A gift of great charm from France, this pretty round tin box is filled with France’s most famous candy called Anis de Flavigny, which is a tiny, egg-shaped white candy, made from an aniseed. Each aniseed is coated with thin layers of sugar and does not weigh more than 0.04 ounces. After having selected the best quality aniseeds from Spain, Turkey or Syria, the seeds are dropped in copper basins, roll and little by little get covered with sugar. In the 17th century, the recipe consisted in coating an aniseed with sugar and then flavoring it with orange blossom water. At the time, only the nobility could afford these confections as it took six months to make one candy because of all the work consisting in coating by hand and drying. Today, the recipe has not changed except that 15 days only are required to make the candy. These refreshing pastilles are packaged in a tin box. (8.81 oz)

The Anis de Flavigny is the specialty of Flavigny-sur-Ozerain, a French village situated in the region of Burgundy. As legend says, it was thanks to Julius Caesar that the anise plant was introduced in Burgundy. When the town of Alesia was besieged by Caesar and his troops in 52 B.C., it is believed the Roman doctors who accompanied the troops had planted seeds of green anise on the grounds of the hospital they erected. At that time the plant was thought to have therapeutic powers, as evidenced by the writings of Pliny the Elder, a Roman philosopher, who recommended it against scorpion's stings and other ailments. According to historians, the ancient town of Alesia was located next to what is now the village of Flavigny-sur-Ozerain. Whatever the case may be, the anis de Flavigny is extremely old: it is first mentioned in a document dating from 872 A.D. that stated that three pounds of anise were given to the pope John VIII by the Benedictine monks of Flavigny as a good-bye present to the pope who had spent three weeks in their abbey. The abbey, built near the ancient grounds of Alesia in 719 A.D., did not keep well preserved records, so we do not know whether or not the anise was candied. As sugar was not known in Europe during that time, it might have been candied with honey. Whatever the case may be, the recipe was lost forever. It is not until the 17th century that the anis de Flavigny was mentioned again. The abbey was then inhabited by Ursuline nuns and it was under the supervision of Sister Claude Jacotot that the nuns decided to sell candied aniseed. After the revolution and the departure of the nuns, several candy-makers from the village started making the candy. After World War 1, two of them came together under the name of “Au Galant Berger” and made the anis de Flavigny. The factory was situated in the old abbey. “Berger” means shepherd, the same shepherd one can see on the metal box. The company was bought in 1923 by Jean Troubat, whose family continues today the tradition of making the anis de Flavigny.