The berries and the strig
- Berries hang in a strig: a single stalk carrying 8 to 15 berries in a row.
- Each berry is 6 to 10mm across, round and translucent bright red.
- The seeds are faintly visible through the skin as small darker specks.
- The taste is sharply tart and juicy. A redcurrant is never sweet enough to eat by the handful.
- There is a small dried remnant of the flower, called the calyx, at the base of each berry.
- Berries ripen together on the strig, so a whole string can be picked in one go.
The currant family compared
| Fruit | Berry colour | Carried | Bush | Leaf smell when crushed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Redcurrant | Translucent bright red | Strigs of 8-15 | Thornless | Almost none |
| Whitecurrant | Translucent pale cream | Strigs of 8-15 | Thornless | Almost none |
| Blackcurrant | Opaque black | Strigs of 5-10 | Thornless | Strong blackcurrant |
| Gooseberry | Green, red or yellow | Singly or in twos | Thorny | Faint |
| Jostaberry | Black, larger | Small clusters | Thornless | Mild blackcurrant |
| Worcesterberry | Dark red-purple | Singly | Very thorny | Faint |
The leaf smell test
If you can reach a leaf, this is the fastest way to separate the currants. Crush a leaf between your fingers and smell it. Blackcurrant leaves release a strong, distinctive blackcurrant aroma, which is why the leaves are used to make cordial and tea.
Redcurrant and whitecurrant leaves smell of almost nothing. If you crush a leaf and get no scent at all, you are not looking at a blackcurrant.
Leaves and bush habit
- Leaves are palmate, divided into 3 to 5 lobes, with a toothed edge and a slightly heart-shaped base.
- Redcurrant leaves are a lighter, brighter green than blackcurrant, with less of a blue-green tint underneath.
- The bush is thornless and grows as an open, upright shrub reaching about one and a half metres.
- Redcurrant wood is a warm reddish-brown and the older stems peel slightly.
- Flowers are small, greenish-yellow and inconspicuous, carried in hanging clusters in spring.
Picking and using redcurrants
Redcurrants are ready when the whole strig is a clear, bright red and the berries come away with a gentle pull. Pick whole strigs rather than individual berries, because the berries keep far better on the stalk.
They are almost always cooked or processed, because the tartness is too sharp to eat raw in quantity. They make excellent jelly, and the natural pectin content means jelly sets without added pectin.
If you are trying to tell a redcurrant from a gooseberry in a mixed punnet, look for the strig. A gooseberry sits on the branch by itself and carries thorns on the bush.
Redcurrants are one of the few soft fruits that are genuinely easy to identify once you know to look at how the berries are carried. They hang in strings rather than sitting singly on the branch, and that single feature separates them from most of the confusion.
The rest of the family is trickier, because redcurrant, whitecurrant and blackcurrant are all the same genus and look broadly similar as bushes. The leaves settle it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Look at how the berries are carried. Redcurrants hang in strigs, a single stalk with 8 to 15 translucent bright red berries in a row. The bush is thornless and the leaves are palmate with 3 to 5 lobes and no smell when crushed.