Ribena pure fruit syrups for the manufacture of milkshakes had been done at the Long Ashton Agriculture and Horticulture Research Station in North Somerset using a pectinase enzyme process; Ribena was essentially invented there by Vernon Charley, a scientist at the University of Bristol in 1933. The blackcurrant variety was found to contain high levels of vitamin C. The drink was launched in 1938 under the name Ribena (from the botanical name for the blackcurrant, "Ribes nigrum"). During the Second World War, other fruits rich in vitamin C, like oranges, became almost impossible to obtain in the United Kingdom, due to
Ribes nevadense dully toothed lobes. The inflorescence is a dense raceme of up to 20 flowers hanging pendent or held erect on the branches. Each flower has opens into a corolla-like array of five pinkish red sepals with five smaller white petals in a tube at the center. The fruit is an edible blue-black berry under a centimeter wide. It is somewhat waxy in texture and studded with glandular hairs. Ribes nevadense Ribes nevadense (sometimes spelled "R. nevadaense") is a species of currant known by the common names Sierra currant and mountain pink currant. "Ribes nevadense" is native to several of the