Best Chinese Five-Spice Powder Substitutes

Out of five-spice? Your best bet is to make your own. The blend is usually fennel seed, cassia (Chinese cinnamon), cloves, star anise and Sichuan pepper, though plenty of variations exist, and it has licorice base notes, sweet top notes and a slight numbing edge. If you’re missing some of those, equal parts ground star anise and cinnamon cover the licorice-and-warmth side most people know, fennel can stand in for the star anise, and a pinch of Sichuan pepper brings back the tingle. Just make sure your star anise is the kind sold as a food spice.

Quick answer

What five-spice is doing	Best substitute	Starting amount, per 1 part five-spice	Treatment
Everything (roast pork, braises, marinades)	Homemade five-spice	1 part	Method (recipe Attributed)
Licorice-like sweetness with cinnamon warmth	Ground star anise and cinnamon, equal parts	1/2 part, then taste	Method
Licorice sweetness without star anise	Ground fennel seed and cinnamon	1/2 part, then taste	Method
The numbing tingle	Ground Sichuan pepper, added to any of the above	A pinch, then taste	Method
Converting whole spices to ground	McCormick’s whole-to-ground figures	See the table below	Computed

How the ratios on this page are labeled

Every ratio carries one of four labels.

Computed: based on a measurable physical relationship.
Attributed: a named source publishes this ratio. We quote it as theirs.
Disputed: named sources give different answers to the same swap. You get each one, side by side.
Method: our starting point, based on how the two compare. Taste and adjust.

The Woks of Life, whose recipe is quoted below, says five-spice is fairly easy to make from scratch if you’re out.¹ The only measured figures here are McCormick’s whole-to-ground conversions, and those are volume equivalents, not strength.

If five-spice is doing everything

Make your own

Recipe (Attributed): The Woks of Life gives its homemade blend in parts: 2 parts fennel seed, 1 part ground cassia, 1 part Sichuan peppercorns, 1 part star anise (counting four stars as one part) and 1/3 part cloves. Toast the whole spices in a dry pan over low heat until fragrant, then grind them.² The site encourages you to play with the proportions “rather than adding equal amounts of each spice.”¹

Amount: Use homemade at the same amount as store-bought. Taste a new batch before you add the full measure.

Store-bought blends don’t agree with each other either. McCormick Culinary’s lists anise, cinnamon, star anise, cloves and ginger, with no fennel or Sichuan pepper,³ while Schwartz’s lists star anise, fennel, cinnamon, cloves, black pepper and garlic.⁴ If you’re trying to match a particular brand, read its label.

Converting whole spices to ground (Computed)

Got whole spices but no grinder, or want to measure ground in place of whole? McCormick publishes these conversions:⁵

Whole	Ground equivalent
1 whole star anise	1/2 teaspoon ground
3 whole cloves	1/4 teaspoon ground
1 teaspoon fennel seeds	1 1/4 teaspoons ground
One 1 1/2-inch cinnamon stick	1 teaspoon ground

These are volume figures. They tell you how much powder a whole spice makes, not how strong it is.

If five-spice is licorice sweetness with cinnamon warmth

This is the flavor most people know as five-spice. The Woks of Life says the star anise “tastes faintly of licorice, while the cinnamon and fennel offer warm and sweet notes.”¹

1. Star anise and cinnamon

These two carry a lot of the blend. In the Woks of Life recipe, they’re equal parts.²

You’ll miss the clove note and the numbing tingle. If you have ground cloves, a very small pinch gets you closer.

Ordinary ground cinnamon will usually do. The cinnamon in classic five-spice is cassia, and cassia is the most common cinnamon sold in North America.

Ratio (Method): Mix equal parts ground star anise and ground cinnamon, and start with about half the five-spice amount. Taste before adding more.

Buy the right star anise. In 2003 the FDA warned against teas made from star anise after about 40 people got sick. It noted that Japanese star anise “has long been recognized as toxic in many countries.”⁶ Use star anise sold as a food spice.

2. Fennel seed and cinnamon (no star anise)

Fennel seed contains anethole, the compound behind its anise smell and sweet taste.⁷ Star anise oil is mostly anethole too, and that shared compound is why fennel can cover star anise’s licorice side. Fennel is already the biggest part of the Woks of Life recipe.²

Ratio (Method): Mix about 2 parts ground fennel to 1 part cinnamon, following the Woks of Life proportions, and start with half the five-spice amount.

3. What about allspice?

You’ll sometimes see allspice suggested in place of star anise. Its main compound is the same as clove’s, so expect a warm, clove-like note, not licorice. Reach for it only if the clove side of the blend is what you’re missing.

Ratio (Method): Add a pinch and taste.

If five-spice is the numbing tingle

Sichuan pepper

Katzer describes Sichuan pepper as producing a numbing, almost anesthetic feeling on the tongue.⁸ The Woks of Life calls the flavor “floral, almost lemony.”¹

On its own, Sichuan pepper won’t stand in for the whole blend. Add it to the star anise and cinnamon mix above.

Ratio (Method): In the Woks of Life recipe, Sichuan pepper is the same part as star anise or cassia.² Start with a pinch in your substitute mix and add more to taste.

What doesn’t work well

Chile-based mixes like cayenne with cinnamon and cloves get suggested sometimes. None of the four five-spice ingredient lists compared on our five-spice profile contains chile, so cayenne adds heat the blend doesn’t have. That suggestion often leans on the idea that the blend stands for “the five flavors.” Britannica says the five components are thought to represent salty, bitter, aromatic, sweet and sour,⁹ which describes the blend’s balance. It isn’t a recipe you can rebuild from any five spices.

What isn’t known

Anise-flavored liqueur is sometimes suggested. We found no source for that swap, so it’s not here.

“Five Spice Powder”, The Woks of Life, 2020. thewoksoflife.com · Publication ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴
Kaitlin, “How to Make Five Spice Powder”, The Woks of Life, 2020. thewoksoflife.com · Publication ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴
“McCormick Culinary Chinese Five Spice”, McCormick (product page). mccormick.com · Merchant ↩
“Schwartz Chinese 5 Spice Seasoning”, Schwartz (product page). schwartz.co.uk · Merchant ↩
“How to Grind Your Own Spices, Plus Spice Conversions”, McCormick, 2025. mccormick.com · Merchant ↩
“Teas Made from Star Anise Were Associated With Illnesses”, U.S. Food and Drug Administration, 2003. fda.gov · Regulator ↩
Purwaningsih, Harmida and Brink, Foeniculum vulgare, Plant Resources of South-East Asia (PROSEA). uses.plantnet-project.org · Reference work ↩
Gernot Katzer, “Sichuan pepper”, Gernot Katzer’s Spice Pages. gernot-katzers-spice-pages.com · Reference work ↩
Tony Hill, “Five-spice powder”, Encyclopaedia Britannica. britannica.com · Reference work ↩

Also drawn on

Syzygium aromaticum (PROSEA), E.W.M. Verheij and C.H.A. Snijders, Plant Resources of South-East Asia, via Pl@ntUse. uses.plantnet-project.org
Pimenta dioica (PROSEA), D. Sulistiarini, Plant Resources of South-East Asia, via Pl@ntUse. uses.plantnet-project.org
Cinnamon: Usefulness and Safety (last updated November 2024), National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NIH). nccih.nih.gov

Chinese Five-Spice Substitutes, Ranked by the Job Each Spice Is Doing