Miracle fruit man

Posted by Jacob on Mar. 17, 2009

The Miami Herald devoted some space last week to Curt Mozie, the retired postman whose miracle fruit trees hit the big time a few years ago.

“There are two major reasons miracle fruit has become popular recently, and one of them is Curtis Mozie,” said Adam Leith Gollner, author of The Fruit Hunters, a book that devotes a chapter to the history of the miracle fruit. “The fruit languished in obscurity, until Curtis came along and decided there was a venture in making this available to the public.”

That’s one reason, but what was the other? I’d guess it was my friend David Barzelay hosting his first miracle fruit party in DC in early 2007. At the time it was very hard to find the berries, with David having to track Curtis down through comments he’d left on message boards. That party led to our blog posts being picked up by BoingBoing, my own parties ending up in the Wall Street Journal and the BBC, and a typically behind-the-times NYT trend piece a year later.

At the time, I think the berries were $1 apiece and Mozie had plenty on hand. Today:

Mozie now ships out roughly 3,000 miracle fruit a week, for $3 a pop and sometimes can’t keep pace with the demand.

Curtis is a nice guy and I’m happy to see him doing so well in retirement with these improbable berries.

I’ve also been meaning to review Gollner’s Fruit Hunters book. It’s entertaining throughout and very informative; until reading it I had no conception of just how vast the world of fruit is and how our markets barely scratch the surface of the planet’s wondrous offerings. It’s some of the best food writing I’ve read in the past few years.

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  • Very intriguing. Thanks for sharing the links of those articles. Will definitely pay a visit and learn more of them.
  • Thank you for this
  • I've also read about the Fruit Hunter's book, it's really informative and entertaining as well. Absorbing the knowledge promoted by such books brings forth a better living experience. Looking forward to read more books like this one.
  • A miracle fruit... sound's interesting.. i want to see that berries ^^... i congratulate the one who created that title, very creative..
  • A miracle fruit is an interesting one. I want to have one. Even it cost too much, I'll loan just for me to have that unique fruit.
  • reading books like this one is quite a hobby that is totally awesome, reading some books really helps people to relax, reading books about health plans is pretty interesting too.
  • that's right health plans.. reading a book like this can gives to a person a lot of benefits..
  • nvaleo
    miracle fruit, i think this book is interesting, reading is quite a good hobby pus factor you'll be able to learn more, reading can enhance your vocabulary skills
  • reading is just a good hobby and i like it. i think this fruit is so good, i just want to have one.
  • Miracle fruit is one of the most valuable book that i had read and it it the first that i read that isn't about machines, i always read books but more often about machines
  • How could fruit be a miracle? I start to eat fruit more than ever this year. Fruit are expensive but it's worthy to keep the body healthy.
  • just reading at the title of the book "Miracle Fruit" you can define that it is a good book. Full of informations about our everyday life on how to have a better living..
    How to have a healthy life..
  • miraclefruitfan
    I haven't yet read Fruit Hunters yet, but clearly I need to.
  • very interesting, thanks for sharing!
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