Place blackcurrants into a large pot or a salad spinner. Then, fill a pot or salad spinner with water and let the berries soak in cold water for about 5 minutes. This helps loosen any debris and stuck leaves. Rinse the blackcurrants.

Repeat the previous step until the water runs clear.

Don’t worry about removing stems or blossom ends. We will not be using the stewed fruit in this preserve.

Place a quarter of the blackcurrants into a suitably sized pot and add roughly a quarter of the sugar.

Use a potato masher to mash the berries with the sugar.

Repeat this layering process until all the berries and sugar are used. The more layers you create, the greater the yield of blackcurrant juice.

Cover the pot and let it sit for at least 8 hours or overnight. This allows the sugar to draw out the juices from the blackcurrants, essential for making the syrup.

After the resting period, you should see plenty of blackcurrant juice in the pot. Bring the blackcurrants and their juices to a boil over medium heat, stirring often to dissolve the sugar.

Don’t worry about skimming the foam at this step.

Once boiling, lower the heat to medium-low and cook for 15 minutes.

Turn off the heat and use a fine mesh strainer to drain the blackcurrant juices into a separate pot. This juice will be the base of your syrup. You can discard the blackcurrants or set them aside for use in another jam.

Pour the strained blackcurrant juice back into the pot and bring it to a boil.

Once boiling, reduce the heat to the lowest setting and let the mixture simmer.

Remove any impurities forming on the surface of the cooking syrup

Cook for 15 minutes to let the syrup reduce and become more concentrated.

After cooking, the syrup is ready to use immediately. If you want to preserve it, proceed to the next step.

Pour the hot syrup into clean, sterilized canning jars.

Process the jars using your preferred canning method.