Chinese Five-Spice Syrup

This is a terrible recipe. So my idea about how to make a five spice syrup was to use whole spices, lightly crushed or bruised. In te supermarket I couldn’t find star anise- key ingredient- and a bottle of whole cloves was going to cost me $12 so, I went with this recipe using 5 spice powder, suspecting that it would be impossible to strain out the five spice, even using cheesecloth. Well, first of all the syrup- really, I followed the recipe- was too thick to go through cheesecloth, and there was no way the microscopic bits of 5 spice powder were going to strain out. Use whole spices, more water and good luck. The good news? I invented 3 really tasty champagne cocktails with the syrup. Can’t serve to guests, however, too full of spice bits!