Blackcurrant

Also known asBlack Currant · Ribes nigrum · 黑加仑

Name: Blackcurrant, also written black currant (Ribes nigrum).

Description

Blackcurrant is a deciduous shrub native to temperate northern Eurasia, long cultivated across Europe for its small, round, near-black berries and prized for an intensely aromatic leaf and fruit unlike its paler currant relatives. It grows as a low, spineless bush with clustered greenish-to-reddish flowers that ripen into tart, juicy fruit in early summer.

Because all currant species can host the white-pine blister rust fungus, blackcurrant growing was banned outright in the United States from the early 1900s until restrictions eased state by state starting in 1966, which is part of why the fruit remains far more familiar in Britain and continental Europe — long the base of the French liqueur crème de cassis and, in Britain, of blackcurrant cordial — than in North American kitchens.

Main nutrition value

Per 100g, raw European blackcurrant:

Blackcurrants are exceptionally rich in vitamin C — about 181mg per 100g, roughly triple the vitamin C of an equal weight of oranges — and also provide meaningful potassium and iron.

How best to be consumed

Raw blackcurrants are quite tart and are usually cooked with sugar into jam, cordial, or cassis rather than eaten out of hand; their high acidity actually helps them hold onto vitamin C reasonably well during cooking compared with milder fruits. A handful of fresh berries also works well stirred into yogurt or baked into a crumble alongside sweeter fruit to balance the sharpness.

Overconsumption could cause…

Blackcurrants are safe in ordinary amounts, but their intense acidity can aggravate heartburn or irritate a sensitive stomach if eaten in large quantities, and juices or cordials made from them are often heavily sweetened, adding more sugar than the fruit itself contains. Like many tart berries they carry some natural oxalates, which is mainly a consideration for people prone to kidney stones eating very large amounts regularly.

GroupsBerriesCurrant family (Grossulariaceae)Low fatLow sodiumRich in vitamin CFresh

Related foodsRed CurrantWhite CurrantGooseberryBlueberryRaspberryLoganberry

U.S. Department of Agriculture, FoodData Central — Currants, european black, raw (FDC ID 173963), 100g portion: https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/food-details/173963/nutrients Encyclopaedia Britannica — Black currant: https://www.britannica.com/plant/black-currant