Imagine a berry that makes lemons taste like honey and vinegar taste like apple juice. Then pop one in your mouth this Saturday and try it for yourself.

We've just gotten wind that there's going to be a Miracle Fruit party. You can't imagine how quickly our fingers whizzed over our keyboards and BAM! Email RSVP for the entire editorial staff complete. Did we mention we're super excited?

The Miracle Fruit (aka Miracle Berry) is a tasteless berry that causes sour foods (tabasco sauce, pickles, lemons, vinegars, etc.) to taste sweet for up to an hour after you've sloshed the berry's flesh in your mouth and consumed it. How? They contain a gylcoprotein called "miraculin" t hat binds to your tongue's tastebuds and ahem, temporarily distorts the shape of your "sweet" receptors so they come responsive to acids instead of sugar.

Foodies in New York have apparently known about this for ages, but to our knowledge, this is the first time we've heard about a Miracle Fruit "flavor tripping" party being held in Shanghai. But here's the most important bit: You must RSVP TODAY, this Thursday by emailing albert.tien@gmail.com or else there won't be any magical fruit-fantasia for you!

Details:

(Updated) When: Saturday, July 25th, 4-6pm

**(Updated) Location: 5/F, The Lab, 343 Jiaozhou Lu#

How: Send RSVP email to albert.tien@gmail.com#

Cost: Now RMB100, includes beer and various foods to taste#

Update Just got a very nice email from one of the organizers explaining the changes:

Good morning Joanne,

After fruitless negotiating with a few bars and the number of respondees reaching 100, we decided on a private location and booked the BBQ pit at the One Park Avenue Apartment Complex. However, after a discussion with our berry vendor (and a few growers) regarding the fragile nature and short shelf-life of the berries compounded with the South China climate, concern was expressed over quality even when shipping freshly picked berries via EMS to arrive Saturday morning.

It was decided that a test run with shipping and sampling the efficacy of the berries ourselves firstly would be prudent in order to avoid massive disappointment among the anticipated berry revelers tomorrow. So, we have decided it would be best to postpone the Miracle Fruit Tasting until next Saturday, the 25th. Barring the berries are ineffectual, we will definitely not cancel as we have already purchased cases of Guinness!

I would appreciate it greatly if you could make note of this change in events on your blog. I will respond to all the RSVPers today to inform them as well.

Thank you very much, Joanne! I look forward to meeting you.

Sincerely, Annie

Incidentally, there seems to be a lot of interesting history behind Miracle fruit. Apparently there was a push to sell the fruit commercially in the U.S. in the 70s (so fitting), but rumor is that the sugar industry sabotaged the whole business because they feared a reduced need for sugar. Read more about that and the flavor tripping parties Shanghai has been without for far, far too long:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/28/dining/28flavor.html?_r=1

http://chetday.com/miraclefruitflavorberry.htm

http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/368003

Anybody out there tried it? I'm curious to hear your thoughts