Miracle Fruit Party

Miracle fruit is a berry that contains the protein Miraculin that changes the perception of taste.

It makes anything sour taste sweet. We tried it just for fun, but it is also known for helping diabetics and chemotherapy patients that sometimes suffer a change of flavors because of their treatment.

I've always wanted to try this miracle fruit since I saw it in an episode of "United States of Tara".

Finally, after coming to Japan, I managed to get my friends interested in trying it too, and we ordered it freeze-dried in tablet form offline. A few days ago it arrived, and after school today we hurried to the local Jusco to gather ingredients for our little experiment.

Most of the stuff I got the idea from reading about other people trying it, some other things, like umeboshi, we wanted to try just for fun.


This is what we got

- lemon
- two different kinds of lime
- two different kinds of grapefruit
- pineapple
- tomatoes
- tabasco sauce
- olives
- pickles
- balsamic vinegar
- beer
- umeboshi - Japanese pickled plum




Before our Mairacle Fruit experiment Kuniyoshi made us all a typical Japanese meal, consisting of different types of soba - Japanese buckwheat noodles, vegetables and tofu - soya curd. I wish I could eat like this everyday, and I would turn into a petite Japanese chick in no time.

Maybe not.

おいしい！

Kuniyoshi and Cat

We asked Kuniyoshi if he'd ever heard of miracle fruits before, which he hadn't. He made big eyes when he saw me putting out all of the lemon and lime.

When we all put the miracle fruit tablets in our mouths, convincing him it was a "special drug", he was a little sceptical.

The tablet itself didn't taste that much, but it still wasn't very pleasant. It was like sucking on a vitamin pill you're supposed to swallow. When it had desolved we all tried a piece of lemon first.



It was pretty interesting. All of the lemon, lime and grapefruit was still a bit "zingy", but you could eat it, without getting a sour face, and it wasn't any bitter. Cat and Benedicte who normally don't like grapefruit enjoyed it. Three lemons, two average size limes and three small ones were quickly eaten.

Maybe it's not a good idea to do this very often. Our poor stomach.

The tomato and pineapple were incredibly sweet., but still tomatoes are best at it's "normal state", I think.

The rest of the stuff was pretty much the same, to my disappointment. Of course, it tasted somewhat different - sweeter, but you still won't be able to chug tabasco or balsamic vinegar. Umeboshi is still horrible and pickles won't taste like candy. I might have got a bit too high expectations from watching peoples reactions on youtube.

All in all a fun experiment, but I think I prefer my beer as it is normally.