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I’ve just bought some star anise, but I'm not sure of its origin. It smells zingy which kind of reminds me of Chinese food.

Taste-wise, is there a difference between Indian and Chinese star anise? I wanted the Indian one, as per a recipe, but I’m wondering if I have the Chinese one and if that will give the same taste the recipe intended?

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  • The culinary star anise is Illicium verum. Just to be clear, in English the plant called the "Japanese star anise" is a different species, Illicium anisatum, which is toxic and not fit for consumption.
    – Michaelyus
    Commented Dec 10, 2019 at 15:23

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In my experience, star anise is star anise. I don't think the origin matters much for your recipe, but there might be a marginal difference. I've never paid much attention to the origin of my star anise.

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The star anise shrub (Illicium verum) originates in China, so it's all going to be pretty similar regardless of where the pods you bought are actually grown; where I live distributors don't even label origin for it. Nor can I find a single online publication source that mentions any differentiation of star anise by origin.

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