Blackcurrant
A small intensely aromatic northern berry, and one of the few dried fruits that keeps a recognisable amount of its character. It is the flavour base of crème de cassis and of a great many European fruit blends.
Identity
- Botanical name
- Ribes nigrum
- Family
- Grossulariaceae
- Part used
- Fruit
- Origin
- Europe, western and central Asia, Siberia and Mongolia
- Drunk in
- Burgundy, Poland, Britain, Scandinavia
Character
Sharp, deep and unmistakable, with a green catty note that is characteristic of the fruit and that some people dislike intensely. It survives drying better than raspberry or strawberry do.
Notes: blackcurrant, boxwood, red wine
History
Crème de cassis was formalised in Dijon in the 1840s and made Burgundy the centre of European blackcurrant growing. Britain planted the crop heavily during the Second World War as a domestic vitamin C source, and much of that acreage still supplies the squash industry.
How it is drunk
Drunk as squash and cordial in Britain, as cassis liqueur in France, and as a hot fruit infusion across Poland, Russia and the Nordic countries. It is the dominant fruit flavour of northern Europe in a way it is nowhere else.
Production
Berries are machine-harvested and either pressed, frozen or dried. Drying costs a good deal of the aroma but leaves more than most fruits do, which is why blackcurrant blends taste of something.
Preparation
Infusion · Decoction · Cold infusion
Herbal infusion (tisane)
1–2 g/100 ml · 90–95 °C · 7 min
Category-typical practice rather than a measurement for this specific botanical. Most infusions are far more tolerant of a long steep than tea is.
What gets confused
Most 'blackcurrant' infusions are apple and hibiscus with blackcurrant flavouring, and a look at the ingredient order settles it quickly.
Common mistakes
- Assuming the packet’s picture reflects its contents. Read the order of the ingredient list.
Related botanicals
- Blackcurrant leaf — Leaf and fruit of one bush, and unusually the leaf really does carry the fruit’s aroma — but none of its sweetness.
- Sour cherry — Sharp northern and eastern European fruits that survive drying with their character intact.
Comparisons
- Blackcurrant vs blackcurrant leaf — Fruit and leaf of one bush, and unusually the leaf really does carry the fruit’s aroma. What it does not carry is any of the sweetness, which is where the surprise sits.
Guides
Evidence for this page
The botanical name, family and distribution above are checked against an external authority. Ribes nigrum L. — GRIN-Global Taxonomy record— retrieved and read, not countersigned by a named human. That source covers naming and distribution only. Everything else on this page — history, culture, production, flavour, preparation and buying advice — is TeaHQ’s own synthesis with no external source behind it.
Brewing parameters here are typical practice for the category rather than measurements of this plant, and each set says so.
This page makes no safety claim. It describes what Blackcurrant is, where it comes from and how it is prepared — not what it does to a person. The absence of a safety note here is not a statement that the plant is safe. How TeaHQ handles this.