Miracle fruit review, “New Hope #31″

Miracle fruit or miracle berries have a very interesting property - they’re capable of making sour and bitter foods taste sweet. They can also enhance the sweetness of sweet foods. Yesterday I received my order of freeze-dried miracle fruit from www.miraclefruit.co.uk. My best friend Tom came over for some GTA IV and a miracle fruit food tasting.

The miracle fruit comes in a powdered form, so you have to let it dissolve on your tongue for about a minute prior to eating anything else. The taste-altering effect can last up to 2 hours…your stomach should be full by this time anyway. The powder tasted fruity but was nothing special on its own. I assembled a spread of various food (mainly fruits) for us to try, and here’s what we thought of them.

Lemon - Sweet and delicious like lemonade. I couldn’t believe how edible these were. No puckering at all.

Lime - Same as the lemons, but lime flavored. I ate a lot of these.

Grapefruit - Not bitter! I can’t believe it! I tried some this morning to make sure this was really grapefruit, and it tasted disgusting in its natural unsweetened form. I enjoyed being able to eat this without putting mounds of sugar on it. It smelled wonderful.

Kiwi - Excellent. Slightly sweeter.

Pineapple - Tom thought it was great, but I felt that it was much too sweet.

Grapes - Like candy. Very sweet and delicious.

Strawberries - My favorite. They tasted like they had been rolled in sugar.

Granny smith apple - Less tart and sweeter. I prefer these as sour as possible though.

Rhubarb - Tom’s favorite. I tried the rhubarb before the tasting since I hadn’t tried it before. It was bitter. After the miracle fruit, it tasted like sugar!

Dark chocolate - No huge difference, still delicious though.

Coffee with skim milk - Still needed some sugar, but was a little bit more drinkable.

Dill pickle - Tasted like a sweet pickle but with dill flavor. Not sour at all.

Tomato - Sweet and super-ripe.

Overall, Tom and I were very impressed. I should point out that Nes also participated, but more on a spectator level since he doesn’t have an affinity for fruit. Next time pehaps I’ll prepare a spread of pork products for him to sample. So, how does it work? From the www.miraclefruit.co.uk website:

“Although the berry itself is not sweet, it 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 changes to gustation - in particular bitter and sour foods (such as lemons and limes) consumed later to taste sweet. This effect lasts up to two hours.”

I have to recommend miracle fruit to anyone who wants to experience the food-eating process in a fun new way.

“New Hope #31″ will be listed tonight:

Tags: painting, abstract, Kira, art, breasts, new hope, food, miracle fruit, tom, nes