it!
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We always strive to purchase the latest harvest. Of course, it can sometimes happen that we still have some of the previous harvest in stock, even though the new harvest is already available. So we cannot always guarantee that you will receive the very latest harvest, but we do strive for that as much as possible. On the packaging, you will find a QR code leading to a page where you can find out exactly when your spices were harvested and when they were filled into the tins/bags. With this, we aim for complete transparency in our process.
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We ship to most European countries, but this does, of course, involve higher shipping costs. If you would like to order from a country but are unable to, please contact us so we can explore the options.
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At Sociale Werkplaats Siza, they do their utmost to pack the parcels the day after the order. When it's busy, it might take an extra day. They do not work on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays, so if you order on a Thursday, for example, it will take a bit longer before your parcel is shipped.
Once the parcels are ready, they are collected by the Groene Rijders and delivered by their bicycle couriers in the areas they serve, or outsourced to PostNL. Depending on how busy they are, they also aim to deliver within 1 working day.