“Is this something we should do at work…or will we get fired for partaking of illicit substances? asked science editor Todd Runstad as he popped a miracle berry tablet in his mouth. “Go ahead, I’m your boss, I’ll back you up (maybe),” I said. Such was the start of the conversation for the Supply Portfolio team experiential taste test.

Within minutes of dissolving the tiny tablet on our tongues, we were under the influence. As we dug into a pile of tart lemons and bitter kumquats, our minds said “sour” but our taste buds said “sweet.” Lemonade sweet. This African berry, called the miracle fruit, or synsepalum dulcificum for all you botanists, turns sour and bitter foods into a sweet surprise. The miraculous taste bud transformation is thanks to a protein, ironically named miraculin, that binds with taste buds and when exposed to acidic foods gives everything sour a sweet flavor.

There are no known side affects, except a slightly sweet aftertaste as if you scarfed down an entire birthday cake while no one was watching (good news–each pill is only 1 kcal). Our team is not alone in our experimenting; across the nation people are hosting “flavor tripping” parties. If you are lucky enough to find the actual fruit, scrape the pulp off the seed and roll it around in your mouth, or order premade tablets from http://www.miracleberrypill.org/. There is no indication this berry will sweetened our sour economy, nor has the FDA approved its use for foods and beverages.

Kicking off the diet……

The First Day

Let the experiment begin! I’m excited. This morning as instructed, I mixed my little sachet of Luralean in a glass of room temperature water and drank it down, quickly followed by another glass of water. I was expecting an awful tasting thick fiber brew and was pleasantly surprised. What I got was a taste free, grit free drink. It was a little hard to get all of the mix from the bottom of the glass so I kept adding little bits of water and swirling it around. I wasn’t able to get it all but that didn’t seem to make a difference as when I ate breakfast a half hour later I filled up very quickly. I found the same was true at lunch and even more pronounced at dinner. I got quite full on just a little bit of salad and grilled veggies. So far so good!