But however pretty, they have little of the power and depth of their black brethren. Not only do black and red currants look and taste different, but they are both unrelated to the familiar black dried currants used in baking. Although the berries are native to northern countries, the English are thought to have named them for Corinth raisins. Jane Grigson, in her beautifully written Fruit Book , says that black currants arrived in France from England and Holland only in the eighteenth century. Today rust-resistant varieties have been bred, and the berries are being revived.
Black currants grow on woody shrubs and are frankly homely beside their glossy relations.
Homely the berries may be, but they are potent, too. Burgundy's limestone-rich soil produces both grapes and black currants with intense flavor. By comparison, red currants and even gooseberries, another relation, are decorative lightweights. I went on a cassis binge, buying fruit gums, jellies, jams, and hard candies. All these were far more powerful in flavor than throat pastilles or Ribena, the unaccountably popular English fruit drink, both of which use black-currant extract.