Consort Black Currant

Consort was bred in Canada specifically to be resistant to white pine blister rust — the disease that led to the decades-long federal ban on all Ribes cultivation in the United States between 1911 and 1966 — making it one of the varieties whose resistance breeding directly helped restore currant growing in regions that had restricted or banned black currants. Because of that documented resistance, Consort is specifically named as an approved exception in at least one state's currant regulations (Ohio's current rule against European black currant explicitly carves out resistant hybrids like Consort). The fruit is medium-sized with good classic black currant flavor.