IMO, all currants are quite tart and are best used in jams and syrups unless you relish that puckery tartness. Red tend to be less acerbic than black but still too tart for most palates. Jostaberries, which are a cross between gooseberries and currants (same genus, different species) are more in tune with most folks' taste buds and can be eaten fresh off the bush.

Gardengal,
I seem to monopolizing you today but I was just wondering if gooseberries are as tart. I know the Indian gooseberry is very sour, but I've never tried any other kind.. :)

You MUST discover Raintree Nursery - Google them - they have an online and a paper catalog with a very thorough fruit selection and they'll tell you which varieties to buy to eat out of hand. They have an excellent currant and gooseberry selection. They're in Morton by Mt Rainier, but mostly sell mail order. You will learn tons from their catalog.

My favorite black currants are called clove currants or buffalo currants - they're an old variety with very fragrant spicy yellow flowers and sweet musky fruit. I got them from Raintree and love em.

Black Currants are very healthy fruit, but most selections would almost gag you for fresh eating.
Broadtorp and Ben Mor and Ben Sarek are pretty mild and taste good fresh.
I grow Ben Mor as it is more productive then Broattorp.

I find red currants refreshing when working in the yard. The clove currants mentioned above are sweet and nice to eat raw. I had a severe problem with little white worms in my black currants this last year which has soured me on growing them. They have a wonderful rich taste when cooked, though.

If you want to eat berries raw, why not grow blueberries? They are wonderful and having a range of early to late can keep you in berries most of the summer into fall. I got very high yields from some of my evergreen blueberries this year, and lovely fall color from all of them.

Aronia are another fruit you might consider. They are much more productive than currants and the berries hang in clusters from a single stem, all the berries in the cluster and also on the whole bush ripening simultaneously so they are a dream to pick compared to currants and blueberries which ripen sequentially and must be picked frequently and by picking off individual berries carefully. Aronia don't taste good raw, I think the dull slightly astringent taste comes mostly from the very small seeds and skins. Cooked they are good, not as rich tasting as black currants but very high in antioxidants. Mine haven't had any pests or diseases. Currants can get rust.

I have purchased a ton of plants from One Green World in the last two years in my quest to transform my backyard into a "food forest." I have a few different currant varities. They nice folks out at OGW said that currants are just a little bit sweeter than oregon grapes, which isn't saying much. They are quite bitter but they make a really cool plant and if nothing else the birds love them!

If you want to eat black currants raw, get the buffalo or clove currants I mentioned earlier. They are sweet, somewhat larger than the usual currant, and they have just enough musky flavor, but no bitterness at all and no aftertaste.

Plus their flowers have a wonderful fragrance. Just coming into bloom now. They're 3 - 5 feet tall and spreading about the same - great for edible landscaping.

I snagged a Crandall (aka Clove, Buffalo) and a White Imperial from the Barn Nursery (Old Hwy 99 between Tumwater & Tenino) a few weeks ago. The White Imperial will have some berries this season while the Crandall is just starting to leaf out.