Sweet Miracles
One day, they finally arrived in the mail from Amazon: Miracle Berries. Plucked from the Synsepalum dulcificum plant, the berries contain a chemical called miraculin. After a few minutes, it binds to the taste buds and alters our perception of sour foods to become unbelievably sweet. My mother, father, sister, sister’s boyfriend, and I crowded into the kitchen with the tingling anticipation of celebrities taking ayahuasca on a desert retreat. Ritualistically, we all put the tablets on our tongues and let them dissolve in a fizz of acidic fruitiness. This is as close as my family will ever get to condoning drug use. 10 minutes later, we had assembled a cornucopia of Guinness, limes, lemons, Sour Patch Kids, pickles, and hot sauce. Bravely, I stepped forth and put the first slice of lime in my mouth. Biting down, I felt a candy-like explosion of pure sweetness hit my tongue. My eyes widened in shock. I spent the evening sucking on entire limes, letting the saccharine taste overcome me again and again. Finally, the tang of sourness returned and my lips puckered. The sweetness had left me as quickly as it had arrived.
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