Wow, it even beats out some gooseberries for fresh eating. Do you remember where you purchased yours? I purchased mine from whitman farms, I wonder if its a true pink champagne or not now. Every other gooseberry/currant I’ve purchased from Whitman were true to type.
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Agree, Pixwell taste is very agreeable sweet.
@Adamsmasherz About diseases:My currant got some leaf mites issue some time, and cane borer attacks all red and pink currants.
My pink champagne has same issue, the fruits only half filled. Too much trouble to pick them.
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Poorman is at the bottom of your list- and it’s supposed to be one of the better / best tasting gooseberries.
That’s strange.
I quite like my pink currants
I have a few white pink and red ones.
Generally the white tends to be the sweetest. So most people if let taste it prefer those.
The white ones do lack some aromatic qualities and the acid the reds have. So for processing i find them a bit disappointing.
The reds in general tend to be a bit more sour than sweet. (but there are large differences between cultivars though)
The pinks for me taste quite similar to the white with a bit more aroma and kick and a little more sour.
I really like the pink and white for fresh eating. And proces or fresh eat the reds.
For me the currants outgrow the gooseberries by quite a bit in the first years. Long term gooseberries can get bigger though.
im in a climate quite suitable for currants though. That might explain some of the differences.
Most plants i have are still quite young but ill try to take some pictures this summer.
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You have pink champagne as red? If yours are red you have a mislabeled bush.
I know Poorman is supposed to be a tasty gooseberry, which is why I bought it. It may be at the bottom of my list because it is a young plant, although I am not sure of that.
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If your currants taste bad, it is probably the result of your climate and/or soil. In W Washington, I have silt soil and a climate that is somewhere between Southern England and Northern France, with Mediterranean rain patterns. Red/pink/white currants prefer a Western European climate.
I am lucky enough to have a microclimate that allows for relatively high Brix fruits. It is mostly due to the complete lack of rain in July and August, as well as the longer days at our latitude. We also avoid a lot of cloud cover in most Summers. Something about the terrain causes clouds to move around us much of the time. If we ever get rain in Summer, it is usually not enough to wet the soil. At most, it washes dust from the leaves.
I made Jam from my White Imperial currants last year. I was surprised by how much natural pectin they had. I would say it is at least on par with blueberries for pectin content. It would have been pretty easy to make a jam with no additional pectin. The jam tastes like white grape, yellow raspberry, and generic citrus. There is a slight astringency in the jam that exists because I forgot to buy muslin cloth for filtration.
It is good enough that I am considering a red currant. I bought a cutting of Swedish White currant a couple of years ago. It is showing promise.
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I dont think that is really the issue, at least not in my case. I grow a wide varieties of currants and gooseberries and they’re all tasty. For me specifically though, my pink champagne currants at least as of this past season, were not as good as my other currant/gooseberry cultivars. They’re all located in the same area, get the same amount of sun/rain etc.
I pray that I don’t get those cane borers anytime soon but given that we are both in Chicagoland, its likely just a matter of time for me. Do they attack your gooseberries at all?
Yeah, different varieties often have different needs.
As I recall the skin is sour like slip skin grapes. I have several currants that’ll fruit first time in '23
I’m in Western WA too. I’ve tried growing a number of different red currants and my top two favorites have been ‘Jonkheer Van Tets’ and ‘Rovada’ so I’d recommend one of those if you’re looking to add to your collection.
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I agree with everyone about that’s chimed in about ‘white imperial’, it’s very tasty. I generally find assessments of flavor and ratings not that helpful, since different people like different things. Perhaps qualifying the ratings is somewhat helpful. Personally, I like flavors to be somewhat strong or rich is a better word. I love red currant jam (the best!) but find them underwhelming fresh. I have 4 different cultivars, which I either harvest en masse for jam or else occasionally nibble and leave to the birds. I find the sweeter black currants to be excellent. My favorite is Minaj Smyriou. I’d rate it up there with raspberries for fresh eating. For gooseberries, I’ve intentionally sought out high flavor varieties. I started out with several Pixwell bushes acquired from a neighbor but quickly tired of their flat flavor and mealiness. Their best use IMO is green for traditional gooseberry pie. They sure are easy to grow, though. My best are Hinnomaki Red and Black Velvet. Black Velvet grows like black raspberry for me. Almost too easy. Damn tasty though. I love Hinnomaki Yellow, but it’s at the complete opposite end vigor wise. It stays ankle high, and is not very productive for me. Really yummy though. I find Poorman to be excellent too. Very tasty, good size. The bush itself is kind of a rangey mess, even for a gooseberry.
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Gloire is a seedling of the “old champagne or flesh colored currant” from 1854. The pink champagne is allegedly as old as the 1800s. So it’s possible gloire des Sablons is a seedling of Pink champagne or they both may be related to the “old champagne currant” that the grower describes.
Even back in the 1800s It appears some people were getting Gloire and thinking it was poor. Perhaps there are multiple plants going around with this name.
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My Poorman is very good tasting but it not a good grower compared to my other gooseberries.
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