Profiting From ‘New’ Juice
Reader’s Digest has an interesting story about former spy, now entrepreneur, Greg Quinn.
A tall, brawny Irish American walks into your office, puts a crystal goblet on the desk, and pours out a serving of a deep-purple nectar.
“This stuff used to be illegal,” he says in a gravelly voice. “We’re the guys who got the law changed. Twice the antioxidants of blueberries, four times the vitamin C of orange juice, as much potassium as bananas … Try it.”
Something like grape juice but heavier, not as sweet; tart but not as much as cranberry; dry, strong, and complex, like a good red wine. Meet Ribes nigrum, aka the black currant, and one of the misbegotten little berry’s most dynamic champions on American shores.
Quinn has big plans for the super-fruit.
He hesitates to go down the list of the currant’s potential health benefits, he says, because it starts to sound like snake oil: improving night vision, lowering blood pressure, managing pain, and preventing Alzheimer’s.
The rest of the world has known about the black currant for generations, he points out. The fact that it is a stranger here, and just poking its head up now, is a story that starts, oddly enough, with the Vietnam War.
Continue Reading: “Profiting From ‘New’ Juice”
Photo by Reader’s Digest.
Stuart Booth on October 23rd, 2009 5:07 am
Black currant juice has been on the market since before World War 2. It’s most common product is “Ribena”, a black currant concentrate sold worldwide and directed specially at children. In Europe it is served with hot water in the winter or cold water in the summer.
Why is it that the USA is so far behind with something like this?
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