Our Miracle Berry food spread. Photo: Cori Burke
Recently, on a whim, I ordered some Miracle Berry Tablets from ThinkGeek, while ordering some other items. (Among them were the Nanoblocks that I reviewed recently.) I’d heard about Miracle Berries, and how they were supposed to make lemons taste like candy. I was curious myself, and so bought a pack of ten pills. A serving is only a half pill, so the pack had 20 servings. Enough for me, my family, and a couple of friends, several times over!
I knew my husband would want to be a part of the tasting experiment. And my daughter was game. (My son doesn’t like many fruits and vegetables, so I knew he wouldn’t get much out of the experience.) And we have two awesome friends who are always up for an adventure. So the five of us planned a menu of sour, semi-sour, and bitter things, and then got started.
The idea is to dissolve the half-tablet on your tongue, rolling it around to coat your tongue as much as possible. This was easy, but it took a lot longer than any of us would have guessed. The tablet didn’t taste bad, but it was a bit like woody fruit. So after about 10 or 15 minutes (or so it seemed), we were finally able to start trying the bounty of food laid out in front of us.
Here is a list of what we tried, in the order we tried them, and our opinions of the results.
- Lime: A little sour, but sweet, as if it was dipped in sugar.
- Lemon: Still could tell it was actually supposed to be sour and it made the mouth tingly, but it was also sweet, as if dipped in sugar.
- Orange: Sweeter than the others. Delicious. But you also lose some complexity of flavor. The sweetness seemed like artificial sweetness, or like Splenda.
- Rhubarb: Sweeter than normal. Grassy tasting. My husband loved this one.
- Beer (a bitter variety): It tastes the same, but with a sugar aftertaste. Sugary beer.
- Apple Cider Vinegar: Sugary, but no, oh my god no. Coughing. Goes up my nose. (Those were my exact notes as I was suffering the indignity. Everyone else agreed.)
- Balsamic Vinegar: Sugary, but too vinegary. Also the fumes went up the nose. (We’ve decided to try it on bread next time.)
- Green Tea: Tastes like tea, but bland.
- Broccoli: Tastes the same.
- Brussels Sprouts: Tastes the same.
- Radish: Tastes the same.
- Grapefruit: Sugary and awesome. (This one was a real winner.)
- Green Bell Pepper: Tastes the same.
- Strawberries: Really sweet. “Like the best strawberry ever,” someone said.
- Coffee: Still a bit bitter, tasted just like coffee, but a little better than normal.
In short, the pills didn’t work very well on any bitter flavors. It might have mellowed them slightly, but it was only really noticeable on sour or semi-sour items. For the really sour items, like lemons and limes, it really felt like the sweet was added to the fruit, rather than an integral part of it.
As we were eating our plates of food, we noticed that the fruit disappeared really quickly. That’s what everyone was really enjoying. The veggies mostly got left behind, though they got eaten later.
For our next Miracle Berry Tablet session, I’m sure we’ll bring back some of the favorites, like lemons, limes, oranges, and grapefruit. We will also hopefully add pumelos, Granny Smith apples, and use bread with our balsamic vinegar.
GeekDad Jonathan Liu also tried these, and documented his experience last year.
Have you tried Miracle Berry Tablets? What foods did you find most interesting?
