Thanks for the red currant suggestions. I've had Red Lake before at another location...looks like I need to plant it here.
On the black currants...if they were dead ripe, all were edible out of hand. They all had a fairly foxy, flavor. I could eat a few of them, but felt they were much better as juice and as jellies. I liked them better than blueberries, but not as much as gooseberries :)
All of my varieties of gooseberries were very good right off the bush. Thorny as all heck, but I suspect that helps keep the fruit thieves (aka coons) away!