[NorthernWinos]

Racked our Black Currant wine made from Vintners Harvest Fruit base today, it is really nice, a flavor all it's own.

We went to our old stomping grounds one day last week and stopped at a Food Co-op that we still belong to...They had dried Currants for $1.50/pound....they looked really nice.....

Has anyone any experience with using dried Currants to make wine?????

Would it work???

How many would it take per gallon????

They didn't know if they had any oil or anything else to preserve them....[after Waldo's experience with oil on fruit...I hesitated]. They buy in bulk and those had been weighted and packaged by the volunteers that work there.

They also had Vanilla Beans packaged at 3/$1.50...got to read more Posts about adding Vanilla Beans to wine....like which wines and how many to addEtc...

They had dried Cherries for $5.99/# and dried Blueberries for $8.99/#...think Sam's Club might beat those prices....

Will be heading back down there at some point this spring...so will consider them again.

They probably are not real black currants, but are instead grape raisans that somehow get the name currants, they are also called zantes. We bought some thinking they were real dried black currants from our hippie store and added them to our VH black currant, they really added some flavor and body, its and excellent batch of wine, but, its a black currant and raisan wine, not just a black currant wine. Check to make sure they are not Zantes, taste them, if they taste like a raisan they aint real black currants.

Crackedcork

[Wade E]

Zantes are very tiny or at least the one time I bought them.

[NorthernWinos]

These were tiny little black things....will try to get more info from the old folks who work there next time I go down that way.

[OGrav]

I was wondering about that myself. Didn't know if Zante was a brand or a description. I used some a couple days ago making a batch of granola bars. You're right, they taste just like regular raisins, but smaller.

[Cracked Cork]

Google "Zante Currant" to get the cold hard truth. I will say that they certainly added body to our black currant wine and I would consider using them again. Crackedcork

[NorthernWinos]

Cracked Cork...was your Black Currant Wine made from Vintners Harvest fruit base????How many currants did you add???? and to how many gallons....etc????

We tasted our Black Currant Wine last night...it was very good...but more body can always be better.

[NorthernWinos]

They probably are not real black currants, but are instead grape raisans that somehow get the name currants, they are also called zantes. We bought some thinking they were real dried black currants from our hippie store and added them to our VH black currant, they really added some flavor and body, its and excellent batch of wine, but, its a black currant and raisan wine, not just a black currant wine. Check to make sure they are not Zantes, taste them, if they taste like a raisan they aint real black currants.Crackedcork

Well...we went on a road trip yesterday, rather than looking at the snow...had lunch with old Friends and stopped at the old time Food Co-op....

I bought 5 pounds of what they called CURRANTS..



They ended up being $1.85/#...they look like this...



And, yes they do taste like seedy little rainsins...
So, they must be the Zante grape like all the OnLine information says they would be.

I looked at the WebSite for the company that is the supplierwww.nationalnutcompany.comand they had no description

So...I think I will do like CrackedCork and add them to my next batch of Vintners harvest Black Currant wine....this will be long way off...

Do you think I should freeze them??? Or....just seal them up real good till the time comes???


Edited by: Northern Winos

[Waldo]

I think I would freeeze them if its going to be very long NW unless you have one of those vacum sealers. That would be the optimum

[Cracked Cork]

Yep, thats them. They are raisans, why would you store them any other way than in a nice dry cool spot in your pantry just like other raisans? Did you taste them, taste any different from a regular raisan? Crackedcork