Have you ever heard of miracle berries, or mberries? They change the flavor of sour foods to sweet. With mberries, you can satisfy your sweet tooth with 35 calories (really, I put the calculations at the end of this post!) while enjoying a fun, unique experience for dessert. Get some friends together, do mberries, suck on lemons, and call it a flavor tripping party. mberries are not illegal, immoral, or unhealthy. There’s no need to smuggle them across the border; you can get them on Amazon.

In tropical West Africa, where this species originates, the fruit pulp is used to sweeten palm wine. Historically, it was also used to improve the flavor of soured cornbread.  According to webmd.com, “People take miracle fruit to treat diabetes and correct chemotherapy-related taste disturbances. In foods, miracle fruit is used as a low-calorie sugar-free sweetener.”

Here’s Wikipedia’s description of the plant that grows this miraculous berry: 

“Synsepalum dulcificum is a plant known for its berry that, when eaten, causes sour foods (such as lemons and limes) subsequently consumed to taste sweet. This effect is due to miraculin. Common names for this species and its berry include miracle fruit, miracle berry, miraculous berry, and sweet berry.

“The berry itself has a low sugar content and a mildly sweet tang. It contains a 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 sour foods to taste sweet. At neutral pH, miraculin binds and blocks the receptors, but at low pH (resulting from the ingestion of sour foods) miraculin binds proteins and becomes able to activate the sweet receptors, resulting in the perception of sweet taste. This effect lasts until the protein is washed away by saliva (up to about 30 minutes).”

Warning: If you are having a dry wine, finish all but a sip or two before doing an mberry.  The wine will taste really sweet, and you might not like it that way.   

mberries can be purchased on Amazon.com. (Disclosure: This is an affiliate link. If you click through and make a purchase, I will earn a small commission, at  no additional cost to you.)

Preparation time: 10 minutes        Total time: 10 minutes

Specialized Kitchen Utensils:

• Nothing special for this one

Serves 8

Ingredients

• 8 mberry tablets (they come in a package of 10)
• 1 lemon
• 1 lime
• 1 kiwi, peeled
• 8 large strawberries
• 1/2 cup blackberries
• 1/2 cup blueberries
• 1 Granny Smith apple
• any other sour food you want to try (the flavor of most other foods is not affected)
• ice cream or chocolate, just in case this didn’t satisfy your sweet tooth!

Directions

Rinse all fruit. Cut the lemon, lime, kiwi, and apple into 8 wedges.  Place the fruit into individual bowls for serving.  

Take a small taste of each item before having an mberry to allow a before and after comparison. Put the mberry on your tongue. Don’t chew it; just let it dissolve. Roll it around to really coat your entire tongue. This will take a minute or so. Prepare to be amazed. 

Suck on a lemon. It will taste like lemonade! 

Here’s how I calculated the calories:

• Lemon – 17
• Lime – 20
• Kiwi – 42
• Blackberry (1/2 cup) – 31
• Strawberry 6×8  – 48
• Granny Smith apple – 72
• Blueberries (1/2 cup) – 43
• mberry  –  0

Total                     273

Per serving            35