Flavor Tripping – a Giveaway!

A couple of weeks ago I went to a Flavor Tripping Party hosted by The Berry Fairy. I had so much fun that I want to offer you the same experience.

Here’s the scoop (reposted from the Berry Fairy site).

What is a Flavor Tripping Party?

Flavor Tripping parties are the latest craze in NY and SF and offer willy wonka-esque taste-altering experiences for your tastebuds. Party-goers get a fresh miracle berry and then help themselves to a bacchanalian banquet of food and naughty beverages. The miracle berry affects everyone differently and the effects can last from 30 minutes to 2 hours. This is what some flavor-trippers are saying:

- citrus fruits like lemons and limes taste sweet
- oranges and grapefruits tasted dipped in sugar
- goat cheese tastes like frosting
- vinegar is smooth enough to drink
- cheap tequila tastes like top shelf
- bologna sandwiches taste like cheesecake
- stout beers taste like chocolate milkshakes

Miracle berries are only good for 2-3 days after they are picked and so they are very rare, expensive, and hard to obtain.

What is a Miracle Berry?


Miracle berries, also known as miracle fruit or Synsepalum dulcificum are fresh plants indigenous to West Africa. The fruit when consumed have an extraordinary affect on your tastebuds. Scientists say a protein in the fruit works by binding to taste buds and altering the tongue's so-called sweet receptors to activate when sour foods are eaten. The "miracle" is everything sour and bitter will taste sweet temporarily.

Lemons taste like lemonade, Guiness beer tastes like chocolate milk, rhubarb tastes like sugar cane!

Miracle Berry plants can only grow in parts of Africa, Asia, and Florida. They take four years from seed to bear fruit. The berries are also highly perishable and must be eaten within 2-3 days once picked. For diabetics, it could be turned into a sugar-free additive. For cancer patients, it could eliminate the post-chemotherapy metallic taste in their mouths and make food taste more palatable. All of these factors including recent press by the New York Times make this berry almost a "miracle" to obtain.

The party in Austin was very well attended and everyone had a blast, even though it was held outside and like a bazillion degrees.

So obviously I cannot provide you with a fresh Miracle Berry. However, at the Flavor Tripping Party there was a table set up selling mberry tablets. I bought a packet of 10.

What are mberries? (taken from the mberries site)

Our tablets contain ONLY freeze dried granules of Miracle Berry fruit and cornstarch (to maintain the tablet shape). In this form, the tablets can last over a year with little to no degradation (when not frozen or cooked!) and the price per miracle berry experience is much more affordable than with the fresh berries.

Who uses Miracle Berries?
· Dieters
· Diabetics
· Curious and Adventurous Eaters
· People at Parties!

Instructions:
First, gently rinse your mouth with water be sure you have a clean tongue.
Please Note: Smoking directly before or after, may negatively affect the sensitivity of your tongue.
The effect of Miracle fruit is made possible ONLY by contact with the tongue, not through digestion.
For this reason, tablets must be allowed to dissolve completely on the tongue.
The most pronounced effect can be achieved by coating the entire tongue in a paste of Miracle fruit for up to 30 seconds.

If you wish to end the experience early, simple drink some hot liquid (tea, etc.) and much of the miraculin should quickly wash off your tongue.

About my experience: While I was at the party, someone at my table said, Hey, what if they sweetened everything before we got here? She was really joking. We could tell the food had not been sugared and the taste was not really sugary. It’s difficult to describe, but I’ll try. Lemons and limes retain their flavor but you can actually take a big bite without puckering. Raw rhubarb, sundried tomatoes, and tomatillos were the most delicious flavor experience of the evening. Hot sauce, jalapenos, sriracha, and mustard were very flavorful and not the least bit hot. I heard later some folks overdid tasting the spicy stuff! And foods that are naturally sweet, and even the hummus I tried, well, their flavor is just enhanced. It really was a trip!
Here’s my plate of the vegan offerings provided.

Last night I finally tried the mberry tablet. With my mom! I needed a newbie to validate that the berry tablets really are miraculous. My mom will be 73 on Friday. She was a little nervous about flavor tripping, but what a cool mom, huh? I brought some samples and asked her to prep them for us.

We had not-so-ripe strawberries, lemons, key limes, tomatoes, and tomatillos. We tried lemons first – my mom loves lemons. Her eyes got big and she couldn’t believe what she was tasting – pure lemon flavor without the sour bite. I was so happy that my food at the party hadn’t been spiked with sugar and that the tablets I bought really work! All of our samples were so flavorful. And my mom had fun. I asked her how she was going to describe her flavor trip to her friends and she said she didn’t know if she could. Then we rinsed and ate our dinner. I realized after dinner that I forgot to test dark chocolate!

So are you feeling adventurous? Are you restricting your sugar intake and want a sweet treat without the sucrose? (Ricki?) Do you just want to have a flavor trippin’ good time? If so, leave me a comment. Maybe you could tell me what foods you would like to trip on. In two weeks, I will randomly select THREE commenters and you will win a PAIR of mberry tablets so you can share your flavor trip adventure. Good luck!