Aniseed ball

Aniseed balls (next to a metric ruler for scale).

Aniseed balls are a type of hard round sweet sold in the UK, Ireland, Malta, Canada, New Zealand and Australia. They are shiny and dark reddish brown, and hard like Gobstoppers, but generally only 1 cm across.

They were a staple traditional sweet in the 1950s and 1960s in Australia and New Zealand but have become rare in recent years.

They are flavoured by aniseed oil, have a very strong aniseed flavour, and last for a long time in the mouth before dissolving. In the centre of the ball is normally a whole rapeseed, which is used for forming layers of sugar around, although other nuclei are sometimes used, for example a sugar crystal.