Not the usual party spread, right? Well, it is if you are attending a Miracle Fruit, or Fruit Tripping, party.
We first read about this magical fruit in the New York Times. It was touted as being able to make bitter and sour foods taste sweet, and there was a guy in New York who had started throwing "Fruit Tripping" parties, where he would offer a variety of foods (vinegar, citrus, Tobasco sauce) and invite people to try it out. The way it works is through something called glycoprotein which messes with your taste receptors for a limited time, around 1-2 hours. Kind of like the toothpaste-followed-by-orange-juice effect, only pleasant.
It is legal, just not FDA-approved. Mike told me that it was originally meant to be marketed to diabetics, which I thought was a great idea.
It seems that everyone in the universe read that article, because the berries are now next to impossible to get. Our friends Mike & Olga were able to get ahold of some of the tablets and hosted an evening of Magic Berry fun at their home.
And the result? It was pretty cool. Some of the taste changes didn't live up to the hype for me (Guinness tasted like Guinness, not a chocolate milkshake), but some of the foods were amazing. The lemons and limes were so sweet, it felt like you were eating the sweetest orange or even a fruit jelly. I probably ate and entire lemon and lime by myself, and I found myself drinking pure lime juice concentrate like it was lime-aid. The cheeses were interesting, too - goat cheese tasted like cream cheese and the Roquefort was like a very mild cheese with just a hint of blue flavor. I had brought the most bitter plain yogurt that I could find, Nancy's, and it tasted like sweet vanilla yogurt. Dave and Jen brought a Scharffen Berger 99% cocoa chocolate bar that tasted strongly of cocoa butter, mildly of chocolate, and not a hint of bitterness.
Definitely worth a try, and best to do in a group as everyone has a slightly different experience. I'd love to try the pure berries, but the tablets definitely work well. All in all, a fun evening tripping with friends!
