The crazy berry that changes sour, to sweet…. every had a sweet lemon?
Miracle berries (Synsepalum dulcificum) are berries that when eaten, causes sour things to taste sweet. Crazy huh? Well before we get to why and how, I’ll tell you how we found this berry…
So down in Florida we stopped at a fruit stand (my dad loves buying crazy fruit so we just had to stop). There we bought some very different fruit like canistel the egg fruit, Mamet sapote, sapodilla, ugli fruit, and of course, mangos and passionfruit, oh yeah, and miracle berries.
We got back to the RV then we headed to park the RV. Night comes and we decide to try the miracle berry (not knowing what it does to you) not all of us had some, but most of us. They tasted a bit sweet, and kinda pomegranate like. About 15 minutes latter I started making our good-for-you drink (that has Apple cider vinegar and other good stuff).
I had made a concentrate for convenience a few days back but there wasn’t enough for all of us so a added more Apple cider vinegar knowing it won’t be as sweet. So then I made the drinks then a tried some to see if I should add more honey, “Wowzaz! This is sweeeeeet” I thought. I know that there’s not much honey in there, so I asked mom to try some, (she did have a berry before) and she was like “eww that’s way to sweet!” We were really confused, not knowing about that berry had changed our taste buds perception, then the berry crossed my mind but I thought that would just be weird. So then I asked my dad and he’s response was very much like mom’s, weird! So we thought, it has to be that miracle berry!
So here comes my other sisters in the RV, (mwahahaha) I asked them to try the ACV drink and she said it tasted normal, so then we gave her a miracle berry and then had her try it… then we knew it was the berry for sure! Everyone was having fun eating those things! So then we were trying other acidic things, we had a ugli fruit which is super acidic and it tasted suuuuper sweet!
So we tried more, a Pamelo, and oranges, kombucha, then we were like “hey, what about a lemon?!” So we did, I mean we are kinda crazy about experiments… guess what? It tasted like the sweetest lemonade we’ve ever had, Like we dumped sugar on top before we ate them! It was hilarious really, a RV full of Potters shoving lemons in there mouths… then the research began for this crazy fruit, and here I’ll tell you about it!
About these Miracle berries...
Miracle berries (Synsepalum dulcificum) are berries that when eaten, cause sour things to taste sweet. They are native to West Africa.
When the inside of the fruit is eaten, the glycoproteins called Miraculin binds to the tongue’s taste buds causing sour foods to taste sweet. This lasts until the protein is washed away by saliva (up to an hour but it’s deferent on everyone). This effect is due to Miraculin is why it’s called a miracle berry.
Bit of history
The berry has been used in West Africa since at least the 18th century. Marchais, who was searching West Africa for many different fruits in a 1725 excursion, noticed that local people picked the berry from shrubs and chewed it before meals.
In the 1980s in the United States, an attempt was made to commercialize the fruit for its ability to mask non-sweet foods as sweet without less calories but aspartame and miracle berries were gettin’ FDA approved the same time and right before there said it was safe, they then decided to let the aspartame pass and not this amazing berry. Although, you can buy it in pill form, freeze dried or grow it yourself.
Are they safe?
They are approved as safe to eat.
A rat study demonstrated safety of the fruit using thousands of times the amount a human might reliably eat. In fact, the rats were found to be healthier and lived longer than the controlled group.
It is safe however, do try to limit on acid food for to much can cause damage.
You can buy these berries online. Just look up Miracle berry.
the potters table 