Spring and Autumn Star Anise: Harvest Months and Real Differences

Guangxi's star anise trees carry two crops a year. The autumn fruit grows through the long, sunny summer, so it fills out: the lobes are wider and thicker, more of the stars open, and the fruit holds more anise oil. The face turns yellow-brown and the back dark brown, with natural variation from star to star.

The spring fruit develops through a shorter, cloudier and wetter season. It comes out smaller and thinner, with narrow lobes, fewer open stars, more twigs, less oil, a woodier smell and less sweetness. Wet weather also makes it hard to dry, which is why sulphur-treated spring lots are common in the market. Sulphur dries fruit faster and makes it look brighter, but it can leave sulphur dioxide residues and a sharp, sour smell that food importers in Europe, the United States and the Middle East turn away.

The autumn crop moves across Guangxi from south to north over about 20 days. Fangchenggang and Qinzhou (Pubei) come first, then Baise, Nanning, Wuzhou and Yulin. Vietnam picks its spring crop from March to May, mainly in March and April. Its autumn crop runs from August to November, mainly in September and October, about a month behind Guangxi, because the northern mountains cool later.

Seen from our desk in Yulin's Fuda market, this means the market carries autumn fruit from both countries from September to December, and prices move as one crop gives way to the other. Outside the harvest windows, fruit is sold from stock, so ask when a lot was picked and how it has been stored.

Guangxi's traditional groves are seed-grown trees 10–15 metres tall. They start fruiting after 6–8 years and stay productive for decades. Their fruit is full and thick-walled, with a strong aroma and a sweet finish that lasts. Old-tree fruit from areas such as Gulong in Teng County is treated as export raw material. Picking it is slow and risky: pickers climb the trees and bring in 100–200 jin (50–100 kg) of fresh fruit a day.

Newer groves use grafted dwarf trees kept at 2.5–5 metres, which fruit within 2–3 years and are picked from the ground. Their fruit is more uniform but has thinner lobes and a little less oil, and its aroma comes out quickly and fades sooner. Baise has many of these new groves. For whole-star export we look for the thick, oily fruit that older trees give.

Both countries grow the same species, Illicium verum. The differences our graders look for are practical. Guangxi fruit usually has 8–9 regular, thick lobes, 3–4 mm on southern Guangxi fruit; Vietnamese fruit more often has 6–7 thinner, less regular lobes of 1–2 mm. Open a Guangxi star and the inside shows many shiny oil cells; Vietnamese fruit is often drier inside, with gaps at the core. A litre of Guangxi autumn fruit weighs about 280–300 g, against 250–270 g for Vietnamese autumn fruit.

On the tongue, good Guangxi fruit is sweet and lingering without astringency. Vietnamese lots can be more bitter, astringent and pungent, even after cooking. Traditional northern Vietnamese processing dries the fruit in the sun without blanching, which gives darker, more astringent fruit; Vietnamese export factories now steam-dry, wash and colour-sort.

These are first screens, not proof of origin. Origin is declared for each lot from its supply records. If a lot sold as Guangxi fruit shows many thin, 6–7-lobed stars, we check the records before it goes any further.