February 18, 2010

flavor trip!

have you guys heard of flavor tripping? it's where you go to a party specifically to consume a miracle berry, which is an actual berry from West Africa that somehow inhibits your sour and bitter taste bud receptors. then you go wild eating as much sour, bitter, weird and usually unpleasant stuff as you can, since it all tastes freakishly delicious.

there's a group in dc now that hosts these parties at efn lounge, so last friday my friends and i FINALLY LEFT OUR HOUSES (i realize #snowmageddon is at the point of being mocked by now, but it was NO JOKE last week after everyone had been snowed in for a week, especially those of us on above-ground metro stations which didn't open ALL WEEK OMFG) and happily skidded across the icy sidewalks to score some miracle fruit.

except, HAHA, due to the snowpocalypse, the berries had not been able to ship from california. they did, however, provide each of us with three tablets that contained the fruit concentrate and worked the same way, so.. whatever.

you popped that pill onto your tongue and let it dissolve in your mouth, and then went to the buffet to load up on sour treats:

here i've got: kiwi, grapefruit, strawberries, orange, lime, lemon, sour patch kids, sour skittles, sweet tarts, and then soy sauce, mustard, and hot sauce in the cups.

the first thing i popped in my mouth was the lemon. you guys, it was DELICIOUS. when you were a kid, did you ever dunk a lemon wedge in sugar, then suck on the wedge (then redunk once that round of sugar wore off)? it tasted JUST LIKE THAT. except... it was just a straight lemon. same with the lime. i'd never thought strawberries were at all sour before, but under the influence of the miracle fruit, THEY tasted like they were dipped in sugar as well. i guess there is some underlying citrus-y tang to them normally, but now? wiped out. purely sugary.

the skittles, sour patch kids and sweet tarts tasted.. well, they tasted exactly like they normally do. except you know how normally after you chomp down on a sour patch kid, you want to kind of screw up your face a bit? like you get that urge to recoil a bit at the sour part? that part was just.. absent. entirely. i could eat an entire fistful of sour patch kids at once and just chew away, merrily enjoying their flavor.

we also got a guinness, since.. you know. bitter and all. it tasted like freaking chocolate milk. seriously.

guinness!

we went to another bar afterwards so people could get (real) food, and all cracked up as soon as we took our first sip of beer. the stella tasted like candy. my smithwicks had no bitter kick at all. the yeungling tasted FLORAL.

before going, i was pretty skeptical about this stuff actually working. dude: it TOTALLY DOES. you should so go to one of these if you get the chance. (in dc, they've starting having one every other friday! check out their site.) i only used 2 of my 3 pills at the party, so i'm now hoarding the third for.. well, i'm not sure what, actually. i'm thinking maybe i'll buy some strong cheese and a really spicy red wine and go nuts.

32 comments:

  1. OK, that sounds awesome! I'm going to look for it in Chicago!

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  2. oh weird! and awesome. I wonder what beets would taste like :)

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  3. You've definitely piqued my curiosity. Every other Friday, you say...

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  4. They should sell these in stores so we can try them with all sorts of alcohol and food.

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  5. I've heard of this and have been LONGING for a personal report! It sounds SO COOL!

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  6. OH wow that sounds amazing. I'm totally going to look for one in Chicago!

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  7. I've heard about this! I want to do it!

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  8. I want to know how COFFEE would taste! Is everything SWEET tasting, or just...not sour? Like, would pickle juice just taste like WATER?

    So cool.

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  9. That sounds really cool. I want to try it! Although beer already tastes pretty good to me. If it tastes even better, I don't know what I'd do...

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  10. Wouldn't that be funny if they gave you a placebo pill and just added liquid sweetener to everything on that buffet??? hahaha. It does sound fun, though.

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  11. oh wow!! that is soo cool...i want to try!!!

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  12. This is awesome. What a cool idea! The sides of my tongue were totally tingling while I read this. YIKES.

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  13. That sounds so cool! I have never heard of anything like that!

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  14. OMG. I want to try this so badly.

    When I come to visit, this is where you are taking me.

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  15. Sounds awesome! I've definitely never heard of it, but WOW. Fun!

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  16. This sounds like so much fun! Great photos, too!

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  17. Wow. I've never even heard of anything like this. That's wild. Seems like a lot of fun! Must. Try. ASAP. Now I know what my friends and I will be doing on an upcoming Friday night. Thanks for the tip!

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  18. That sounds like a blast!

    (Too bad I am not closer to DC.)

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  19. WOW. I have never heard of this!! How cool!

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  20. That sounds so awesome!

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  21. It's not very often that someone mentions something I've NEVER, EVER heard of but you've done it. Feels weird.

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  22. Clearly, I don't hang with a cool crowd because I'd never heard of this before! But it sounds awesome! I'd love to eat some lemons and drink some chocolate milk Guinness. And seriously? Floral Yeungling? Weird, but in a cool way. (So does that mean we drink more than usual?)

    And the biggest question: is that him in those pics with you?

    I'll have a new post up at midnight showing what my front yard looks like right now. Snowmaggedon is NOT over yet, that's all I can say! (The VDOT plow drove up and down my street yesterday and scraped up the 3 inches of compact snow & ice -- which is good, since I had to have 3 guys push me on Saturday night!)

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  23. I am now searching online to order these things, because AWESOME! I have to try this out for myself.

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  24. I hadn't heard of this before your post. How bizarre!

    Hope it doesn't have trippy side effects. You don't pee green or anything, right?

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  25. Whoa this sounds really cool- and best of all you can make your beer taste like candy?

    I'm about to die of alcohol poisoning.

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  26. Heard about this on the BBC or something. Had no idea they were hosting tasting parties this close to us.

    I've never liked Guinness, but I definitely like chocolate milk. Miracle berry ftw.

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  27. We had a miracle fruit tree in our yard when I was a kid. I grew up in Florida and my parents wanted something other than the traditional citrus trees in our yard. We also had a chocolate pudding tree. It produced these strange fruits that, when you cut them open, looked at tasted like chocolate pudding on the inside.

    My friends loved coming over and eating the miracle fruits though. And yes, they totally work!

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  28. I salivated through this whole post with all the talk of bitter. This stuff is natural??

    Um...so...I'm just gonna say it. Oral sex. Research and report, please.

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  29. WANT!!!!!! i'll be in DC on a friday in april...MUST CHECK THIS OUT.

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  30. Wow, that reminds me of your dingle berries lol

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