You’ve undoubtedly heard of Miracle Fruit before. I first read about these magical little berries in the New York Times [1]last summer and have been curious about them ever since. We used Bryan’s birthday as an excuse to have a couple of friends over for dinner and flavor trip.
For those who don’t know, Miracle Fruit (synsepalum dulcificum) is a berry native to western Africa which has the unusual effect of turning sour things sweet. This strange response is caused by a protein in the fruit (miraculin) which binds with taste buds and makes sour things taste sweet for about 30 minutes (although some people report an even longer effect). Bottom line: It changes the way things taste and suddenly a lime wedge tastes like sweet lime candy. Sour cream tastes like whipped cream! Amazing stuff happens in your mouth!
They aren’t cheap. We ordered ours from a nice man named Curtis [2] who makes his living selling the berries. You order them online and they are shipped to you frozen. At first you’re surprised that your $60+ only bought you this tiny plastic bag of berries but soon you’ll know they are worth every penny. They make for a pretty memorable party especially for those of us fascinated with food. How often does your palate change so radically? Never! It is worth noting that the berries are available in other forms, tablets and powders and stuff. They all seem less impressive to me. I’m not surprised that a tablet I put in mouth would do something so strange, I am surprised that an innocent-looking berry would.
By now you know me well enough to guess that there was also real food served pre-flavor tripping and I’ll be sharing a couple of easy recipes for party food tomorrow!
Things we recommend:
- Sour cream
- Citrus fruit (limes, lemons, grapefruit, oranges)
- Salt & vinegar chips
- Apple cider vinegar
- Radishes
- Cream cheese
- Guinness
- Buttermilk
What else? For those of you who have tried this—what do you recommend?