Miracle Fruit Makes (Almost) Everything Delicious

Miracle fruit, a berry from Africa, has a strange effect: After eating it, everything sour suddenly tastes sweet.

By Kathryn Hawkins. Posted on November 23 2007

Willy Wonka came up with some pretty cool confectionary creations: Non-melting ice cream. The Everlasting Gobstopper. Edible wallpaper. And who wouldn’t have loved to try his Three-Course-Dinner-Gum? (Though we probably wouldn’t have been so wild about turning into a giant blueberry, a la Violet Beauregard.)

But did you know there’s a nature-made treat that rivals any of Wonka’s wild concoctions? It’s the miracle fruit, a berry from West Africa with an amazing effect: When you eat a piece of the strange fruit, it makes everything sour taste sweet for the next hour or so.

That means, with the magical effects of the miracle fruit in place, you can scarf down lemon slices as if they were gummy drops. The tang of goat cheese turns to sugary sweetness. Even a bitter beer could be mistaken for a milkshake, one miracle fruit-eater told The Wall Street Journal.

Though miracle fruit has been around for hundreds of years, it’s recently become a cult phenomenon: All around the globe, curious foodies are seeking out the exotic berry and holding miracle fruit parties, where they serve up the berries along with plenty of lemons, limes, and other tart foods for a totally one-of-a-kind flavor sensation.

A word to the wise, though: Don’t follow a piece of miracle fruit up with a slice of cake, or you may never come down from the sugar high.

Filed under: General Interest, Science, Weird,

Liked this? You'll love these, too:

Chef Gives Up Prestigious Restaurant Job for Soup Kitchen

Eight years ago, Tim Hammack was working as a chef at Napa Valley's prestigious Bouchon Bistro—but he traded in the high tips for a far more fulfilling job at a soup kitchen. Read More
Medicinal Ice Cream Can Help Ease Pain of Cancer Patients

Ice cream may not seem like the most likely candidate for a medical application, but it only stands to reason: if a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down, wouldn’t a bowl of ice cream do the trick even better? Read More
A Delicious Chocolate Dish Could Earn You $10,000

Want to win $10,000 and a lifetime of bragging rights? Then enter the Scharffen Berger Chocolate Adventure Contest. Read More
‘Fifth Taste’ Umami Now Available In Tube Form at Grocery Stores

Umami, which is known as the fifth flavor, is hard to define. But now, you can find umami extract in a tube in English grocery stores—and in these six ingredients. Read More
Phantom Bread Maker Haunts English Town of Forey

Residents of Forey, England have received surprise gifts of bread from a baker known as the Phantom Bread Maker. Read More