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 roezlii flowers hanging pendent from the branches. Each flower has five reflexed red-purple sepals around a tube-shaped ring of smaller white or pinkish petals, the stamens and stigmas protruding. The fruit is a red or purple berry up to 2.5 centimeters long which is covered in thick, long spines. Among other currants and gooseberries with overlapping ranges, such as mountain gooseberry ("Ribes montigenum") or wax currant ("Ribes cereum"), the sierra gooseberry is especially notable for the large size and extreme spininess of its berries, and for the absence of a noticeable dried flower remnant at the end of the fruit. Seeds