Show HN: Plant-based flavor enhancer – hack your tastebuds to eat healthy | Hacker News Reader

Show HN: Plant-based flavor enhancer – hack your tastebuds to eat healthy

mywozi.com

57 pointsDgetman73 comments

Wozi is a plant-based flavor enhancer that not only sweetens foods, but also allows you to satisfy your cravings with healthy foods in just 30 seconds. It doesn't have any bitter/"chemical" aftertaste like other alternative sweeteners and also a single serving will last you 30-60 minutes regardless of how much food you eat with it.

Here is a 30 second demo I presented at Pioneer’s demo-day. Check out Avichal Garg’s reaction (investor in Cruise, Boom Supersonic, Optimizley, and many more): https://youtu.be/XC5fSUtbf_0

It is made from Synsepalum dulcificum, more commonly known as the miracle berry. This fruit has been used for centuries by tribes in Western Africa to make their food more delicious. The miracle berry contains a protein that safely and temporarily binds to your tastebuds to make sour foods taste sweet as well as remove unpleasant bitter and tart flavors. For instance, bite into a lemon and it will taste like lemonade. It allows you to discover flavors previously masked by those unpleasant tastes. A strawberry tastes even more "strawberry" and a plain greek yogurt now tastes much more creamy like a cheesecake.

Wozi is the first miracle berry product that is convenient for daily use. Whereas competing products take 5-10 minutes to dissolve, mine takes 30 seconds to dissolve and contains only NATURAL ingredients. It also has pop rocks to not only make the experience more fun, but also give you a cue for when you’re ready to start eating.

I believe miracle fruit has the potential to take willpower out of the equation of a healthy diet by making nutritious foods taste as indulgent as the junk foods that we crave. No one has the patience to wait 5 minutes in the morning while they are rushing to school or work, so I knew this is what needed to be changed in order for miracle berry to go mainstream.

Please check out my website for more information and demos. Your feedback would be greatly appreciated. Feel free to ask me anything!

Anecdote about tasting: A few years ago, I went on a diet due to some allergy issues. Since I was going to be pretty miserable anyway, I decided to reduce my sugar and salt intake as well. At the beginning it was pretty bad, eating very bland tasting food every day. But after a while, that normalized. And everything started tasting a lot better, and just a tiny bit of salt would enhance the taste.

Of course the downside was that that was like getting off a drug that all of society is addicted to. Anything I didn't cook myself from fresh ingredients tasted extremely salty or extremely sweet. Eating a Snickers bar was like biting into a block of pure sugar and just felt very wrong. Going to a restaurant was tricky because you can't exactly take the salt out of a meal or extract the sugar from a dessert.

I think we can adjust to many things... which is why I'd love to try this thing, but I wouldn't want to be in the position where I can't eat certain things without it anymore...

You bring up a great point. I studied Neuroscience at Duke university. Your cells adapt to their context and so what you are describing is sensitization. The more sugar you eat, the more you need to "feel" it. The problem is 2/3 of Americans are overweight or obese. In order for them to completely drop sugar would be a struggle, but my product can help bridge that gap for them.

Now why not just use stevia or aspartame to get the sweetness without the calories? 1) They have an unpleasant afteraste whereas Wozi does not 2) Wozi does more than just sweeten, it enhances flavor. Not everyone likes the taste of Greek yogurt but this makes it more palatable. How many times have you had a strawberry that tasted like nothing? This makes it taste as if it was the perfect strawberry.

I'd definitely try the Greek yogurt effect with wozi.

But I can't help but think that with fruits and vegetables this is an odd solution to a problem we brought on ourselves. One of the issues with mass-production of plants is that the taste has a pretty low priority when compared to more pressing issues like pest-resistance and yield. If you go to some country where people are cultivating older strains of some fruits and vegetables, you'll see that those don't need any sort of enhancement.

So it's a bit like that "chipotlaway" joke from South Park... but there's not much we can do.

When I pitch my product I like to remind everyone that junk food has been engineered by scientists to be addictive. This is returning the balance back in the favor of healthy food. Fight fire with fire.

> why not just use stevia or aspartame to get the sweetness without the calories?

I find the aftertaste of stevia disgusting, and really long-lasting, but when I need to sweeten something I’ve had much better luck with erythritol. It’s cheap, widely available, and seems to be safe. That said, I generally avoid sweet foods anyway, so my use of either sugar or artificial sweeteners is relatively low.

But if you’re doing keto and you hate stevia, as I did, try erythritol.

I do quite like erythritol. I've hear allulose is good too. You need to be careful though because sugar alcohols like erythritol can cause GI (stomach) issues.

The second point still stands, erythritol doesn't enhance flavor and won't make Greek yogurt taste like cheesecake.

I have to admit I find that quite sad. Rather than accept eating blant foods until your taste buds/brain adjust you should sprinkle powder onto your tongue before every meal to confuse your taste buds? What are the long term effects?

Nothing against the berry/your product (although I find adding $1.30 of powder to each meal crazy) but is that how weak-willed the average person has become?

More personally, why would you need this for Greek yoghurt? Are we talking about actual high-fat-high-protein Greek yoghurt made purely from milk, or is there some 'Greek(-style) yoghurt' that actually tastes horrible? Everyone I know seems to love pure Greek yoghurt, with at most some berries or granola on top.

Innovation is all about making life easier :) Once could say what is the point of protein powder or soylent - can't you just eat food?

No long term side effects. I'm happy to share a few studies done (1 by Coca-Cola a year ago) if you'd like.

Price is highish, but I hope to get it down with scale. When you compare it to other products though it isn't that bad. A starbucks coffee is $4 and an RXbar is $2? I'd say you get a lot more utility out of this.

I personally don't like the tart taste of Greek yogurt. Regardless, Greek yogurt as it stands won't solve my sweet tooth.

> is that how weak-willed the average person has become?

Anecdotally, yes. I am regularly surprised to learn that people I know are aware they are (a) wildly out of shape or (b) obviously overweight and know what they need to do and the consequences of not doing so, and still do not take the steps to avoid. I used to think maybe people just weren’t self aware, but the issue is more pernicious - they lack the willpower to change (or, alternatively perhaps they don’t care, but I have a hard time accepting that educated people that I know do not care about their health). Let them off the hook for $1.30/meal and I suspect there will be demand from a large portion of the population that can afford it.

Side example: I have a family member currently contemplating buying a sauna for the cardiovascular benefits rather than simply going for daily walks for the same benefit. SMH.

To add some light on this, obesity can be perceived a lot like mental illness - it actually changes your brain chemistry and how you react to your environment. The pattern of brain activity and the excitability of critical brain areas are completely different from normal.

Yes, I noticed the same. Due to health reasons I had to control by salt and sugar to the extreme. If you do it gradually your adapts to the new levels. And now the previous normal seems to excessive.

Had the same experience. And every time I get to eat junk food the healthy food becomes bland again until it re-normalize. Just make you think how much sugar and salt these junk foods contains...

> Of course the downside was that that was like getting off a drug that all of society is addicted to.

This is how I feel about soda. A couple times a year a soda will find its way into the house, and I just can't drink it unless I pull out the sodastream and water it way way down. I don't remember it tasting that syrupy awful as a kid.

> I decided to reduce my sugar [...] you can't exactly take the salt out of a meal or extract the sugar from a dessert.

People have very different approaches to changing their nutrition, but when it comes to sugar, my personal approach is a very "macro" one: Don't eat dessert. It's much easier than to eat dessert but fret about how much sugar is in there.

I understand you are selling convenience and sort of an alluring packaging but $40 for 30 servings ($1.33 ea.) compares to as little as $0.53/serving for plain freeze-dried berries, https://www.amazon.com/Travel-Servings-1-15-20-mins-BERRIES/...

I've tried the freeze dried berries as well as the fresh berries. Here's why we are better:

1)Inconsistency of the fruit means you don't know what you'll get. Each dose of Wozi is pre-measured for consistent results.

2)It is important to coat your tongue. With the freeze dried berries most of it sticks to your teeth and unless you are consciously swishing it and moving it back and forth left to right, you won't get a great coating - half your tongue will taste sour and half will taste sweet.

3) There is no cue to know when you've gotten the full experience with the berries. You could swallow too soon and not get much of a change or waste minutes chewing it. We use pop rocks so that you know when it stops popping you're ready to eat.

4) The serving size is 1/2 berry. Our dose is the equivelant of approximately 2 berries. Also it may be $0.53 for half a berry, but it also costs $160 to get that pricing which is quite the upfront cost.

5) Not these guys, but other dried fruits still have the pit inside kind of like an olive. It is big and incovenient. You have to chew around it, spit it out, and if you chew it then you get a bitter taste.

My experience with Wozi was interesting.

Some drinks like Club-mate (quite popular here in Berlin) become almost syruppy. If you like strong espressos, prepare to experience a different drink altogether. Try not to overdose on coffee, it will be tasty but it still has the same amount of caffeine.

Also, I didn't know pickles would be such a delicacy (the taste was completely unexpected and funny as far as a specific taste can make you laugh).

It's a great way to get a boost in taste and sweetness in many foods (without the increase in sugar), but you'll have to find out what your new you likes.

I very much recommend trying it out at least once.

I've put on some weight sitting in a computer chair and not leaving the house during the age of COVID-19 and I've been trying to diet but man, it's hard. I am genuinely shocked by Wozi. It's got this pop-rock consistency that has given me a positive association between a handful of healthy foods and Wozi. I've stopped eating potato chips and ice cream and instead I'm filling up on low-fat Greek Yogurt, pure cranberry juice, lemon/lime water, pineapple, starfruit, and raw cranberries. I've learned to love each last one of those and I now use it every day, sometimes 2 or 3 times a day and it's definately making a difference for me. I see a comment about mBerry and I should at least mention that I ran out of Wozi and grabbed some mBerry on Amazon to get by until my next order... and it is just not the same. Sure, it's the same active ingredient but the experience is completely different. The positive association with the healthy foods, the fast and satisfying ingestion process, and the taste are really not even close. I think mBerry really went in the wrong direction because I 100% see this as a very useful diet tool and instead of trying to replace Wozi with mBerry, I'm just making a point to not run out anymore.

For the record, I'm not a friend or shill or anything. I'm just a very satisfied customer and I want to support Wozi because I'm thankful to have found it.

I am very happy to hear that it has made such a big difference to your diet! That's what we're here for and it great to have our thesis validated because lots of people didn't think it would actually go there.

I worked hard on creating a unique and superior product and I'm glad you agree!

> BobJS

account created 57 minutes ago, commenting on a post created an hour ago.

Man, this smells fishy.

Where's dang ?

He's a customer, but you can verify that all the other comments are organic.

Have to admit, I had this exact same suspicion. Actually, several posts throughout the forum seem very close in tone and style to what I'd expect Fakespot to detect as mildly deceptive. Apologies if I am incorrect, but my Spidey sense is tingling something fierce.

With the party trick version of this (eating lemons or limes straight), I was always concerned about the acidity on my teeth. Is that not a concern here because you just don't use as much acid?

The issue is with the food itself, not the product. No, I don't recommend eating an entire lemon everyday, but making a lemonade without sugar should be fine. If you're worried, just brush your teeth afterwards.

The key is I'm not marketing this as a party trick. You already eat yogurt, coffee, fruit, chocolate without having to worry about the acid so there are no sudden differences here for your teeth. If anything, think about what removing sugar from your diet could do to your dental health.

>If you're worried, just brush your teeth afterwards.

This is a bad suggestion, teeth are a lot more vulnerable after acidic products and as far as I know brushing your teeth right after acidic foods is bad for your enamel.

Thanks for that feedback! Now I know :D

But yes, I don't suggest people to eat lemons, but I think this product can be integrated with whatever you are already eating - Greek yogurt, fruit, coffee, etc.

Sorry, my question wasn't very clear. I guess what I meant to ask is whether this works when eating food that doesn't have as as much acid as a straight lemon. Sounds like the answer is yes.

Also, tangential, but I think the advice to brush your teeth right after is not right. Not a dentist, but IIUC, after exposing your teeth to acid, the enamel is in a weakend state and then the abrasion from brushing will do more damage. Rinsing with water would be helpful. Brushing before can also be helpful since the fluoride temporarily protects the enamel.

Thanks for sharing this knowledge! Will definitely avoid that recommendation in the future. <3

So is this basically a powdered version of mBerry? That stuff has been around for years and is a fun party hack. Not sure I would make it a regular part of my diet though...

For those interested:

[0]: https://mberry.us/

To put it simply, yes. Their pills take 5-10 minutes to dissolve. That's all good for the party trick they are advertising, but if you're rushing to get to work or get your kids to school you don't have the time nor patience to wait that long.

My product takes only 30 seconds - 10x faster than the competition. It is the only convenient miracle berry product. It may not form a habit with everyone, but I do have customers who use it daily for their dieting. It helps them to satisfy their sweet tooth, enjoy foods they otherwise wouldn't, or get a fussy child to eat fruits, veggies, dairy, fish, etc.

To say this is a powdered version of mBerry is a bit of a simplification because miracle fruit is highly unstable so it took me about a year to formulate something that would retain its flavor and texture longer than a few days.

Shipping to europe is free? Also, just a word of caution here: this product is regulated by the EU Novel Foods directive, and has not had a safety assessment to date. Which basically means selling it in the EU for consumption would be illegal...

and the only vendor in Germany says it is intended to be used as incense. OTOH it is only made of corn starch and dried berry, so I guess that's their workaround. lol.

Yep. It is so small and light I ship it in an envelope with a stamp. It might take a little longer depending on the country, especially eastern Europe. If you want tracking I charge $10 which is still not so bad given the distance.

You are totally right about the EU thing, I had thought it was approved but also I am so tiny that it probably doesn't matter. There were a few safety studies done that has proven that it is safe and there hasn't been a single negative reaction to miracle fruit reported in the last several decades. Thanks for bringing it to my attention.

I believe you and mayyybe I will even order some :) but where do you get the berries from? Do you import them from Africa?

Indeed. Surprisingly my competitors don't get their fruit from its native soil like I do. Just like wine or coffee, soil matters a lot to the quality of fruit.

Cool to see this on the front page! @Dgetman sent me some samples over the summer and we tried them as a team-building activity (we tasted a bunch of stuff before and then after to compare). It was absolutely insane how it turned pure lemon juice into the best lemonade I've ever had.

Tried it with a sour beer and it still tasted horrible though so there's definitely some trial and error involved.

Absolutely haha. Don't try it with Gatorade! It enhances the artificial taste XD

I think what is interesting with this business is that with enough critical mass, user generated content will reveal some really interesting use cases and food pairings. I could see this going wild with keto.

First time hearing of miracle berry, will absolutely give it a shot. Here's some feedback about the idea, hopefully helpful. :)

Pricing seems really tough for me. In general my meals are around the £1-3/serving range, when cooking at home. adding 33-100% cost to my meals regularly is a deal breaker.

As a curiosity I'll absolutely be interested to try this out - probably as a lockdown tastetest "date night". To me, that is a much more viable niche for this product, and thus I'd be in the £10 range for the product.

You stress 30s versus minutes like that is a deal breaker. I'm not confident this as strong of a selling point as you think - at least not for me.

Site looks nice, and the free UK shipping is awesome!

> NATURAL

Please, as a neuroscientist - who therefore also studied biochemistry as part of their degree - don't use this word in this way. All things are natural (what is "unnatural"? Ectoplasm?) and you know that there is nothing inherently wrong or different about synthetic compounds.

I hear you on the pricing. This is probably something you'll do once or twice a day if you make a routine out of it. I intend to get the prices down at scale, but when you put it against other consumer products (RXbar, starbucks coffee, etc) it turns out to be not so bad.

30s (maximum) vs 5 minutes (minimum) - I think you'd get it after you sat down and tried it. I'm getting feedback that it is a dealbreaker and why my product is superior. In an A/B test, people literally gave up on the pills because they got bored. Imagine what 5 minutes means if you're rushing to get to work.

Natural - It's all about marketing. While you are right, that's not what 99% of Americans believe and they all specifically search for natural products. The fact that this odd effect comes from a fruit I think is important because it is perceived safer than if it was a synthetic compound causing these taste changes.

I've tried the older pill form in the past and the effect is quite interesting. We ended up trying half the things in the pantry. I seem to remember that grapefruit was amazing, and that satsumas were overpowering.

For those weary of the effect, keep in mind that the average toothpaste contains sodium laurel sulfate, which removes our ability to taste sweetness, replacing it with bitterness. This is primarily done to keep people from eating sugar when their teeth are most vulnerable.

I could see this product selling well alongside cannabis products.

I've heard interesting things about what it does to cannabis products...no personal experience though.

>This is primarily done to keep people from eating sugar when their teeth are most vulnerable.

SLS is primarily added as a foaming agent.

>Sodium lauryl sulfate is frequently used as a surfactant, or foaming agent. It may also serve as an emulsifier, helping oil based and water based ingredients to stay mixed. In many of our toothpastes SLS is used as a surfactant and helps to properly disperse the ingredients during brushing, and ensures easy rinsing and removal of debris (i.e. food particles).

https://www.tomsofmaine.com/our-promise/ingredients/sodium-l...

Not only that, but your teeth are at their least vulnerable after brushing. Sugar doesnt cause tooth decay, acidic bacterial metabolites of those sugars do.

Folks with sensory processing disorders, be aware that miracle fruit / miraculin can be a very complicated experience if you’re trying it at full strength the first time. Make sure to be prepared for self-care if it triggers a panic attack.

I imagine something designed consciously as a food additive is probably a lot less intense, but I’m also in the SPD-taste zone of “I’d rather not have it taste sweet at all, than have it taste cloying/herbaceous from stevia”. YMMV.

Very interesting. Could you share more about your experience of sensory processing disorders?

The above is all I’ve got for this post, sorry.

This is a great alternative way to have a fun evening with housemates during lockdown. Tried this with a cheap whiskey + lemon, it was dangerously tasty. Congrats Daniel!

Thanks Dave! I hope ToDesktop is going well :)

I've tried wozi few weeks ago and what it does to natural food (such as fruits) is so good that you should try it at least once.

There are some tricky concerns with the product (many of which already mentioned in the thread) but I'm sure it's something the founder will iterate and find the answer on.

I'm excited to see how the product will evolve and get better from here!

I tried this with lime and lemon a few months ago. It made them taste like fanta/lemonade. Truly impressive but not really something I would do regularly.

Greek yogurt, on the other hand, is incredible. I wish I had tried it sooner. Frozen yogurt is the closest thing I can think of, but it's not really the same.

Man, I can't eat greek yogurt without it. So friggin' good.

Greek yogurt with what, exactly?

Just that :D

Since Greek yogurt is acidic, the product will transform the tartness to sweetness and amplify the flavor.

You can add some raspberries, blackberries, strawberries, etc for an extra pop of flavor.

I tried Wozi, I heard about it through Pioneer.

I really enjoyed it. Once I applied the powder, everything in my fridge tasted like candy - fruits, yogurt, etc.

Now whenever I'm hungry for a snack, I quickly apply some of the powder, and have a delicious, healthy snack.

Happy to hear that you had a great experience!

Same here, I genuinely want my family members to try it because the experience is so much better than the description can really express.

I tried the beta version recently, and it really does work. Pretty incredible.

I'm happy to hear that you enjoyed!

Just as FYI, one of the testimonials is wrongly formatted. There is no space between "psychologist" and "university of Florida"

Much appreciated!

Very cool.

We had some freeze dried miracle berry's for xmas and discussed why no one has done exactly what you have done. It looks great.

Good luck.

I think you're being a little disingenuous. I've tried magic berries many times over the years and they aren't going to do anything to make you 'eat healthy'. Sure, it's fun to eat lemons (sweet and delicious), but it's not going to make me crave carrots. They're a party trick, nothing else.

Well it’s worth trying - free delivery to the UK is impressive too

People ask me why don't I make a yogurt line. This is why :D

The product is so small and so light I ship it as a letter with a single stamp.

If it is going international, it may take a little longer (especially with COVID). UK is ~5-7 days but Asia can be as much as 2-3 weeks.

> Do you find water bland and boring?

I get that the sugary drinks consumption in the USA is through the roof. But this kind of hedonism is just on another level.

Could you clarify what you mean?

It’s absolutely ludicrous to find water so bland you can’t drink it. Especially if you’re overweight.

I understand what you mean. It can't be neglected though that obesity actually changes your brain chemistry (I was a neuroscience major and read a lot about this).

It's also important to note that behavior is motivated by reward. Staying hydrated is important and it is so much easier when that beverage is sweetened. While tasteless water may not be a big deal, creating a sugar free lemonade I'm sure would definitely increase how much water you drank each day.

I find it very difficult to stay hydrated with plain water. Even unsweetened tea is much easier for me to drink, and I can drink lots of it's at least lightly sweetened. And it doesn't help that our rural water has a faint bad taste.

I stopped reading at “miracle berry”. Everytime you see junk marketing with the miracle buzzword, 99.9% is a scam or overselling, etc. I feel fine missing on the potential 0.1% too ;)

Yeah I understand. That's actually been a pain point for me because that is literally what the fruit is called. Check it out: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synsepalum_dulcificum

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