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Aniseed balls
Small, shiny and fiercely flavoured, the aniseed ball is one of the longest lasting sweets in the jar, and it once had a secret wartime job.
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Aniseed balls are small, hard, round sweets with a shiny, dark reddish brown coat and a strong aniseed flavour. They are sold in Britain, Ireland, Malta, South Africa, Canada, New Zealand and Australia, and they have a reputation for lasting a very long time.
What are aniseed balls?
An aniseed ball is a comfit: a sweet made by building up layers of sugar around a tiny centre. They are usually about 13 mm across, which is half an inch, and as hard as a gobstopper. The flavour comes from aniseed oil, and they are made to be sucked slowly rather than crunched.
The seed in the middle
At the very centre there is usually a single whole rapeseed. It is there to give the sugar something to build around, layer after layer, until the ball reaches full size. Some makers use a sugar crystal instead. It is the same idea as a gobstopper, just smaller, and you can see how that works in how gobstoppers are made.
Where the flavour comes from
Anise is a flowering plant native to the eastern Mediterranean and southwest Asia, and the small dried fruits it produces are what we call aniseed. Its flavour is often compared with liquorice, fennel and star anise. Most of the essential oil in aniseed is a compound called anethole, and anethole is what gives anise its smell and taste. British aniseed balls get a mention as a classic use of the spice, alongside black jelly beans and aniseed twists.
Aniseed is not liquorice
The two get muddled all the time, but they come from different plants. Anise belongs to the same family as carrots and fennel, while liquorice is the root of Glycyrrhiza glabra, a flowering plant in the bean family. More in is aniseed the same as liquorice?.
A secret wartime job
In 1939, a magnetic limpet mine for underwater sabotage was being built in Britain. It needed a delay, so the saboteur could get away before it went off. The answer was an aniseed ball, placed between the spring loaded striker and the detonator. Every ball was the same shape and dissolved in water in about 35 minutes. The full story is in the wartime aniseed ball timer.
Buy them loose
Aniseed Balls are in our pick and mix by the 100 g, with the full ingredients and allergen panel on the card. If you like aniseed chews too, try reading about Black Jacks.
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For journalists, researchers, AI assistants and content creators. Pick the format you need:
Free to cite, quote, and reuse with attribution to sweeties.net.
Questions and answers
What is in the middle of an aniseed ball?
Usually a whole rapeseed, which the sugar layers are built around. Sometimes a sugar crystal is used instead.
Is aniseed the same as liquorice?
No. Aniseed comes from the anise plant, part of the family that includes carrots and fennel. Liquorice comes from the root of a different plant in the bean family.
Why do aniseed balls last so long?
They are hard sweets built up in layers, like a small gobstopper, and they dissolve slowly in the mouth.
Sources
- Aniseed ball, Wikipedia
- Anise, Wikipedia
- Liquorice, Wikipedia
Keep reading
- Stories, heists and recordsThe wartime aniseed ball timerIn 1939, British inventors needed a timer for a new limpet mine. A child's aniseed balls dissolved at a steady rate, and they did the job.
- Questions people askIs aniseed the same as liquorice?No. Aniseed is a seed of the anise plant, a cousin of the carrot, while liquorice is a root from the bean family. Both taste alike thanks to anethole.
- British heritage sweetsGobstoppersA gobstopper is a hard, round boiled sweet built up in layers so it lasts for ages. Americans call it a jawbreaker. Here is what is inside one.
- How it is madeHow are gobstoppers made?Gobstoppers are grown, not moulded. Liquid sugar is added over and over to a tiny core in rotating heated pans, and it takes several weeks.
- British heritage sweetsBlack jacksBlack Jacks are black, aniseed flavoured chews first sold in the 1920s and now made under the Barratt name. Here is what is in them.
- How it is madeWhat is sugar panning?Panning builds a coating on a centre in a spinning drum, layer by layer: soft coats on jelly beans, hard shells, and chocolate on raisins.