This is more of a winter thing in China, but I wanted them for something non-Chinese. That said they are essential in hotpots, malatang and luosifen here, so always easy to source. I bought a small bag of the three mixed together. 30 grams in total for ¥1 / 14 cents USD. This is less than a third.
We have 桂皮 (guì pí), cassia bark; 香叶 (xiāng yè), bay leaf; and 八角 (bā jiǎo), star anise. All grown locally. In fact, Guangxi grows 80% of the world’s star anise.
Here is one extraordinarily tiny star anise with my left hand for scale. It's smaller than my fingernail.
