Blackcurrant

The blackcurrant is the small, glossy, blue-black berry of Ribes nigrum, a hardy northern shrub, and is one of the most intensely flavoured of all fruits — sharply tart, deeply coloured and carrying a distinctive musky, resinous, faintly herbaceous aroma that is unlike any other berry. Too sour and pungent to be a casual eating fruit for most palates, it is prized cooked and processed: the backbone of cassis liqueur and the cordial Ribena, of jams, syrups and pastilles, and one of the richest common sources of vitamin C and anthocyanin pigment.