Harvested raw berries in general don’t travel well, and so there are plenty of instances of berries existing in specific countries. They need processing into something like jam to travel. You don’t miss what you’ve never heard of.
As a Brit in the US losing currents is a shame, and an interesting reason, but there others we get in the US that are much rarer at home.
A quick search for bær (berries) on the website of the biggest online grocer here in Norway shows: blueberries from Poland, Italy, and Spain, raspberries from Poland and Portugal, blackberries from Belgium and Netherlands, redcurrants from Norway. Perhaps they only travel well inside EFTA.
You find those modern thick skinned fat blueberries everywhere it seems. But the more delicate berries not so much.
Blackcurrant (Cassis) and redcurrant (Groseille) taste quite different, they are nice sprinkled atop fraisier cake for example.
One of my favorite little berry is the Myrtille. They are tiny little balls, dark purple all the way through, and lovely when cooked on a tart crust. Trader Joe has a frozen berry tart from France that includes it. Yummy!
I have a mountain of experience freezing wild maine blueberries and wild strawberries. They both freeze just fine and can be eaten as is after thawing, a little mushy but still clearly the proper flavor profiles.
My grocery has an entire section of frozen berries.
Frozen berries will travel just fine and be delicious anywhere. Most berries don't cross significant borders because A HUNDRED YEARS AGO they couldn't travel well, and so local tastes diverged. Consider, gooseberries are easy to find here in new england when they are in season, but you still wouldn't see something like a gooseberry soda, because that's just not that popular of a flavor.
Well not so strictly. It says bilberry or blueberry because what is exactly meant is not so black and white, and it may also depends on your flavour of English and French.
For instance, @bombela says that "North American" blueberry is 'bleuet' in Canadian French. In France, 'bleuet' is a flower.
"Vaccinium myrtillus" literally means the "common Myrtille". Which is not blue and doesn't taste like a blueberry. I understand that blueberry is the common North American English word for Bleuet an and Myrtilles. While it's the other way around in France.
Blueberies are called Bleuet in Canadian French. And in France today they are sold with the same two names on the packaging (blueberies, bleuet), but often people will call them myrtille anyways! A point of contention for me as I am alwahs sad to hear Myrtille and be served Bleuet :)
They travel and store very well if shock frozen, which enables me to buy them all year in bags from 500g to 2000g. Spicing up my Müsli, Yoghurt, sometimes ice cream, and what not else.
Btw. regarding preparation of Müsli with Milk, have you ever tried putting it in the fridge overnight? And wouldn't you expect a soft sludge then?
Not so if you put the frozen berries in! The low temperature in the fridge lets the berries thaw up very slowly, turning it all into a cool slush, which crumbles at the lightest pressure. Can be varied by crushing/mushing the berries for even more taste. Very pleasuring texture!
>Harvested raw berries in general don’t travel well,
Yes, that's why the majority of berries in the US are grown in Mexico. The largest selection of blueberries, blackberries, and raspberries in my local groceries are all from Mexico. There's one specific store that has a really great produce department, and from time to time, they will have local blueberries from a farm in state, but that's only while they are in season.
As a Brit in the US losing currents is a shame, and an interesting reason, but there others we get in the US that are much rarer at home.
For example several here aren’t found in the UK (or used to be hard to find): https://gizmodo.com/the-18-tastiest-berries-that-grow-wild-i...