Miracle Berries Are Nature's Answer To Everlasting Gobstoppers

14/11/2015 9:14 AM AEDT | Updated 15/07/2016 12:51 PM AEST
Miracle Berries

Blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, gooseberries, cranberries, miracle berries.

Hang on. What was that last one?

Scientifically known as "synsepalum dulcificum", the plant is known for its berry that, when eaten, causes sour foods to taste sweet.

"Miracle berries originated in West Africa, and were first discovered in the 1700s. The people from the area they were discovered ate some sort of sour dough that tasted awful, so they would consume the berries beforehand to make the dough taste better," Alan Mosley, owner of My M Berry told The Huffington Post Australia.

"Some guy in the 1970s in America tried to use them as an artificial sweetener and there was a big thing there where the sugar board closed them down."

Most try miracle berries purely out of curiosity. It's said that they can make lemon and limes taste like sugar syrup and vinegar taste like caramel.

"90 percent is the novelty value of it. People have dinner parties and decide to try and experiment. I've heard that some people use them when they have diabetes, so they can eat non sugary things and make them taste sweet. I've also heard that they can help people going through chemotherapy as it helps with their appetite, but that isn't proven and we can't market them that way, it's just anecdotal," Mosley said.

YouTube star Amazing Phil recently posted a video to his channel in which he and a friend experimented with the berries.

As for the actual berries themselves, they are hard to come buy in Australia.

"I sell the berries in pill form because the berries themselves, like any fruit, are only ripe and edible for a few days. So we freeze dry them, and mix pure berry with a small amount of cornstarch. A friend of mine grows them in Taiwan and sells them in America, and I distribute them here in Australia," Mosley said.

"I had a few problems with customs. They thought I was an etab dealer."

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