I tasted bread, lemon, radish, jalapeno, and white wine vinegar. I intentionally picked foods that I like eating, and made sure to include vinegar since I had heard that the effects of the taste-altering berry are particularly noticeable with vinegar.
The three images show my foods before I tasted them, the same foods after I tasted them before eating the berry, and then what was left of my foods after tasting them with the berry’s effects. I like how the last image shows which things tasted the most palatable to me after eating the berry. The most surprising taste I had was the jalapeno. I am not sure whether I unintentionally ate a seed with my post-berry bite but it was much spicier on my second bite; to the point that my eyes were watering and I could feel the effects of the spice in the back of my mouth and nose. One association that I carried forward was not eating the lemon rind. I did try it after taking this photo and realized that it also tasted quite sweet and good. I am so accustomed to not eating citrus rinds that I did not even try it at first. I was curious about doing this workshop. I have been to one flavor tripping event before but I was not as intentional about which things I tasted and thinking about my associations with them before doing so. I took a very slow and methodical approach to the workshop: arranging my bites, writing down associations about each, tasting them, then dissolving the berry, and then writing further observations after trying them again. I also approached this as a solitary activity at first, though I found that once I ate the berry and started tasting things I reengaged with the rest of the group because people were making a lot of connections through sharing their reactions to different foods and giving each other recommendations for what to try. I also found myself comparing my reactions to people nearby. The bread was the first thing I tasted and it tasted the same so I thought the berry might not be working and asked my neighbors. The connections that occurred through trying to make sense of a new experience were my favorite aspect of this workshop. If foods tasted like this all the time I would likely alter some of my eating patterns, and get used to eating very sweet tasting foods. Over time I think I would adjust my tastes to accommodate this new palate and they would no longer be surprising. Though I do think I would continue to be surprised when I tasted different dishes because while I may more quickly update my associations with individual food items (e.g. lemons are sweet) I might not think about how those individual foods are used in dishes I like (e.g. roasted chicken with lemon might also taste very sweet).