Miracle Berries

Miracle Berry in Restaurant Form

/ Shane / 2 Comments

iNG Restaurant is a new restaurant in Chicago, specializing in synsepalum dulcificum, otherwise known as the Miracle Berry. Billing itself as “the worlds only restaurant that specializes in a flavor changing experience”, the menu is built around the taste-modifying fruit.

My own experiences with synsepalum dulcificum have been documented, and I can tell you it’s pretty nifty stuff. However, as I discovered, you do need to have the right food to make it work right. So there’s definitely something to having a set menu of things that will work well with the fruit. On the other hand, part of the draw is taking something that you know how it tastes, and seeing how it tastes while “under the influence” as it were. But if you’re eating something amazing at a restaurant you’ve never been to before, then you don’t really have that baseline comparison.

Anyway, it’s a cool idea. A little pricey for my blood, since it essentially hinges on a gimmick, but if anybody checks it out, you’ll have to let me know. Judging by the pictures, it looks to be as interesting visually as it is orally.

Berries: Miraculous After All!!

/ Shane / 1 Comment

So, after yesterday‘s less-than-stellar trial, today I came armed with several things to try that would be more appropriate to test the properties of the pills.  Yesterday I only had my lunch and it was not really geared towards the type of thing that the fruit is supposed to affect.  Also, as pointed out in the comments by someone from ThinkGeek, the fats in my cheese and oatmeal cream pie were working against me and breaking down the proteins that make the whole thing work.

Trial II was nothing short of a rousing success!  You have to get a hold of these things, it was as amazing as I could have hoped it would be!!

1) A lime – Absolutely delicious!  I tried it before hand to make sure it was not some secret delicious sweet variety of limes and I assure you, it was very sour.  After letting the tablet dissolve, the lime was just so sweet and delicious and sugary like candy.  The weirdest part was that you could feel a feeling of citrus in your mouth but you couldn’t taste it as sour.  Very odd.
2) A plum – I had to prove that yesterday’s delicious plum wasn’t a fluke.  Sure enough, it was super ripe and sugary tasting.
3) A tangerine – This was crazy.  It was so sweet I almost couldn’t eat it.
4) A cherry – Mostly like a cherry still, but definitely sweeter, almost like cherry pie.

We had about 4 people from work trying it and every one agreed it was pretty cool.  One person was impatient and chewed his tablet and he didn’t notice any difference.  So the lessons learned are:

1) Make sure you dissolve it fully on your tongue.
2) Make sure you have the appropriate items to try (i.e. sour things and fruit).
3) Sweet things don’t really get sweeter, so don’t bother with those.

There are several items I would still like to try such as Tabasco sauce and sour cream.  The guy from ThinkGeek also recommended beer.  I would absolutely try it again at home when I could gather some more items together.

As a side note, why do people from companies only comment when I bash their products? 🙂