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A Tiny Fruit That Tricks the Tongue

nytimes.com — A small red berry called miracle fruit temporarily rewires the way the palate perceives sour flavors, rendering lemons as sweet as candy.

Who dugg this? Made popular May 29, 2008

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251 Comments

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  • jumbalia, on 05/29/2008, -6/+304the schnozberries taste like schnozberries!
  • cvrefugee, on 05/29/2008, -2/+121One woman wanted to see Mr. Aliquo eat a berry before she tried one. “What, you don’t trust me?” he said.

    She replied, “Well, I just met you.”

    Another guest said, “But you met him on the Internet, so it’s safe.”
  • JoemcC00L, on 05/29/2008, -1/+113FTA:
    During the 1970s, a ruling by the Food and Drug Administration dashed hopes that an extract of miraculin could be sold as a sugar substitute.

    Sugar lobby perhaps?
  • ursername180, on 05/29/2008, -3/+95And in other news, 300 party-goers in Long Island City have mysteriously developed tongue cancer.
  • drader, on 05/28/2008, -2/+77I'm waiting for the real miracle fruit that rewires from salty to sweet as candy...
  • CTK14A, on 05/29/2008, -0/+49First you get the sugar, then you get the power... then you get the women.
  • jkahrs595, on 05/29/2008, -0/+49I wonder if it would make dinner at my house more enjoyable...
  • theotheragentm, on 05/29/2008, -0/+48Not mine, unless the fruit takes my wife away too.
  • kmccormi, on 05/28/2008, -9/+55A few coworkers left my birthday party early last Friday to go to this thing ... and they're in the video! They said it was awesome; I am definitely hitting up the next event.
  • hinmanj, on 05/29/2008, -3/+46Olivia Munn definitely couldn't handle these berries, maybe she got a bad one...

    http://www.g4tv.com/attackoftheshow/videos/19863/M ...
  • Jsoul87, on 05/29/2008, -2/+38I guess we know what Bill had to eat a few of before the honeymoon night...
  • AndrewDB, on 05/29/2008, -8/+42That's really strange as they'll approve Splenda, which is poisonous, and hurts the human body with consumption, but they won't approve miraculin as a sugar substitute .. :[
  • jun2san, on 05/29/2008, -4/+37Damn, they left you on your birthday? That's mest up.
  • Markpdotcom, on 05/29/2008, -1/+30Try eating more fruit and less meat... she'll thank you for it ;)
  • YamiJim, on 05/29/2008, -3/+26some girls already think so, i'm engaged to one.
  • zephc, on 05/29/2008, -3/+26Prof. Farnsworth: Good lord! According to the analyzer, Spragel's secret ingredient is... water! Ordinary water!
    Fry: So, Spragel's real gift was giving you confidence.
    Prof. Farnsworth: Yes, water, with nothing more than a few spoonfuls of LSD.
  • jimbob007, on 05/29/2008, -5/+27http://digg.com/food_drink/Miracle_Fruit_Makes_Alm ...
  • GhostWithToast, on 05/29/2008, -14/+36I know there's a gay midget magician dental joke in here somewhere...
  • smrekar, on 05/29/2008, -1/+23despite the fact you did it anyways?
  • milezlong, on 05/29/2008, -10/+31Ok I haven't gotten my turn at this so I will take it now.....

    OM NOM NOM NOM.

    There, the circle is complete.
  • RevinKoze, on 05/29/2008, -0/+21"It tastes like burning!"
  • renesisx, on 05/29/2008, -0/+19I bought some to try after this story was on Digg last time. It's a little bit of an anticlimax to be honest.

    Yes, it makes lemons edible as a tasty, juicy snack. You have to be very careful though. The first time we tried this we cut the lemon into slices, and while your tongue might now find them delicious your lips on the other hand end up burning like the fires of hell. So, my advice - cut them into quarters and take off the rind. Then you can just pick the lemon chunks up and drop them into your mouth.

    It also doesn't work with most things. Like, it doesn't make coffee, chocolate or haddock taste any better. Apparently using it with strawberries is fun though.

    As with most things, it's more hype than substance :)
  • Reaper2806, on 05/29/2008, -1/+20It's been known about for a while now. A company tried to market it years back, but at the last second the FDA reclassified it, meaning it would have to go through years of trials which it's backers couldn't afford. These people claim the FDA was put under pressure by Big Sugar corps.
  • Yeknom, on 05/29/2008, -6/+22Don't mix this with acid, it will seriously ***** you up!
  • DephexTwin, on 05/29/2008, -0/+16"Man, we hate to have to leave your awesome birthday party, but you know... lemons don't eat themselves... you understand..."
  • djrbx, on 05/29/2008, -3/+19If you want some...
    http://www.miraclefruitman.com/
  • inactive, on 05/29/2008, -0/+16Nope, they were coworkers...
  • rivalius13, on 05/29/2008, -0/+14Pineapples. That'll make it sweet apparently.
  • orlyfactor, on 05/29/2008, -0/+13Wow, I read the same thing!!!
  • vuke69, on 05/29/2008, -0/+13Badger *****. Why, what do you use?
  • GeekyGerge, on 05/29/2008, -1/+14Hey, at least he has friends.




    :(
  • vuke69, on 05/29/2008, -1/+13A bath perhaps?
  • bluelightnin90, on 05/29/2008, -1/+13I tried this before. I was in Trinidad which is in the Caribbean. The fruit leaves a hard to describe feeling. You tongue is slightly numb, but you can definitely taste every other flavor than sour fine. But the fruit leaves an aftertaste that is tingly and numb at the same time. Weird but cool.
  • inactive, on 05/29/2008, -8/+20Still need something for the horrible smelling punani.
  • vuke69, on 05/29/2008, -0/+11I've been on digg almost every day since December of 2005, I hadn't seen it yet.
  • jumbalia, on 05/29/2008, -1/+12I think it has more to do with the fact that it alters your taste buds for a very long period of time. Do you really wanna drink a diet coke and have messed-up taste buds for hours after?
  • Orion682, on 05/29/2008, -0/+11Corn lobbies most likely, not sugar. Most of the foods you eat use high fructose corn syrup in place of sugar, and HFCS is also terrible for your body. There's speculation that it's one of the reasons obesity is an issue in the US...
  • CaptMonkey, on 05/29/2008, -4/+14I question the validity of your information. Sucralose, (what Splenda is made of) has been accepted by the FDA, the World Health Organization, The European Union's Scientific Committee on Food, Health Protection Branch of Health and Welfare Canada and Food Standards Australia-New Zealand and is the only artificial sweetener classified as "safe" by the Center for Science in the Public Interest. None of them have found any indication of it being "poisonous".

    It sounds like more baseless scaremongering on behalf of people who believe that "natural" things are the safest for human consumption. Honestly, you're just as phony and shameful as your right-wing counterparts.

    source (with more detailed information): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sucralose#Safety
  • dggeek, on 05/29/2008, -5/+15I guess paranoia is popular on digg now. There's been no evidence of Sucralose being a danger. Unless you regard anecdotes, holistic healers, and the sugar lobby as good sources.

    But hey, life's just not worth living if there isn't some big bad government conspiracy to fear.
  • flangepiece, on 05/29/2008, -0/+9Luxury! When I were a lad we were force-fed methylated spirits until our kidneys burst and then we had to work 37 hours down t'pit.
  • Cate320, on 05/29/2008, -1/+10Why would you want to do that? I love sour fruit!
  • badassninja, on 05/29/2008, -2/+11Well crap, I had a bunch of these a few years ago and didn't understand what the big deal was. No one told me ( and maybe no one knew ) that it would change how things taste.
  • Seemefearme, on 05/29/2008, -0/+8Looks like Olivia had a bad trip!
  • gcnaddict, on 05/29/2008, -1/+9ewwww. Bad mental image.
  • Metis2be, on 05/29/2008, -0/+8Way to ruin it for the rest of us! Why can't you all let us be disappointed individually?
  • austin006, on 05/29/2008, -1/+9what've you got against dentists, you ANTI-DENTITE!
  • YamiJim, on 05/29/2008, -2/+10see also : Sacarine.
  • sfacets, on 05/29/2008, -2/+10Imagine going swimming in the ocean :)
  • BoneheadFarker, on 05/29/2008, -2/+10As opposed the Splenda's "DNA altering" properties?
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