What would you say if I told you there was a 100 % natural way to change the way your tastebuds interpret taste? Would you believe me ?! This week my brake for beauty consisted of a trip to a local farm stand to pick up a carton of miracle fruit – something I was first introduced to when I moved to Florida. It is a small, magical red berry that enabled me to down lemons and limes like they were candy. It is called flavor tripping (really they couldn’t think of a more eloquent term for it?!) and it is a legal way to send your mouth on a “trip”!

I spent the day popping these relatively tasteless berries into my mouth (effects only last for about an hour) and then taste tested anything I could get my hands on. Gum, candy, fruit … I learned that the best tastes came from foods that are naturally tart/sour. It is an experience I would recommend to anyone! But what left the BEST taste in my mouth (figuratively speaking) was finding out that the farm I bought these from also donates the berries to local hospitals. Why would they donate the berries you ask? Because the fruit is truly a miracle. The berries can be eaten by chemotherapy patients to enhance the flavor of foods. If you know someone who has undergone chemotherapy, you may know that food some times loses/changes its taste and the appetite of the individual decreases. This can unfortunately snowball into a multitude of other problems for the person. Find more information about the farm and their work with local hospitals here.

Not only did I leave the farm with temporarily warped taste buds, but I also decide to invest in my own miracle fruit tree. And look at that… (underneath the cluster of brown buds) a little green bud is starting to form. That might be my first home grown berry!