Mberry, the Flavor Changing Pill

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to try foods you hate so much?

flavor changing

flavor changing

By Hannah Escochea, Staff Writer

What is Mberry? It’s a berry that trips out your taste buds (aka Synsepalum Dulcificum). It’s a red berry native to West Africa, that’s also a miracle fruit. The berry covers your whole tongue that makes food taste totally different. For example, sour food tastes sweet, cheese taste like frosting, lemons taste like lemonades, and vinegar tastes like apple juice. Many people use the Mberry at big parties and the servers bring trays of food out so the people can try all types of food that they probably always have wanted to.

The fruit Mberry was first described in 1725 by a French explorer named Chevalier Des Marchais. He had observed many villagers in West Africa consuming the miracle berry before their meal of sour palm wine (A sour beverage made from fermented sap) and gruel (a type of oatmeal).   

The miracle fruit was later brought to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Scientists had isolated the active protein responsible for making things taste sweet in 1968. The protein had made everything taste so delightful, so the protein was later dubbed as Miraculin. When the Mberry is consumed the miraculin binds to the tongues taste buds. Every person has receptors on their tongue that make their taste buds identify sweet, sour, bitter, and savory tastes. The berry is bitter but there’s some pulp in the seed that packs a surprise. It’s recommended that people should keep the berry’s pulp on the tongue for a minute, so they can experience the full thing.  

Other people use the Mberry for other things like dieting. When on a diet you must eat healthy food that most people despise just because they’re not that into the healthy trend, so they decide to take the Mberry to change their taste buds to making everything taste delightful and not bland.  Would you try the Mberry?