Miracle fruit alters sense of taste

Jacob says: "Miracle fruit is an obscure fruit that alters one's sense of taste, masking bitter and especially sour flavors, causing lemons, limes, beers, and lots of other things to taste amazingly good. After reading about it on the Web and tracking down a source, my friend held an extensive tasting party. We wrote about the experience on our food blog, linked above. (The miracle fruit entries are the newest posts.)

"Alas, the FDA does not look well upon miracle fruit, having forbidden its marketing to diabetics in the 1970s. The stuff is hard to find."

Limes tasted like lime candy, lemons like lemonade, and meyer lemons and red grapefruit were some of the most tasty things I've ever eaten in my life. On the other hand, pineapples and kiwi were cloying, coffee was mostly unchanged, and wine was just plain disgusting.

Link

Reader comment:

David Barzelay says:

Hi, I'm the guy who had the miracle fruit party and wrote the post to which you linked today. The guy from whom I got the miracle fruit grows the stuff in Ft. Lauderdale, and he charges actual overnight shipping plus $5 handling, and $1 per fruit. He'll also ship just the seeds, or the plants themselves. He said it was okay if I gave out his contact info, so I just posted it. Since earlier today, I've gotten almost sixty emails from people wanting to know where they could get some miracle fruit, so I figured you'd be interested in posting this info.

Also, by the way, the description in the original post says that our food blog is linked "above," but in fact you linked to the tipster's site. The link below ("Link") links to the correct blog, but to one of the posts, instead of to the index where readers can find both posts. You might just add a second link at the bottom, to the other post.

The miracle fruit thing was seriously awesome. Also, I love Boing Boing. Thanks for the links.

• [Ben]

  I purchased my first my first miracle fruit(bush)in 1990. Just remember that they like heat humidity, and acidic soil. They bear well and this will enable you to have tasting parties without postage and excessive postage costs.
  I must admit I am in Australia and they are available here but if you can get yourself a plant you are way ahead.
  Ben

• [Anonymous]

  I’m trying to put together a list of tasting parties nationwide. If you know of any, let me know.

  –Miracle Fruit Fan
  Miracle Fruit Fans

• [Chimpo]

  You can now get Miracle Fruit in Europe, the (albeit expensive) berries can be bought from the obvious .co.uk URL. Also the Fruit has begun to make an appearance on sex forums as a ‘taste-improver’ (use your imagination) as the fruit cancels sour and unpleasant flavours in favour of sweeter ones this could be quite a hit. Though I have to admit I haven’t tried it for that, yet ;)

  I Love BoingBoing

• [foreverbliss]

  Yeah this fruit is fantastic i tried the berries first then the tablets which seemed to last longer as the tablets have 3 berries worth inside, i then got myself a plant from http://www.miraclefruithut.com in which it arrived to me quickly, they are a great experience and i enjoy showing others the joys of the miracle berry!

• [savorycharacter]

  I’ve only tried the tabs since every place I go to has the berries on backorder, not to mention they’re a little more pricey. I’ll be working on cultivating my own miracle fruit for personal use, and I’ll be updating my progress on my blog.

  Thanks Boing Boing!