Miracles in March

Many miraculous things happened in the month of March. Little Butler made it to March Madness and almost took the cake. We survived the winter and welcomed spring in a big way. One of my co-workers had a beautiful baby boy who is the apple of the departments eye. I met a cousin who I am really happy to know. And I tried something really unusual and fun. It is something really amazing and it has a long latin name - Synsepalum dulcifucum - better known as the Miracle Fruit.

This fruit or berry has the ability to turn the taste of sour things into sweet things. The quote that I have heard repeatedly when someone talks about the miracle fruit is "turning lemons into lemonade". And I can attest to the fact that this most certainly does happen. The fruit contains an active glycoprotein molecule, with some trailing carbohydrate chains, called miraculum. (Can you tell I work in a library?) When the fruit is eaten, this molecule binds to the tongues'taste buds, causing sour foods to taste sweet. For a more complete explanation of the scientific workings of the plant, you can find it in wikipedia. The fruit can be purchased in a few different ways. Fresh or freeze dried. I tried the freeze dried version in the form of a tablet. I was with a group of friends when I did the taste test for miracle fruit. We placed a very small part of a tablet in our mouths and waited for a short time while the tablet dissolved. We then sampled several different types of foods to see what the difference was in taste. Kind of like being back in the 7th grade and doing a science fair experiment. (I haven't done my poster yet - when is it due?)


This is a lot of fun to try and I would recommend getting together with some good friends and doing a taste test for yourself. The best part of the taste test was being around people that are full of interesting ideas and not afraid to have some fun. Now if we could only find something that would make all of the sour parts of life turn into sweetness wouldn't that be great! I guess that is what the good friends are all about. They help turn the sour bites into sweet memories.