The Coolest Fruit On Earth
Fri, Sep 26, 2008
Image by roboppy
Written by new contributor, Sonia Dong
The wonders of the natural world never cease to amaze. Imagine: a fruit that when eaten, renders sour foods sweet. It’s like the Midas touch of food, and it actually exists.
Dubbed Miracle Fruit, this small red berry hailing from West Africa is the star performer at ‘flavour tripping parties’ organized by Franz Aliquo in the United States. Bartenders have also been experimenting with the fruit to create new cocktails, and UK art magazine Cabinet has included it on the menu at their events.
At the ‘flavour tripping’ events, partygoers pop a red berry in their mouths, and for the next hour, limes taste like candy and vinegar like apple juice. Other choice eats at these parties include bananas, mustard, cheese, dark beer and cheap tequila.
Image by Andrew Yang
The flavour-altering berry (or Synsepalum dulcificum, if you want to be technical), contains a protein called miraculin. When miraculin comes into contact with acids, the result is a sweet, sweet taste in your mouth. We want.
Source: NY Times
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September 27th, 2008 at 7:58 am
Wow, what wonders the natural world does hold for us!
September 27th, 2008 at 8:19 am
Taste tripping parties!!!
September 27th, 2008 at 8:24 am
Here’s a fun fact about miraculin: it’s banned in the United States. Now, you might say: “that’s an odd thing to ban.” Well, the addictive qualities of chugging mustard-laced vinegar beer aside, there’s a good reason. Sugar refiners hate it. They see it as a threat to their product and lobbied to make refining it illegal, thus cutting off the competition. You can have miracle fruit, legally, just don’t try to get the good stuff out. Now is a good point to reference the Simpsons episode where they discover that ducks are legally required to wear pants.
September 27th, 2008 at 9:06 am
We offer these in both berry and tablet form. They are great for parties or just to try out with a few friends. Check out my website miraclefruitexpress.com
September 27th, 2008 at 9:36 am
That’s just plain awesome.
Do you know any markets that carry them?
September 27th, 2008 at 10:27 am
Hey There,
They do sell the fruit in pill form or to be precise, the miraculim is freeze dried then put into pill form. I’ve tried it myself and lemons are delicious. Though I’d rather try the real fruit, this is all I could settle for and it really does work!
Here’s a link to the site I bought it on:
http://www.miracleberrypill.org/
Alrighty, have a good one!
-Alex
September 27th, 2008 at 12:41 pm
Now that is pretty cool. Much beter than apples! LOL
Jiff
http://www.privacy-center.ru.tc
September 27th, 2008 at 1:13 pm
Nice article but I’d like to know what the berry is called or where some of us in North America might be able to purchase some. Thanks.
September 27th, 2008 at 1:41 pm
what a lame ass article at least you gave the technical name of the topic dugg down for no name berry unless you want to call it the flavor-altering bs.
September 27th, 2008 at 5:42 pm
That fruit is sooo awesome!!!!!!!!!!! i want it!
September 27th, 2008 at 5:58 pm
Thinkgeek has tablets made from the berries for sale: http://www.thinkgeek.com/caffeine/candy/ab3f/.
September 28th, 2008 at 12:35 am
Hey, this amazing berry really works, haha. I just received my package ( http://www.MiracleFruitWorld.com ) and we were amazed how sweet lemons and oranges can be. Rhubarb was amazing as well and I would bet pineapple was covered with sugar… Haha, I am definately throwing a party for my friends next week to try sugar free cocktails and desserts… I just hope FDA does not mind me using it :)
September 28th, 2008 at 5:36 am
“limes taste like candy and vinegar like apple juice.”
Finally. I’m sick of eating things that don’t taste like other things.
September 29th, 2008 at 1:54 pm
@why
As the article says, the berries are called Miracle Fruit.
September 29th, 2008 at 5:19 pm
That is freaking COOL! I want one. Then I could eat all the freaking sour crap I could eat and it would tasty like candy!
September 30th, 2008 at 1:36 am
I wonder if you could grow this plant in your home. That’d be the coolest plant ever. Can we get a follow up blog on how to grow your own taste bud altering plants? :P
P.S. @why
There’s always gotta be one bitter tasting berry amongst the sweet ones.
October 3rd, 2008 at 5:10 pm
it looks so good,I hope it taste as good.