the miracle fruit experiment was a success! we were all a bit skeptical (and skeeved out) as i attempted to portion out the lump of freeze-dried pulp, and the initial flavor of the berries (which i'd liken to...upscale fruit roll-up?) was unexceptional, but their promised tastebud-transforming effect was noticeable almost immediately. in the taste tests, citric acid and fructose were the winning components by a mile: citrus fruit, especially the marvelous little meyer lemon quarters, really did become sweet enough to eat like candy. miracle fruit fiddles with food's knobs, if you will, so that sourness recedes and sweeter notes come forward.* other flavor components aren't affected as strongly, and weren't as interesting: the olives still tasted like olives, and the aggressive danish blue cheese became a polite cambozola (but bore no resemblance to cream cheese frosting, as other tasters had reported it would). the most notable fizzle, though, was the alcohol (i'd picked up a mixed pack of stouts - dragon, old rasputin, mackeson's, samuel smith's, and a few others - in hopes of achieving the wall street journal's milkshake effect): the stout fans (joe, george, dave) and skeptics (me, melissa) alike thought the sweetened beer tasted like ass. i'm glad we didn't mess around with a pint of guinness, for compromising that flavor would have broken george's heart. conclusion: it's still a little weird to have paid $30 for an anonymous envelope from the UK, but given that six of us were entertained for several hours, the food trip was worthwhile. if miracle fruit becomes available to you, give it a try - but give beer a wide berth.

*this was also notable with our vast supply of condiments - i was able to drink (and enjoy) both brown rice and red wine vinegar. i'd have tried more, but a belly full of vinegar (and lemons, and raw rhubarb) didn't seem like a good idea.


wabes said...

they say lavender can work on the mothies, and i have always been a big fan of verrrry strong cedar. i have some suspicious holes in my favorite hoodies, but i'm hoping it's just my clumsy elbows and not a relative of your mothra meanies. boo.

i remember very distinctly the first time i entered a moth-balled house. it really does smell awful. luckily i was housesitting, and it was summertime, so i could just chalk a few of the rooms in the house up as nasty and make sure there were none hiding in my closet. mothballs, that is.

lauren said...

in re clumsy elbows, i think in retrospect that i'd been making a similar assumption with my sweater cuffs and smoky hands - i assumed that the little holes were the result of errant cigarette embers. it's been long enough since i last lit up, though, that i can finally say "hey, that wasn't there before!"

so, unexpected benefit of quitting smoking: moth detection?

the good news with the hoodies is that you have an excuse to give them academic elbow patches, maybe? i think that would be very professor / mary anne chic.

miracle fruit said...

Hey, we're glad you liked our miracle fruit. Sorry about the delay :)

Over here we tend to agree with you - sweet beers aren't nice at all but lemon wedges are yummy.