Flavour Tripping

by Ann Bartkowski

During meeting last Friday, Gabriel made us chew this herb that I cannot remember the name of. It binded to our sugar receptors and temporarily eliminated our abilities to taste sweetness. Consequently, when I ate a caramel corn-flavoured jelly bean, it tasted like I was chewing a chunk of pure butter, and I had to spit it out in disgust.

This experience reminded me of an article I read last year in the NYTimes about flavour tripping on this so-called miracle fruit Synsepalum dulcificum. A protein in this fruit apparently rewires your sweet receptors so that they temporarily identify acids as sugars. Here’s a link to the article, if you wanna read it.

I like the video, as well…especially when the dude admits to the girl that he was just sipping on vinegar. Furthermore, there appears to be the possibility of a scandalous conspiracy involving the FDA, the miracle fruit researchers (who want to market miracle fruit foods to diabetics as well as the general public), and the sugar, and sugar-substitute companies who might have a lot to lose. In bind taste tests, people have chosen the taste of things like popsicles that are flavoured with miracle fruit over the taste of sweets made of real sugar.

I can’t remember who it was, but I was talking to one of the Explainers or Explainer Managers last year who had tried it. And I really want to as well. So I signed up to be invited to a flavour-tripping party when they are in SF. I got this email back from LiveInFear@streetwars.net:

“Thanks for your interest in FlavorTripping. We will let you know if an event is arriving in your town. Thanks! Mustache Commander”

You should probably start being really nice to me if you want to be chosen as my date to the party.