Blurbex

From our man in Sarasota, Justin Richards:

Before some friends and I tried flavor tripping for the first time, I’ll admit I had some unrealistic expectations. I thought the newly popularized miracle fruit would make my palate go temporarily insane; olives would taste like licorice, rice would taste like pudding, soap would taste like marmalade. We’d be licking the ambrosial sweat from each other’s armpits!

This past weekend, a friend from Ft. Lauderdale bought berries (at $3 each) from a local horticulturist, and seven of us prepared a smorgasbord. We each chewed a berry, swished it around in our mouths for a minute, then began to taste.

First, we did lemons and limes. Some said they tasted like tangerines, but there was more to the flavor than that: essence-of-lime without the sourness. We sliced them up and squeezed them one after another into our mouths.

“It has buttery notes!” said the person next to me.

Heineken became very drinkable on the miracle fruit. Some of the tasters thought it evoked cream soda. One friend suggested writing a letter to the brewer: “Dear Heineken, we had to pay $3 to enjoy your beer.”

Ranch dressing tasted like custard.

Bordeaux tasted like Riesling.

Goat cheese tasted like cream cheese.

Dubliner cheese tasted like a milder cheese.

Tequila tasted like tequila. (Tequila will not be moved.)

As you can see, the flavor conversions weren’t as wild as I’d thought they’d be. From the fruit’s Wikipedia entry: “The berry is sweet, and contains an active glycoprotein molecule, with some trailing carbohydrate chains, called miraculin. When the fleshy part of the fruit is eaten, this molecule binds to the tongue’s taste buds, causing bitter and sour foods (such as lemons and limes) consumed later to taste sweet.”

So new flavors aren’t really introduced. Fruits are in a way streamlined down to their sweet essences. This can kind of dumb down more complex flavors, as happened with the wine.

We also noticed that when we tried foods like vinegar, which went down smooth at first, it seemed you could taste them once you swallowed. Strange, I remarked, since you can’t taste with your throat.

“But you can smell,” someone said, “and once it gets past your mouth, your olfactory system takes over.”

The effects of the fruit are supposed to last at least an hour, but ours was wearing off after about 20 minutes. Drinking all that vinegar, eating all those lemons and limes, we probably burned away the miraculin with tasty acid. That’s probably why, at the flavor-tripping parties held in New York and San Francisco, guests try just a little bit of everything.

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Although it wasn’t psilocybin for the tongue, as I had expected, the fruit did influence me to eat more lemon-and-goat-cheese than appeals to me right now.

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