The miracle berry will unnerve you.
It will make lemons taste like lemonade, and goat cheese take like the sweetest candy. In the underground eating circuit, people throw ‘miracle fruit’ parties where they lay out a whole smorgasboard of bitter and unappetizing snacks. But after they take a swig of Synsepalum dulcificum, they go to town like its the most delicious food they’ve ever tasted.
This berry - and its rogue glycoprotein named, seriously, miraculin - temporarily robs you of your ability to taste sour and bitter flavors. It became a fixture in West Africa, where locals would use it to down otherwise unpalatable meals. But in a world of sweetness-hating dieting fads, a global following wasn’t long in coming.
It’s become a bit of a hit in Japan. And yet, the miracle berry is still not readily available in the United States - classified as a food additive by the FDA in 1974, it has not yet been approved for wide distribution. Most first-timers will be forced to track down an on-line distributor - or, alternatively, befriending a friendly circle of ‘foodies’ who like to throw sweet, sweet parties.
3 Comments Received
January 25th, 2008 @9:38 am
Kevin Periera and Olivia Munn did a bit about this on Attack of the Show, and Olivia said it ‘burned’. It’s a live show, so her reaction was caught as it was happening, and it wasn’t good. What’s up with that? Also, it ruined her taste buds for who knows how long (probably just the half hour or so it normally lasts). How often does that happen, and is it random, or do certain people have an aversion to it?
June 26th, 2008 @2:14 am
There’s so many reports of the miracle berry being out of this world and it’s interesting to read a report that gives some science behind it.
Flavour tripping parties are becoming huge in the US and UK, although miracle berries can be a bit expensive for what they are.
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