🌿 Anise spirits

Ouzo, pastis, sambuca and Chinchón all smell of anise, but each is a different legal drink. Anise spirits are strong drinks whose main flavour comes from anise, star anise or fennel. In the EU they are categories 25–29, 36 and 41: from the general aniseed-flavoured spirit (from 15% ABV) to pastis (from 40%) and pastis de Marseille (from 45%) ¹.

The spirit is flavoured by maceration, distillation with the plant seeds or the addition of natural distilled extracts. Pastis also contains liquorice extract; it has 1.5–2 g/l of anethole, pastis de Marseille 1.9–2.1 g/l, and under 100 g/l of sugar. Anis (category 28) has a 35% minimum; distilled anis (29) is anis in which spirit distilled with the seeds gives at least 20% of the strength. Sambuca (36) is a colourless anise liqueur from 38% ABV with at least 350 g/l of sugar. Mistrà (41) is colourless, without sugar, 40–47% ¹.

Ouzo is a distilled anis and a protected name of Greece and Cyprus, where all stages must take place in one of the two countries. It is colourless, from 37.5% ABV, with no more than 50 g/l of dry extract; distillation is in traditional copper stills of up to 1,000 l, and permitted raw materials include mastic from Chios ³. Ouzo of Mitilene, Plomari, Kalamata, Thrace and Macedonia are protected separately ⁷.

Spanish names show how far anise drinks diverge. Chinchón, only from the municipality of Chinchón, ranges from sweet (35–40%, over 200 g/l of sugar) to special dry (70–74%, up to 10 g/l) ⁵. Anís Paloma Monforte del Cid has 40–55%, up to 50 g/l of sugar, from the province of Alicante ⁴. Absinthe shares the anise, but its flavour rests on wormwood and it has no EU category of its own ¹. Rakı is in the EU register so far as an application from Türkiye, not a registered name ⁷. Outside EU rules, the arak of the Levant matters too: under a 1998 Lebanese resolution it is only grape spirit distilled with aniseed, with no sugar or molasses, at 40–60 % ABV. On the EU market such drinks fall under category 25 ⁹.

The drink turns white with water because anethole dissolves less well as the alcohol falls ³. This is called the "ouzo effect": an emulsion forms by itself, without emulsifiers ⁶. Ouzo can also cloud in the cold and form crystals below 0 °C ³.

Other sections of this topic: Bitters and bitter spirits; Caraway spirits and aquavit; Pomace spirits; Liqueurs; Gin and juniper spirits; Asian spirit traditions; Mulled wine and fortified wines; How spirits are made. All sections are gathered on the “Spirits” page.

Why it matters to you. A similar smell does not mean a similar drink: strength runs from 15% to 70–74% in dry Chinchón, and sugar from none in mistrà to at least 350 g/l in sambuca ¹⁵. Check the category and strength on the label. WHO: no level of alcohol is safe ⁸.