Finally some response about flavor of black currants.
Thank you all for your responses.
However, this is what I gather from your responses:
The flavor improvement is towards more fresh eating appeal. The reason is
for more sales for u- pick in the US. This however doesn't interest me. I am
interested in black currant for the traditional black currant flavor in jams
and such that are popular in Europe and for their nutritional value. The
traditional strong cat pee flavor (or more precisely aroma) and its
nutritional/medicinal value may be linked as far as I know and that sounds
to be being bred out of the black currant lines with these new selections.
In other words, they're being watered down to please a broader market much
like the Red Delicious sports in the apple world.
I have no care whatever how a black currant tastes fresh, if I want
something sweet I can grow peaches and plums and such. It doesn't sound like
anyone has improved on the cooked flavor of the black currant and so my
statement still stands that the Consort is as good or better than what is
supposedly new and exciting.
So there, harumph.