Hacker News Reader

Comment by mabbo | Hacker News Reader

When I lived in Scotland (exchange program year in University) I remember asking my roommates "what's blackcurrant?" And they looked at me like I had asked what an apple was.

We actually had to go search online and figure out why I'd never heard of them.

View on HN

For me, it was Skittles! I traveled to the UK, bought some Skittles, and almost spit them out (blackcurrant instead of grape). Had to look up what it was. Still haven’t tried the real thing, only in candy form.

British food area of your local grocery store may have Ribena, which is a blackcurrant cordial.

Squash! :)

I had the reverse happen in the US (from Australia). Had no idea that the purple/black sweets would taste like grape. Expected flavours were currants, aniseed, or possibly blackberry.

> aniseed

We do have licorice candy, but it will be black, not purple, and it wouldn't be mixed with other flavors of candy, since a large number of people seem to hate it. (Sometimes mixed jellybeans will include licorice.)

Eating too much black licorice (50g/day over a couple of weeks) can have detrimental health consequences for some people. So, moderation. Also some people get palpitations from black licorice.

I stopped into a pub in Dublin, Ireland once and everyone was drinking a pint of Guinness w/ blackcurrant. I had no idea that was a thing.

It shouldn’t be.

Chambord is quite good in Guinness too

Reply on news.ycombinator.com