Several months ago, my friend Joanna posted about the miracle fruit dinner she hosted on her site, My Vegetable Blog. While the buzz surrounding this fascinating natural plant had somewhat diminished, my interest in trying it out for myself did not. Miracle fruit contains a protein called Miraculin that binds with the taste buds to create a sweet flavor when it comes in contact with acids. The reaction can last two to three hours.
I decided to buy miracle fruit through an online vendor called Miracle UK. I ordered a pouch containing enough freeze-dried miracle fruit powder for 10 and split it with six friends. The distribution of this pink powder was rather amusing, but once we had all spooned it into our mouths a silence fell over the table as we waited for it to dissolve.
I reached for a lemon wedge and bit into it, bracing myself for disappointment. I was met with the flavors of a perfect batch of lemonade. It had worked as advertised.
Our dining selection was certainly one of the strangest I have encountered at a dinner party. We all brought odds and ends, many of which were informed by other miracle fruit party descriptions. Here is a list of what we had on hand:
Swiss chard
Hot sauces
Vinegars
Hot peppers
Olives
Capers
Pickled onions
Sardines
Lemon-herb butter
Pickles
Cocktail sauce
Goat cheese
Cream cheese
Blue cheese
Sour cream
Bagels
Fried tofu
Radishes
Sour Patch Kids
Rice
Curries
Lemon
Mandarin
Tomatillo
Pear
Meyer lemon
Orange
Granny Smith apple
Pineapple
Lime
Key lime
Rhubarb
Grapefruit
Guinness
Buttermilk
IPAs
Tequila
Sherry
The most striking item to many of us was the tomatillo. It tasted like a complexly flavored apple. Absolutely delicious. All of the citrus fruits and fresh vegetables responded well. The vinegars and tequilas were smooth and the buttermilk tasted like cream. The goat cheese and sour cream tasted like frosting, and the strong blue cheese we had been enjoying before dinner tasted very mellow after eating the miracle fruit.
We all agreed that the Guinness did not taste "like a chocolate milkshake" and in fact, we started to suspect that the spicy foods and the alcohols might have actually sped up the dissipation of the miracle fruit reaction. Those that had foods from these two groups early on seemed to have a much shorter experience.
I certainly hope miracle fruit never finds its way into my foods as a commercial sweetner, but the dinner party sampling was a lot of fun.
DogFishHead 120...nice touch!
Posted by: tbillini | February 03, 2009 at 18:29
Great dinner. Except the buttermilk did not taste good at all.
Posted by: Nick | February 03, 2009 at 18:35
Oh man, I have definitely wanted to try this for a while, and after your success with this stuff, I am totally considering buying some! it sounds so entertaining!
Posted by: Lizzie | February 03, 2009 at 20:33
What a fabulous dinner event - everthing looks delicious!
Posted by: Joelen | February 04, 2009 at 08:22
We're really glad you all enjoyed the party - sounds like you had some great foods to try. Did everyone have different favourites?
Posted by: Buy miracle fruit | February 04, 2009 at 10:07
TOTALLY INSPIRED. I'm having one next Friday! I read about those a while ago but didn't know 'real' people who had tried it. THANKS for the post~!!
Posted by: Jeni | February 04, 2009 at 16:55
Very interesting. A kind of lab experiment at the table...
AmyRuth
Posted by: AmyRuth | February 07, 2009 at 12:08
It was a lot of fun! I highly recommend it.
While the response to the foods was slightly different for all of us, it did not vary too greatly.
Posted by: Gemma | February 09, 2009 at 16:13
OK, totally off-topic here, but I'm curious about the furniture. I think I've seen the table somewhere, but I can't place it now. The chairs look like either Anna Chairs from DWR or the Bellini Chair. Am I close?
Posted by: Bowl of Plenty | February 11, 2009 at 17:36
How fun! This past Christmas we gave away miracle fruit tasting baskets to friends.
Posted by: Eviedee | February 23, 2009 at 15:09
Hi Bowl of Plenty,
The party was hosted by my friends Ben & Ruchama. I'm not sure about the origins of the chairs, but I can tell you that Ben has quite an eye for interior design and that DWR is probably a spot-on guess for their chairs.
Hi Eviedee, what a great gift idea. I'll have to keep that in mind for next year.
Posted by: Gemma | March 02, 2009 at 09:34
a party in your mouth. literally.
Posted by: Cyber Rainbow | March 26, 2009 at 15:50