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Comment by TRiG_Ireland | Hacker News Reader

If you haven't had blackcurrant, seek it out. It's a distinctive flavour, and I love it. Also, while articles on this always highlight specifically blackcurrant, I believe that it also applies to redcurrant (like blackcurrant but milder) and gooseberry (like blackcurrant but tarter).

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Another good one of the Berries of Distinctive Flavour is The Elderberry .. the flowers from which one can make a delightful syrup that not only makes for a superb soda, or cocktail base, but can be turned into a fruit-flavoured Liquor, which is .. if you like such things .. probably one of the nicest little schnapps you'll slurp.

(Gotta cook 'em right though, well except the flowers, you just harvest those before the ants do and make a delicious summer soda for the kids ..)

There's also the salmonberry!

The flowers, yes. I grew up on elderflower champaign. Wonderful stuff. I have had elderberry cordial, but not recently. Must seek it out again.

Elderberries make great jelly and pie. Unfortunately the birds keep getting mine before they're ripe, it's hard to find them in the wild on public land, and no one grows them commercially around me. So I haven't had either in years.

It's a little expensive, but if you love elderberries, we order the jams from this online store: https://carmelberry.com/collections/all

Agreed. It's my favourite fruit flavour. It's very distinctive, so I imagine it's a love-it-or-hate-it taste. In the US, there are few domestic products that incorporate blackcurrant, but just about any European-import grocery will likely be stocked with a wide variety. Jams, jellies, syrups, soft drinks, instant oatmeal with freeze-dried blackcurrants, etc. Larger liquor stores will often have (usually imported) cassis (blackcurrant liqueur) as well.

I'm still disappointed that Strongbow never brought their "Dark Fruit" cider to the US. I first tasted blackcurrant by drinking one in London about ten years ago.

... I somehow shouldn't be surprised that industrial snakebite-and-black exists. The favourite drink of UK goths everywhere. I can feel Andrew Eldritch sneaking up behind me. He has a drum machine.

(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snakebite_(drink))

You can make your own authentic British pub-style cider-and-black by grabbing a bottle of Ribena from the 'British' or 'Irish' section of your local supermarket's 'ethnic foods' aisle, and adding a shot to the glass before pouring in your Strongbow.

And there is also josta (or jostaberry), a hybrid of JOhannisbeere (blackcurrant) x STAchelbeere (2 different species of gooseberry).

I've planted two Josta bushes that I hope will produce next year. Haven't even tasted one yet.

Oh my, I don't care much for blackcurrent, but absolutely love redcurrant and whitecurrant. The best one is a pink cultivar.

I tell you, the pines aren't worth it.

How common are allergies? I was surprised to find that it is literally the only fruit I have ever had that caused an obvious allergic reaction, it has gotten me multiple times when used as "natural color" in foods pretending to be fancy.

I hope they don't lose the requirement to at least list it as a distinct ingredient. I hate that part of US nutritional labels, you should never be able to just declare something is "spices".

Gooseberries don't taste anything like blackcurrant to me (thankfully so, since I love gooseberries and don't like blackcurrants)

You can get all kinds of currants and gooseberries in the US. There are even blackcurrant plants available that are resistant to the white pine blister rust.

Gooseberries are very different. Much more sour, very firm/hard, crisp and very tannin-y. Pickled gooseberries made in India are amazing if you’re okay with it being hot.

Red gooseberry is somewhat less sour than the green one though.

They become a little less extreme when made into jam; the copious quantity of sugar takes away some of their sharpness. If you like the sharpness, however, gooseberry crumble is the perfect way to serve them!

Are gooseberries grown in India different, or could you pickle, say, British ones to produce the same effect?

Traditionally, the Muslim community in India preferred to make jam out of gooseberries and the Hindus preferred to pickle them.

Don't know about Indian varieties, but in European goosberries the sourness comes from their skins and dissipates almost completely when given time to ripen properly. That is, ripe goosberries aren't sour at all.

I think Indian gooseberries may be different. They’re green, slightly bitter, tannic and sour and the texture is like a raw apple (crisp, hard) and fibrous.

This is the one I’m talking about (Amla)- https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phyllanthus_emblica

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