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Best Anise of Flavigny in San Francisco

“Each candy begins as a single anise seed, built layer by layer over 15 days into a jeweled dragée.”

Anise of Flavigny

What the real thing tastes like

Anise of Flavigny is a candy from Flavigny-sur-Ozerain in Burgundy. Anise candies were first made by the Benedictine monks of the abbey of Flavigny (founded in 719), as reported by the Roman traveller Flavius. After the French Revolution, several confectioners began making this delicacy using the same recipe. Only one manufacturer remains today at the abbey, Maison Troubat, who claims to follow a recipe which has been in use since 1591. Each candy is made in a dragee process starting with a single anise seed: Over a period of 15 days it is covered with successive coats of flavored sugar syrup. The finished candy is always called "Anis" by its makers, even when the flavor is one of violet, rose, mint, jasmine, liquorice, or orange instead of anise.

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In the abbey village of Flavigny-sur-Ozerain, a single confectioner still coats anise seeds in successive layers of flavored sugar syrup—a process that unfolds over fifteen days and traces back to 1591. These jewel-like dragées begin as one seed and transform into something delicate and precise, their shells colored and perfumed with violet, rose, mint, or jasmine, yet the makers call them all simply 'Anis' regardless of their final flavor. What the Benedictine monks started in the 8th century survives now as Maison Troubat's quiet craft.

Order it here when it has

  • centuries-old recipe lineage
  • hand-built precision
  • flavor variety despite unified name
  • surviving monastic craft

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