The little anise heart beating in Flavigny
And also
The tops
What’s this?
In Flavigny abbey (Côte-d’Or), they jealously keep the anise's recipe! But, what is it?
A white and round dragée, coated with sugar, with a green anise seed in the middle! Well, beware, don’t crunch it, your teeth would say "ouch"...
Let the candy slowly melt in your mouth: at the end, you’ll taste the delicate anise flavour. These sweets are flavoured with violet, rose, blackcurrant, lemon, orange flower water, ginger, tangerine, mint and liquorice.
The little history
They produced those candies in the old Benedictine Flavigny abbey since the 9th century!
The abbey itself was founded by Widerade in 723. Benedictine monks moved in and put saint Reine’s relics (martyred in Alise, Burgundy) in the crypt, in 866.
After a prosperous era, the abbey was pulled down during the Revolution, the church destroyed in 1794. They completely transformed the cloister into an anise factory (with the sign Le Fidèle Berger, "the Loyal Shepherd").
Flavigny anises became famous: every noblemen and kings of France had anises in their pockets... even Louis XIV!