'Flavor Tripping' Explained: How Miracle Fruit Turns Sour Into Sweet

If you have any foodie friends, you've probably heard of miracle fruit (Synsepalum dulcificum), a native West African berry that looks like a cranberry, but acts like a psychedelic for your taste buds.



Eat the miracle fruit on its own and it doesn't taste like much of anything. But let the juices coat your mouth, then consume sour foods — like lemons, limes, goat cheese, beer, vinegar, pickles — and a remarkable thing happens: they all taste sweet.

"Beer tastes like sweet juice. Lemon tastes like sweet orange," Keiko Abe of the University of Tokyo told Discovery News.   Read More

Posted in: Health