The Miracle of Fruit Or How To Get Goat Cheese To Taste Like Cheesecake

And Guinness To Taste Like A Chocolate Milkshake

It almost sounds too good to be true. Last week, the New York Times reported that there is a small berry-like fruit that makes all food eaten after it taste many times sweeter. And proponents of Synsepalum dulcificum (also know as Miracle Fruit) hold trendy tasting parties to promote this little gem of a berry.

I had never heard of this fruit before. What’s particularly unusual is that the Miracle Fruit is not sweet itself. Apparently, (I’ve never tried one, I’m definitely going to be on the lookout though – even if a single berry can cost $2) you’re supposed to chew the fruit and let the flesh coat your tongue. Then something amazing happens. Sour things, like lemons or limes, can be eaten without wincing. It makes everything taste sweet for up to an hour or so.

It almost sounds like LSD for the tongue, where you’re experiencing a substance-induced alternate reality. Not having experience with either, I think the Miracle Fruit might be the safer.

The plant comes from West Africa, but unless you live in south Florida or Hawaii, you have to grow it indoors in the States, which sounds eminently doable.

I’m all for things that make the world a sweeter place. Maybe if this fruit were distributed more widely, it really could work miracles and not just on our taste buds.