The miracle berry is an amazing naturally grown fruit found in Africa that has unique taste changing properties.
After eating the miracle berry the active ingredient, known as Miraculin, coats the tongue and blocks out certain taste bud receptors while intensifying other taste bud receptors. The outcome is that all food that originally tastes sour, bitter or acidic actually end up tasting sweet – it really is a miracle.
The miracle berry is also know and the magic berry, miracle fruit, miraculous berry and miracle fruit berry, the latin name is Synsepalum dulcificum.
It is a small bush plant that grows a few meters high, and takes 10 years before it first bears any fruit.
The miracle berries themselves were first discovered many years ago and an American company tried to market the active ingredient as a alternative sweetner, however the product was classed as an addidtive by the American Food and Drugs Administration and was never approved. Its thought that pressure by the big sugar companies was responsible for the products failure.
However, recently a company in Taiwan saw the potential of making the miracle berry into a fun product, where one can experience a “taste trip” by eating the freeze dried powder of the miracle berry in tablet form. After 10 years of growing the miracle berry trees the company harvested it’s first batch of the miracle berries last year and their product miracle berry tablets went onto the market.
A taste trip is where a person eats the miracle berry or miracle berry tablet, and then precedes to taste a variety of foods to experience another new and exciting flavor.
Foods like lemons, limes and grapfruits taste sweet and juicy, tomatoes also become very sweet, vinegar and pickled foods become sweet and taste like candy, bitter and guinness tastes like chocolate milk shake and other foods take on a whole new flavor, mostly becoming sweeter than usual.
The possible benefits of the miracle berry are not only the possibility of it becoming a natural sweetner, but it could also be used to enhance flavor in products, or as a possible health product. People, especially those with a sweet tooth or who have constant cravings for sugar treats could eat the miracle berry and then eat healthy food, cutting out the bad effects of sugar like weight gain and tooth decay. So with the current obesity epedemic the miracle berry could be used for weight loss over the long term, allowing users to enjoy sweet treats without eating sugar.
Recently a new fad of Miracle Berry Parties has been the latest event concerning the miracle berry. The party goers all eat the miracle berry or miracle berry tablet and then tuck in to the huge buffet of known foods that dramatically change taste. These miracle berry parties are fast becoming popular all over the USA and Japan.
Tags: miracle berry, miracle fruit, miraculin, sugar, sweet, Synsepalum dulcificum, taste trip
