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Read one chapter at a timeFour times the vitamin C of an orange.
Very high in anthocyanins (the natural colour pigments that make fruit red, purple or blue).
Usually cooked or juiced.
Very few cool-climate fruits carry this much vitamin C and pigment together. Blackcurrant shows that a fruit doesn't need to be sweet or tropical to be nutritionally serious.
Strong flavour, so a small amount goes far.
Blackcurrants are small, near-black berries that hang in short strings from a low bush. Each berry has a dry little tuft at its tip. Crush a leaf and the smell is sharp and unmistakable — the bush is as aromatic as the fruit.
Family: Grossulariaceae (currant family).
Persian temperament: Cool & Dry (1st degree). Sour and astringent (tightens tissue and leaves a dry feeling in the mouth). Old practice used sour dark fruit for heat and thirst, and gave it warm rather than cold to weak digestions.
In European folk practice the blackcurrant LEAF, not the berry, was the medicine: brewed as a tea for aching joints and swelling. The berry itself was used for sore throats and winter chills. Leaf preparations are a separate remedy from the fruit and should not be taken alongside medication without advice.
Cassis is a fixture of French kitchens and bars, and blackcurrant cordial is a childhood taste across northern Europe. In Iran the currants are a cooler-climate garden fruit, grown in the north rather than sold widely.
Primary compounds
Gamma-linolenic acid (seed); polyphenols (protective plant compounds).
Other notable constituents
Minerals: Potassium, Manganese, Iron · Antioxidants: Quercetin (a plant compound found in onions, apples and tea), Myricetin
Fiber: ~4.5 g per 100 g
What studies in people show
Blackcurrant is among the richest common fruits in vitamin C on compositional analysis.Strong evidence
Anthocyanin-rich blackcurrant intake improved measures of vascular (relating to the blood vessels) function in small human trials.Emerging evidence
Strip berries from the string with a fork.
Simmer five minutes with a little sugar; they collapse quickly.
Freeze on a tray, then bag — they keep a year.
Cooked into compote or jam, where the sourness works.
In the kitchen: as a cordial diluted with water. Frozen and blended with a sweeter fruit such as banana.
Cook briefly with a little sugar into a loose compote.
Stir a spoon of blackcurrant into plain yogurt.
Freeze whole and blend into a cold drink.
Yogurt
Crush a spoonful of cooked fruit through thick yogurt. The sourness needs the fat behind it.
Honey
Blackcurrant is too sharp to eat plain. Honey stirred in off the heat is the usual answer.
Apple
Apple softens the acid and thickens the pan. Which is why old cordials nearly always included one.
Walnut
Toasted walnut on a bowl of tart fruit turns a sharp taste into a meal.
Concentrated blackcurrant extracts and seed oil are supplements, not the same as eating the fruit.
Commercial cordials are mostly sugar; check the label.
Honey isn't for infants under one year.
Warfarin — Blackcurrant carries some vitamin K and the seed oil affects platelets slightly. Keep your intake steady rather than swinging between none and a lot. (low concern)
Antiplatelet (medicines that stop blood cells sticking together, such as aspirin) medicine — Blackcurrant seed oil supplements, not the fruit, are the ones worth raising with a prescriber. (low concern)
Diabetes medicine — Cordials are heavily sweetened. The sugar matters here, not the berry. (low concern)
Pregnancy and breastfeeding
Good food in pregnancy. The vitamin C is genuinely high and the sourness often settles early nausea. Concentrated seed-oil capsules are a separate question for your doctor.
Children
Children usually meet blackcurrant as cordial, which is mostly sugar. Cooked fruit stirred into yogurt is the better introduction, and it's one of the few sour things children will eat.
Older adults
High vitamin C, useful fibre, and enough sharpness to wake a dull appetite. Cook it briefly with a little honey if the acid is uncomfortable.
Spring
The bushes leaf up and smell of blackcurrant before there's any fruit at all. Nothing to pick.
Summer
Mid-summer is the whole season. The fruit ripens fast and picks in a fortnight.
Autumn
Over. What is left is what you froze or cooked.
Winter
Frozen fruit into compote, and cordial by the spoon when someone has a sore throat.
Why are fresh ones hard to find?
They are very seasonal and bruise quickly, so most are sold as juice or jam.
Is seed oil the same as the berry?
No. It is a concentrated supplement and can interact with blood thinners.
End of the Blackcurrant guide