I've been intrigued lately about a tiny red berry that's making the rounds in the foodie world. It's called Miracle Fruit, and eating it is like experiencing mind-altering drugs... for your tongue. This berry, which was discovered in Africa, contains a compound comprised of amino acids and carbohydrates. When combined with acids, this compound stimulates the sense of sweetness on the tongue, making a lemon taste as sweet as candy.

Foodies in the know are hosting "flavor-tripping parties," where berries are doled out, and then invited to sample a spread of differently flavored foods, such as stinky cheese, sour vinegar and citrus fruits. The berries are $3 a pop, and while they were hard to obtain after a New York Times article ran last May about the fruit, they now are readily available from Miracle Fruit Man, a grower in Florida. The catch: you need to order a minimum of 20, and the berries are highly perishable, so need to be used (or frozen) within a few days of receiving them.

Even cheaper and easier to use are Miracle Fruit Tablets. Made from the ground berries, these tablets play a similar trip on your taste buds, and they're around $15 for 10 tablets (one "dose" is half a tablet, so there are 20 servings). My husband Chip and I decided to see for ourselves if these tablets could wreak havoc on our flavor receptors, and ordered a packet. When they arrived, we ran around the kitchen, gathering up all of the most sour and bitter foods we could find: vinegar, lemons, wine, cheese, yogurt and more. Then we dissolved a tablet on our tongues and started tasting.

The vinegar, which was ordinary red wine vinegar, tasted syrupy, like fine reduced balsamic. And the lemons, while retaining their lemony flavor, did not taste sour in the least; instead they tasted like lemon-flavored candy. A sip of Zinfandel wine was sweet and one-dimensional, like cheap Manishevitz wine. Goat cheese tasted almost like cheesecake, and coffee tasted like the coffee-flavored hard candies that I always tried to avoid in my grandma's candy dish.

The best was the vanilla yogurt; it tasted rich and creamy, like the best vanilla pudding I've ever eaten. But after awhile, I started getting bored with the way the effect of the tablets dulled the flavor subtleties of foods, reducing everything to its sweet essence and not much more.

The proprietor of Miracle Fruit Man, Curtis Mozie, sees a world of possibility for Miracle Fruit, beyond the popular tasting parties. On his Web site, he suggests using the berries as a dietary supplement to sweeten foods without the added calories of sugar (for the same reason he suggests it as a good addition to diabetics' diets), or to help cancer patients decrease the metallic taste that is often a side effect of chemotherapy. He even intimates that Miracle Fruit could enhance your love life. (I don't think I want any more details on how it can do this.)

I can see how this little berry could have some beneficial applications, especially for diabetics with a sweet tooth who long for a sugary treat. But as for me, I think I'll just stick to good old sugar or other natural sweeteners... in moderation, of course.

Image courtesy Miracle Fruit Man.