ANISE MYRTLE

The natural range of anise myrtle is astonishingly small — restricted to the Nambucca and Bellinger Valleys on the subtropical Mid-North Coast of NSW, on Gumbaynggirr country, where the wet rainforest of the Great Dividing Range meets the coast. [source] Traditional Indigenous use of the plant predates colonial knowledge by tens of thousands of years; the commercial bushfood trade only began in the early 1990s, with the first cultivated plantations established mid-decade to meet growing demand from restaurants and food manufacturers. Today the leaf is widely used in Australian native cuisine, and increasingly in craft gin and tonic syrups. Its dominant compound, trans-anethole, is the same molecule that defines anise, fennel and star anise — but anise myrtle delivers it alongside a cooler eucalypt note that no Mediterranean spice can match.

Anise myrtle is one of the most distinctively Australian botanicals you can put in a gin. A full sachet pushes a gin into clear native-Australian territory — sweet-aniseed lead, cool green back-palate. A half-sachet does its best work alongside lemon myrtle or pepperberry, anchoring a bush-food botanical bill. Avoid pairing with traditional anise (aniseed, fennel) — the result is muddy rather than additive. Pair instead with citrus, cinnamon, or wattle seed for contrast.

Trans-anethole is the heavy lifter — the same compound responsible for the aniseed character in fennel, star anise and aniseed itself, but here in unusually high concentration (typically over 90% of the essential oil). [source] Methyl chavicol adds a slightly bitter, basil-adjacent note that gives the leaf its characteristic green edge. Eugenol, in smaller amounts, contributes a clove-like warmth on the finish. Trans-anethole is fat- and alcohol-soluble and survives heat well; vapour infusion preserves the brightest green top notes, while macerated extraction draws out the deeper anethole sweetness. The compound can crystallise in cold storage — a faint cloudiness is normal, not a fault.