mberry Miracle Fruit Tablets, 10-Count (Pack of 2)

When I read about this fruit, I was extremely eager to try it despite the high price. I read that it was being used in molecular gastronomy as a novelty to surprise the diner by making a sour desert sweet. I also read that research was being done on using this to allow diabetics to experience sweetness which they cannot get because they must cut out sugars. There was a famous article talking about folks using this at 'taste tripping' parties. I had a board meeting at work which I wanted to grab the board's attention while demonstrating the importance of being able to change perception and decided to use these pills as a fun way to do that.I cut up lemons, limes, strawberries, apples, candy bars, etc. and had little cups with shots of apple cider vinegar and Guinness beer. Everyone was instructed to take a pill and let it dissolve on their tongue without chewing. This was the hardest part. Those who pushed the pill around on their tongue and let it dissolve slowly seemed to have the best results ... also, not to rush things. Wait around 5-10 minutes after the pill dissolves for best results. Out of 40 people, about 20 were absolutely amazed by this, 5 said they didn't really feel any result and 15 said that it changed tastes a bit but wasn't amazing. Part of the fun ended up being seeing the different reactions and watching those who were blown away interacting with those who weren't getting any difference.The things which worked best were the citrus fruits. I would say that the most amazing reaction was to those who ate the lemons. I cut them into wedges and most people ate the fruit part and many agreed it tasted like drinking sweet lemonade. A few of us actually ate the rind as well, which tasted like candy. The lime tasted like sweetened key lime pie. It was 50/50 between those who liked the lime but those who did mentioned key lime pie. The strawberry also was a big hit and it made a red strawberry taste like an incredibly sweet fresh picked strawberry bursting with sugary sweetness. (almost too sweet according to some)The apple cider vinegar was another mixed result. 10 people drank it and said it tasted like sweet apple cider. 20 people drank it and said it was tolerable but not anything they'd want to drink again. 10 people said they could taste no difference between this and vinegar and spit it out. One thing I would do over, tell people not to smell the vinegar before drinking. Those who smelled it first seemed to be the ones who tasted no difference. The Guinness beer tasted sweeter but not quite like the chocolate milkshake some sites report. There was still a little bitterness to it although a malty sweetness did appear with the pill.The apple was pretty much nothing special. Most agreed it tasted similar to normal. Onion was also nothing special and it didn't add any sweetness, although we noticed that there was a coating on our tongue after eating the onion which would make me recommend not trying onion with this. The chocolate bar pieces tasted the same. No difference. We drank red wine which tasted a lot sweeter, like port wine. So, if you are taking this before a meal, my advice is not to serve an expensive bottle of wine as the taste will completely change. Our bottle was a $4 bottle of grocery store wine and it tasted like a nice port.Overall, this is a great product to dazzle some people from a novelty standpoint. I did find, the more I used it, the less the effects seemed to happen. Meaning I tried 2 more of these pills over the week and each time the sour to sweet effect lost a little bit. If you want to throw a taste trip party, it really does give you a lot of interest from friends. It is a bit scary to think of any long term side effects but nobody experienced any issues with that yet. I'll be interested to see where this product goes in the future once it becomes less expensive to produce. I would certainly choose this over chemical sugar substitutes.One little tip ... when using this, you could literally eat a whole lemon, rind and all, like an apple. Keep in mind that while it changes the taste, if you are susceptible to heartburn or acid reflux, eating a great amount of citrus fruit and drinking vinegar might have adverse effects on your stomach despite the sweetness in the taste.

With 3 people trying these, myself included, we found they work as advertised to strikingly change the way a person tastes food.How to avoid wasting it?You do have to let them dissolve in your mouth and swish the tablet or the saliva all around your tongue for best effect. Although a bit of effect can be noticed when chewing them up a bit, it's much better to let it soak in. It's like a little piece of somewhat sweet-and-sour compressed fruit candy so it doesn't take very long; maybe 30 to 60 seconds depending on how powerful your saliva system. The effect lasts between 30 minutes and a couple of hours, probably also depending on how powerful your saliva system.What tastes are affected?It's my understanding that the tablets affect only the taste of sour, changing it to sweet, but because a lot of foods have some amount of underlying sour, the foods affected are more broad than just sour. These tablets don't eliminate all bad tastes. You can still taste the nuances of food, good and bad, but it's like bad tastes don't matter as much...? I like a variety of sour and bitter tastes to begin with though, so maybe I'm biased.What foods are affected?The foods most affected tend to be sour, bitter, or mostly-sweet foods, while neutral and salty foods are less affected or unaffected. Purely sweet foods like candybars and marshmallows aren't affected much or at all, while foods that are more sweet than anything else, but not purely sweet are highly affected, such as sweet fruit -- because they also have slightly sour undertones for the tablets to work on making sweet into ultra-sweet. (The fruit we tried were naval oranges, blood oranges, grapefruit, mangoes, and apples, and that was true of all of them.) Beer and wine are highly affected. This could be a good way to enjoy beer and wine if you don't, but it could also be a good way to begin to appreciate what's good about beer or wine in the first place, and later to continue to appreciate it without the tablets! You see, enthusiasts of sour or bitter foods are often looking for subtle elements of taste within the overall sour or bitter flavor. With these tablets, you just might be able to find find that PART of the taste you like without being distracted by all the bitterness and sourness.What kind of sweetness?The sweetness that you taste instead of sour isn't a nondescript sweetness, but it's close. It's not nearly as distinctive as stevia, for example, but more distinctive than refined sugar. If you can taste the difference between cane sugar and beet sugar (most people can't), then you'll probably find these tablets' sweetness distinctive. On the other hand, if you can't taste the difference between sugar and high fructose corn syrup (most people can, I think), then different "kinds of sweetness" probably won't matter at all. I thought the miracle fruit taste was a nice hint of slightly tropical, slightly gamy, aromatic fruit, but one of the other two people I tried them with thought the slight gaminess was too much like overly ripe fruit, and therefore a little bit nauseating. She still uses the tablets more than I do though.Most awesome foods to try?Lemons! Grapefruit! Vinegar! Not many people are fully familiar with the taste of vinegar straight from the bottle. I recommend tasting vinegar before using the berries, then after. It's amazing! Looking forward to trying onions and pineapple! (Not at the same time.)But watch out! These things taste different but they have the exact same ingredients as they do without the tablets, so they'll affect your stomach pretty much the same. Still, I wasn't hurt at all by half a shot glass of vinegar and a whole lemon. Speaking of having the same ingredients but tasting different, these could be used as quite an effective diet aid to cut down on excess calories and other harmful effects of refined sugar / high-fructose corn syrup.As for the safety of "miracle berries" themselves (which is the important thing in these tablets) apparently they've been used for countless generations by people living where they grow.I recommend getting a variety of foods for tasting before your first use. Super-fun!Enjoy!----- EDIT -----We tried two other brands after this one.- Red Box: The tablets this review is about are the "mberry" tablets in the red box.- Green Box: "Miracle Fruit Tabs" in the pale green box with (Japanese? Chinese?) script. Looks same as ThinkGeek sells/sold.- Yellow Box:"Miracle Frooties" XL size, in the yellow box with lemon and lime for the O's.Here's how they compare:Red Box: Most effective. (Most miracle fruit content.) Most gamy. Middle price. Overall good.Yellow Box: Near to most effective. (Near to most miracle fruit content.) Least gamy. Lowest price. Overall best.Green Box: Least effective. (Least miracle fruit content.) Near to most gamy. Highest price. Overall not so good.

Does it work? Pretty much. Is it miraculous? Hardly. The tablet slowly dissolves on the tongue. Be patient, move it around your tongue a bit, and remember not to swallow. I've tried using two tablets, and didn't notice much difference from just one tablet. I've tried a number of items:* Half a lemon: tastes like an orange - sweet, but with a little acidity.* Lemon juice: sweet, but the acid also comes through. I like it!* Powdered citric acid: use sparingly!!! Before miracle berries, a tiny pinch is very sour indeed. After taking a tablet, it's still pretty sour, but also sweet.* Ketchup: no thank you; the flavor is weird.* Vinegar: not terrible, but still acidic, and the flavor is strange. I'll have to buy some apple cider vineger, and see if it's better.

Got these to play with. They really make sour things taste sweet.