blackcurrant
ingredient / ingredient-blackcurrant
クロスグリ / blackcurrant (cassis) / Ribes nigrum L.
Blackcurrant fruit for which sensory studies report both astringency and bitterness. Juice is dominated by sourness and astringency, while bitterness is reported as stronger in phenolic-rich skin and press-residue fractions.
On this page (7 sections)
Reading the bitterness
Blackcurrant (cassis, Ribes nigrum) fruit has been reported in sensory research to be both astringent and bitter. Regardless of processing method, the strongest sensory attributes in the juice are sourness and puckering astringency. Sugars and acids are reported to occur mainly in the juice fraction, and phenolic compounds mainly in the press residue.
Bitterness itself is stronger in fractions containing phenolic compounds concentrated toward the skin. Press-residue fractions such as ethanol extracts and fiber-and-seed residues were assessed as 『very astringent and somewhat bitter（かなり渋く、いくらか苦い）』 (in translation: "quite astringent and somewhat bitter"). Flavonol glycosides, including kaempferol and myricetin glycosides, were identified as major contributors to astringency. The principal compounds contributing to bitterness itself cannot be confirmed from this summary.
None of these findings could be verified directly at the publisher's site; checking was limited to excerpts of summaries via a search engine. Contributors to astringency are named, but the main compounds contributing to bitterness itself have not been identified within the material checked.
Sources for this overview
Checked for this overview: Checked that astringency and sourness were the strongest sensory attributes of the juice. / Checked bitterness ratings for press-residue fractions and compounds contributing to astringency. / The limitation that bitterness-contributing compounds were not identified.
Follow the connections
blackcurrant →— sensory attribute→ astringency →is not synonymous with→ bitterness
blackcurrant →— astringency correlates wi…→ flavonol glycosides →are correlated with→ astringency
Structured claims — open a section to read each claim's confidence, evidence and limits
Sensory (2)
Scope: Generic descriptive analysis of blackcurrant juices and press-residue fractions prepared by various processing and fractionation methods.
Note: The extracts (such as the ethanol extracts) were perceived as most astringent, and the juice dominated most sensory attributes. Phenolic compounds were found mainly in the press residue. External audit N2-2 (2026-10-20): the basis was replaced from search-engine summaries with the official PubMed abstract, and the statement not in the abstract (that sourness and astringency are strongest in the juice regardless of processing) was removed.
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ingredient-blackcurrant —has_sensory_attribute→ sensation-astringentScope: Sensory and chemical analysis of black currant fractionated into juice, ethanol extract, and fiber/seed residue.
Note: Blackcurrant extracts (ethanol-extracted and supercritical-fluid-extracted fractions) were perceived as the most astringent, and 3 flavonol glycosides were named as compounds especially contributing to astringency (abstract). Attribution of bitterness to tannins does not appear in the abstract, and the full text (subscription) has not been checked, so it is withheld. On 2026-10-06 the claim was changed from an attribution of bitterness to tannins, which the abstract does not contain, to the relation between astringency and flavonol glycosides that the abstract describes.
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ingredient-blackcurrant —has_astringency_correlated_with→ compound-flavonol-glycosidesHow processing and cooking change it (1)
Scope: Comparison of enzyme-treated and untreated juices in the same study.
Note: A summary of a report that enzyme-treated juice tastes more astringent and bitter than untreated juice. External audit N2-2 (2026-10-20): this content is not in the official PubMed abstract and its only basis was search-engine summaries, so the status was lowered from supported to preliminary. This claim is not generalized until checked in the full text.
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ingredient-blackcurrant —has_perceived_bitterness_affected_by→ (the claim sentence above)