I heard about flavor tripping around a year ago, and have been dying to try it ever since. For those who have no idea what I’m talking about: There’s this neat little fruit called the Miracle Berry. When eaten, a molecule in the berry binds to your taste buds and makes normally sour foods taste sweet. You can purchase the fruit itself, but it will run you around $2–3 per berry (and I have no idea where to get them). For those of us who aren’t made of money and/or are less ambitious, you can buy tablets containing the extract for around $15 per 10-tablet package. I bought mine on eBay, but you can also purchase them through .
Since I’d been wanting to try this for ages, my birthday seemed as good a time as any. While I enjoy a good, old-fashioned drink-ourselves-silly party as much as the next person, this is a fun way to break up the evening. The effects only last around half an hour to an hour, and you’ll spend half that time stuffing fruit in your face and saying things like, “Mmmm, oh wow. It tastes like candy! That’s so weird.” And when you’re done sampling various treats, you can still enjoy the effects by making some citrus-y cocktails.
The Simply Orange people make a variety of not-from-concentrate, no-sugar-added citrus juices that are perfect for this. A word of warning: those things will go down easy. I was accidentally a little heavy handed with the vodka while making a a drink for a friend, and he said it tasted like delicious, sugary lemonade. If you’re a beer drinker, you can go for the sour beers. Avoid sugary drinks—they will taste way too sweet.
Tips for hosting your own flavor-tripping party:
When you and your guests eat the miracle berry tablet, make sure everyone knows to let it dissolve in his/her mouth. (The goal is to coat your taste buds.) You’ll have to endure the semi-weird silence that occurs when a group of people all stand around and wait for a pill to disintegrate in their mouths, but that’ll be over soon enough.
Snacks that I recommend include:
- lemons
- limes (shockingly sweet)
- oranges
- grapefruit (amazingly delicious)
- pickled things
- carrots
- granny smith apples
I’d heard that spicy things seemed to have a hint of chocolate, so I decided to put out a little bowl of sriracha (not my best idea). While the spice was cut a little bit, it definitely still tasted like sriracha. In hindsight, I think something with less of a kick, like tabasco or cholula, would have been better. Kombucha is another interesting thing to try—if you find it difficult/impossible to drink normally, you’ll be pleasantly surprised by the taste.
And remember: Even though what you’re eating tastes like sweet candy, it’s still quite acidic, so don’t go too crazy!
This sounds seriously cool!! I saw these on Thinkgeek as well and thought that would be so fun to try. Did you try the rhubarb as well? And pickles? do they just taste like bread & butter pickles then?
Inquiring minds….
~ Wendy
I did try rhubarb! It wasn’t very exciting though. It lost the tart, rhubarbiness that makes it so great to begin with, and just kind of tasted like weird celery. And the pickles totally turned into bread & butter pickles!
It’s not called “miracle fruit” it’s called the “acai berry” and you’ve probably seen it advertised everywhere as a miracle do all, cure all, which it isn’t.
Turning sour to sweet is something it does do, and scientists are looking into other health benefits, but I just wanted to point out that as far as building muscle or losing weight (amongst other things that people claim), it does neither of without you putting in the time or effort to exercise (which does not require the berry). Though I’m not a scientist, so it could be beneficial to those, but isn’t able to do it on it’s own.
Actually, what I am talking about is not the açaí berry. The açaí berry is the fruit from the açaí palm. The miracle fruit is the berry of the synsepalum dulcificum plant, and it is indeed referred to as “miracle fruit” or “miracle berry.” The miracle fruit/berry contains miraculin, a molecule that binds to taste receptors on your tongue and heightens the perceived sweetness of acidic/sour foods, without actually adding sweetener. As far as I know, the açaí berry does not contain miraculin, so I’m pretty sure the only way that it can make sour foods taste sweet would be by adding it to food, in the same way one would add sugar or any other sweetener. And that is not what I am discussing here.