Meet Synsepalum dulcificum, the Miracle Berry!

When I say "miracle", I'm not referring to the alleged acts of minor divinity that fill up your SPAM box (pushy bastards).

According to NYT and Wikipedia, all it takes is a single specimen of Synsepalum dulcificum, AKA the Miracle Berry, and everything tasted thereafter is sweeter:

The berry...contains an active glycoprotein molecule, with some trailing carbohydrate chains, called miraculin. When the fleshy part of the fruit is eaten, this molecule binds to the tongue's taste buds, causing bitter and sour foods (such as lemons and limes) consumed later to taste sweet. This effect lasts between thirty minutes and two hours. It is not a sweetener, as its effects depend on what is eaten afterwards, but has been used to mask the bitter taste of some medicines.
--Wikipedia

Sooo, in this temporarily altered microuniverse of the tongue, Tobasco sauce tastes like "hot doughnut glaze" and "all wine tastes like Manischewitz":

A large group of guests reached its own consensus: limes were candied, vinegar resembled apple juice, goat cheese tasted like cheesecake on the tongue and goat cheese on the throat. Bananas were just bananas.
--NYT

And of course, jaded urbanites in London and New York have jumped all over the chance to monkey with their palates. 

I'm actually a little surprised that GNC/holistic supplement hawkers-at-large haven't yet exploited these 'lil buggers to their fullest potential.  If you're diabetic, or even just a fitness-oriented carbophobe, these could be a rare non-synthetic indulgence, as you'd be tasting things as sweet without actually eating anything with loads of sugar in it.  (And if you were eating a sugary no-no, it wouldn't taste good!  HA!  It's a self-imposed negation win-win!)

For those in NYC eager for a prefabricated communal sensory experience, check out Flavor Tripping events by Franz Aliquo.

Oooor, if you're leery of having strangers pop things into your mouth, you can order the fruit yourself, as Franz was kind enough to divulge his source!  At $2 a fruit (with a 30 fruit minimum) and $30 for shipping and handling, it's pricey, but let's do the party math: $3 a head for 2 hours of altered tastes for 30 peeps, or $6 a head for 4 hours for 15 peeps.  It adds up to a better excuse than most to cut up a pile of lemons and have a bunch of people over.

Addendum: NYMag hath sourced an additional Miracle Fruit vendor!  Meet Miracle Connect, AKA Neel Shah and Amit Chatwani.  They're a little more expensive, but their minimum order is 6 berries (rather than 30).  If you're in the NYC area, they'll arrange to have the fruit messengered to you; to those outside NYC, they'll send your fresh fruit via overnight express, with no additional shipping and handling charges.

Comments

[miracle berry]

The actual miracle berry fruit is quite expensive and hard to get hold of because it rots very easily making it difficult to transport, so a company in Taiwan is now making miracle berry tablets. Each tablet contains the freeze dried extract of 3 miracle berries and also the tablet can last for one year so will stay fresh. The miracle berry is probably a more natural way of taking the "taste trip" but the miracle berry tablets are more convenient I think.

[Janice]

Miracle Fruit World has a complete list of foods to try and some recipes you should try with miracle fruit tablets! Happly tasting!