Most people know the difference between black currants and blackberries or AIBU?

[CatMilkMan]

DP told me she had seen lots of black currants and said she would juice them, I love ribena so was pretty happy.
She bought me a large glass of nice sweet black currant juice, except it was tarte evil blackberries. I took a massive mouthful, it wasn't pleasant but anyway she had no idea blackberries and black currants are different things!
She is adamant that this isn't common knowledge, do you know the difference? Am I going crazy?

DS and I picked blackberries yesterday.

GrouchyKiwi are you actually part of the Ribena empire?

She probably drove past 96754000 blackberries in the hedgerows on the way to the supermarket.

Where? They've been shrivelled and tiny around here for the past few weeks!

A berry looks like a berry, a currant looks like other fruit called currants (red, white and black) how hard can it be?

They're very different. But blackcurrants are NOT sweet like ribena!!
We make jam from ours as they need shitloads of sugar to make them edible.
Blackcurrants can be eaten right off the bush nice and sweet.

I gôt lots of lovely blackberries on tooting common abut a month ago. 5kg in an hour or so. Turned it into delicious jam, but sadly had to buy the apples.

I think either option would be foul juiced without additional sugar.

I do know the difference OP. have red currants in garden which are seriously tart, and blueberries which are yummy.

BUt Ribena is full of sugar so thats why it is sweet .... Where I live I have to BUY blackberries its a sin I tell you and a bloody rip off. Kids plead to go to the Uk early September to go and PYO.
MIne who don't have the cance to pick or grow know the difference between all 3 blackcurrants, blue and black berries. We were introduced to Tayberries this summer never heard of them before.....

You'd have to juice a hell of a lot of blackcurrents to get enough juice out of them.

Lucky to find some now - ours are all well over here.

And never buy the supermarket ones - enormous, sharp, nasty things. Nothing like the sweet lovely ones that you get when you pick them yourself.

Sushi - I live in London and there are plenty of blackberries around (well, the blackberry season is over now, but there's plenty of brambles around). Just look around the edge of parks, or canal towpaths. There's also loads that grow along the edge of railways although I wouldn't recommend picking those as they won't taste nice.

You need to COOK blackcurrants to get the nice full bodied flavour!

I just made a batch of lovely blackcurrant and redcurrant jam, in 40%/60% proportion. It is lovely on freshly baked scones.

(No wonder my husband complains I turn into a domestic goddess when we live in Norway, jam, baking. What next, hunting grouse for dinner?)

But yes, to answer your question, I think most people know the difference.

Blackcurrants are evil straight off the bush. I should know, Dad has blackcurrant bushes. And redcurrant, raspberry, loganberry, gooseberry (green, not gold so cookers, not eaters). Not blackberry though. Couldn't get that to thrive.

I like blackcurrant everything EXCEPT the fresh fruit, which is horrible.

Blackberries - well they range from tart to really sweet, depending on how ripe they are.

Anyway, as others have said:
Blackcurrant = single ball. Looks a bit like a blueberry only smaller, blacker and with a nasty great pip in it. Makes your tongue curl with how sour it is.
Blackberry = looks like a black raspberry, so multi-globules. Small and tight = sour, large and soft = sweeter.
Blueberry = single ball but no pip.

NONE of them will come out of clothes easily. But soak immediately and use a stain remover like Vanish and you might get lucky - if the stain dries, tough tits.

Why are they illegal in the USA?

I would have thought it common knowledge, most people know about blackberry picking in the autumn, no?

Illegal blackcurrants?

I thought it was an urban myth that blackcurrants are illegal in the US but have just googled and it appears not.

It's illegal to plant blackberries in Australia, they're a noxious weed, an invader. We still have some roadside near us, but if we tried to transplant a runner (or rather, got caught doing so) we'd get done, and you can't buy them to plant.

We can buy weird hybrids with no thorns, but they're not called blackberries - although that's pretty much what they are.

Morrisons sell blackberries under the heading 'exotic fruits'.

I thought everything nice, natural and healthy was illegal in the US.

A friend of mine served Cloudberries to some American relatives that were visiting. They asked him to show them the tin the berries came in, so they could go and buy some. My friend said they did not come in a tin, they were not shop bought, he had walked miles up into the mountains to pick them. He offered them a batch he had prepared into jam, and they were horrified. They refused to have anymore and said they felt sick.

I wonder where they thought food came from. Grown in tins?

I had no idea what a blackcurrant was until I moved to the UK!
Blackberries and blackcurrants look completely different!

WhoTheF Certainly not. Vile stuff, Ribena. Infinitely nicer when my Mum makes it.

I love both, but neither are sweet. If anything, blackberries are sweeter.

So, OP, sounds like you're not that knowledgeable either.

We're not rural but there are tons of blackberry bushes everywhere.

We're up north and blackberries only just starting to get ripe. Blackcurrants all off the bushes in the garden 2 months ago.

Both are lovely but entirely different.

Black currents were illegal to plant as they supposedly carried disease that spread to certain trees. Whilst no longer technically illegal, they are still 'banned' in certain places.

www.currantc.com/index.php?src=gendocs&ref=AboutCurrants

We have thornless blackberry and raspberry canes in our garden and planted a loganberry last year. We also have a huge great big bramble in the weed patch end of the garden we have neglected thanks to the birds

I wouldn't eat blackberries straight off the bush though. If you soak them in a little salted water first the number of maggots and grubs that crawl out is pretty horrifying.

Having said that, homemade blackberry jam is the gold standard of jams.