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January 2007

Main Nibbles / Beverages / Juices

Currant C™ Premium Black Currant Nectar

More Antioxidants Than Any Other Fruit...& Delicious!

CAPSULE REPORT: Black currants have twice the antioxidants of blueberries, hitherto the uber-antioxidant fruit. They have four times the vitamin C of oranges and significant amounts of calcium, magnesium, manganese, potassium and riboflavin. Should you be drinking currant juice? Sure, especially when it tastes this good! Why aren’t we all drinking currant juice? The black currant was banned for 100 years. The ban is over: Currant C is the first nationally available currant beverage. Enjoy!

• Overview
• History: Forbidden Fruit
• Currants Versus Raisins
• Inside The Bottle
• Shopping Information

It looks like grape juice, but don’t let that fool you: It’s a bit grape-like, but currant tastes distinctive, bold, pleasantly tart and sophisticated. It’s the kind of juice wine drinkers would choose if they couldn’t drink wine anymore, and when chefs and sommeliers at fine restaurants get wind of it, they’ll start offering it to their designated drivers and non-alcohol-consuming patrons. From a culinary standpoint, currants have long been enjoyed in desserts, jams and in sauces for meats, especially game, duck and pork (it is a key ingredient in Cumberland Sauce).

If only the label were more in keeping with the goods inside. The bottle is pretty (a stock design), but the graphics look hokey: pure health-food-store. Maybe a re-design is in the works: we guarantee, Currant C folks, that it will pay for itself in the incremental bottles you sell. But this is pure substance over style: The contents inside are not only good, they’re good for you! (The Company claims that Currant C has the highest content of black currant juice of all other beverages in the world, 37% although how it monitors the juice content of every currant beverage in the world, and what they will do if a company in some foreign land introduces a 38% juice, we can’t guess.)

Three years ago, the antioxidant news was green tea. Two years ago, it was chocolate and white tea. Last year it was blueberries. This year, it’s going to be currants. Their extraordinarily high antioxidant levels make blueberries, chocolate and green tea dull news. Currant juice may become the new breakfast tonic of choice, much to the chagrin of orange growers. Antioxidants protect key cell components from damage by neutralizing the free radicals that are linked to cancer, and other ailments; last year, a Tufts University study indicated that black currants may thwart Alzheimer’s.

Forbidden Fruit

Black currants are extremely popular in Europe and used to be in the U.S. Until April 2003, black currants were “forbidden fruit” in the U.S. It had been shown that the disease, white pine blister rust, which allegedly threatened the U.S. timber industry, did not jump from white pine to white pine, but from white pine to black currant bush to white pine. In 1911, the commercial cultivation of currants in the U.S. was outlawed by an act of Congress. Though based on incomplete scientific knowledge of the disease, the ban still stands today in several states.

A glass of Currant C is a healthy start to the day. Photo courtesy of CurrantC.com.

However, at the behest of New York State farmers in this century, scientists from Cornell University revisited the white pine disease issue and concluded that currants didn't pose the threat to white pines that was once believed. New York State overturned the black currant farming ban in 2003, opening the door for New York Currants™ for eating, juice, jam, yogurt, tea and other applications. It’s also a boon for family farms, which now have an in-demand, non-commodity crop to revive sagging revenues.

A glass of Currant C is a healthy start to the day—and may thwart Alzheimer’s Disease. Photo by Kasia Biel.

Currants Versus Raisins Since currants only began to be grown recently, what are those things we’ve been calling currants? They are the so-called Zante Currants, which are actually raisins (dried grapes) that have nothing to do with real currants. Grapes grow on vines and are sweet. Currants grow on bushes and are quite tart. The botanical family of Currants is Saxifragaceae, Genus Ribes while the Botanical family of grapes is Vitaceae, Genus Vitis. The relationship is bananas to apples. More importantly, the raisins have little or none of the black currant antioxidants studied in the research. Why the confusion? After the commercial cultivation of currants was outlawed in 1911, currants dropped off the culinary radar screen. In the 1920s, Greece began to export small dried seedless grapes, one-fourth the size of the average raisin, from the area of Corinth.

More specifically. they came from the third largest Ionian Island called Zakýnthos, which is often called Zante, hence the name “Zante Currants.” On the first shipment, the Greek writing for the word “Corinth” was mistakenly translated at the pier into “currant.” Since the growing of real currants had been banned for quite a few years at that point, the name stuck and Americans have become accustomed to cooking and baking with “currants” that are really raisins.

Inside The Bottle

The juice is made from concentrate with filtered water, and pure cane sugar is added to offset the tartness. The all-natural product is not pasteurized and needs to be refrigerated. Each 16-ounce bottle contains two servings, at 130 calories each. Currant Juice seems pricey: A 16-ounce bottle is $3.99. But we spend as much on one latte without thinking twice. Here is a two-day supply. Try a bottle of Currant C: you may start ordering it by the case, as currency for your health.
 

CURRANT C Premium Currant Juice 16-Ounce Bottle $3.99 Half Case 6 Bottles $23.94 Full Case 12 Bottles $47.88 Purchase online at CurrantC.com. Currant C is available at fine food stores and health food stores including Whole Food Markets. For a store locator, visit the website. Prices and flavor availability are verified at publication, but are subject to change.

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