Anise drink
🌱 VeganAnise drink is a family of spirits flavoured by anise seeds, often combined with other plants, and produced in several countries around the Mediterranean. In Spain and much of Spanish-speaking America it is a familiar everyday spirit, served neat or with water.
History
Anise drinks belong to a wider family of seed-flavoured spirits that have been made for centuries around the Mediterranean. The sources do not establish a single place or date of invention, so it is more accurate to speak of a shared distilling tradition than of one inventor.
In Spain, several towns gave their names to local versions. Cazalla de la Sierra in Seville, Chinchón near Madrid and Ojén in Málaga were associated with well-known anises. Rute, in Córdoba, has produced its liquor by hand since 1630, according to local tradition. Industrial brands also spread widely, such as Anís del Mono, made since 1870, and Anís de la Asturiana, since 1895.
Emigration carried the drink to Latin America. Anís Najar has been made in Arequipa, Peru, since 1854, and Anís 8 Hermanos, one of Argentina's best-known brands, was founded in 1916 by the Catalan immigrant Antonio Freixas. Beyond Spain, neighbouring Mediterranean countries developed their own relatives, including French pastis, Italian sambuca, Greek ouzo and Turkish rakı.
Culture
In Spain, anís is usually sipped neat in a small glass or mixed with water, which turns it cloudy white. Spanish anís is classed by strength: the sweet version is around 30 degrees and the dry version around 50. In some areas, cazalla is used more broadly for any dry anís, and the adjective cazallera describes a hoarse voice with that drink in mind.
Anís also lives in popular memory. In the twentieth century the refrain "una copita... de Ojén" became widely known, showing how a local brand entered everyday speech. Traditional labels, such as the monkey design by Ramon Casas i Carbó, still identify these brands today.
In each country of the Mediterranean and Latin American context, anís has its own version and its own ritual, from the aperitif to the after-dinner drink.