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Chinese Five Spice substitutes

Out of chinese five spice? Here are the best substitutes — what to reach for, why it works, and how much to use. Star anise + cinnamon + cloves + fennel + Sichuan pepper is the top pick.

  1. 01
    Star anise + cinnamon + cloves + fennel + Sichuan pepperbest pick

    That's the blend — mix roughly equal parts and you have it.

    equal parts

  2. 02
    Garam masala

    Another warm-spice blend sharing cinnamon, cloves, and fennel.

    1:1

  3. 03
    Allspice + a pinch of star anise

    Covers the warm-sweet base plus the signature licorice note.

    1:1 allspice + pinch

  4. 04
    Pumpkin pie spice

    Shares the cinnamon-clove-ginger backbone; missing the anise.

    1:1

Cooking with chinese five spice?

Paste your recipe into Mise — we'll find every ingredient as a real product you can buy, and swap the ones you can't, like chinese five spice, for the closest match in stock.

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How we choose these

These are tested kitchen substitutes, chosen for matching flavor, texture, and role — with ratios so the swap actually works. Taste as you go; substitutes shift intensity, not just flavor.

Flavor data: Epicure (Radzikowski & Chen, 2026), arXiv:2605.22391, CC-BY-4.0.
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