Buy Miracle fruit and Miracle Berries online!

The wonders of the Miracle Fruit

There has been a surge of interest in this so called miracle fruit, causing many culinary fanatics to ask what is it? Synsepalum dulcificum is a shrub that produces a small red mildly tangy berry. The miracle occurs after eating the fleshy part of the berry, causing sour and bitter foods to taste sweet. The miracle fruit, also called the miraculous fruit or sweet berry, does not taste sweet by itself but when combined with bitter and sour foods it transforms their flavor to taste sweet. One can find the berry in pill form, or even buy the plant and grow it at home. The berry is the size of a small coffee bean, and the plant fruits an average of twice a year. The fruit itself only has a short shelf life only lasting for 3-4 days. Cooking the berry destroys the taste transformation super powers of the fruit. This caused many problems preserving a fruit that has such a short term shelf life at first, but later researchers found freeze drying could preserve the fruits natural sweetening ability for well over a year. One can find the miracle berry in dried form, or encapsulated into pills.

The Miracle berry is native to Western Africa, but is now being cultivated in many different places across the world. The berry has turned out to be a very resilient plant and is being successfully grown by green-thumb amateurs. The plant requires a low PH balance soil, relatively high humidity, with partial shade, and an environment free of frost. The Synsepalum dulcificum can be found in nurseries for the home grower, and has become fairly popular in the past couple years due to it’s novelty. The plant does take 2-3 years to mature to the point of fruiting, so most just buy the fruit or supplements for the same effect. The miracle fruit plant can be grown indoors with a T5 fluorescent growing light, which mimics the indirect sunlight that it would receive in nature. The plant can self pollinate itself, and it bears many fruits so even one plant by itself can provide enough fruit for an individual.

The miracle fruit itself has a very low sugar content, but when the fruit is chewed and allowed to coat the tongue it completely changes the input sensors on the taste buds. The berry contains a protein molecule called miraculin which binds to the taste buds and distorts the “sweet” sensory input to respond to acids and replicates the effect of sugar. Things normally sour on the palate, like lemons, limes, and even vinegar will taste sweet for 15 to 60 minutes. While making a perfect practical joke for friends the fruit’s ability to provide a healthy alternative to sugar is amazing. The plant has been called “a true gift to humanity” with its safety and its practical use for everyday life. Some may scoff at the idea of a fruit being so miraculous, but ask those that have diabetes if they truly appreciate the power of a healthy sugar substitute. The fruit has been successfully used to provide healthy alternatives for dieters that have severe “sweet tooth”. Changing the flavor of a grapefruit to taste like candy, or even a wedge of lime to taste like a lavish dessert.

In Japan the miracle fruit has high demand with diabetic patients due to its low calorie sweetening abilities. The fruit is also popular with patients undergoing chemotherapy. It has the ability to counteract the metallic flavor that can be a side effect with the cancer treatments. Recently the miracle berry has become popular with food tasting events called “Taste tripping”. Where the host offers their guests a variety of sour and bitter foods and the guests can experience what these sour and bitter foods taste like under the effect of the “magic fruit”. People have compared Guinness to chocolate milk, and fruits like limes and lemons are reported to taste like candy. Many different foods are offered at these tasting parties, but the most popular are hot sauce, citrus, goat cheese, nuts, vinegar, and beer. Each guest samples each of the food and discusses how that it tastes on their pallet. With power that vary from treating cancer patients, to breaking the ice at your most posh social situations there is little wonder people are calling these berries the miracle fruit.