Toothache plant
Acmella oleracea · Herb
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The toothache plant (Acmella oleracea), known in Brazil as jambú and in the drinks trade as the szechuan or electric "buzz button", is a low, sprawling annual herb of the daisy family whose leaves and gumdrop-shaped flower heads deliver a startling electric tingle, numbing fizz and flood of saliva when chewed. It flavours the Amazonian dishes tacacá and pato no tucupi and has become a novelty cocktail garnish and a natural local anaesthetic.
Picking a good onedrag
Just cut, standing up, buttons tightLimp and blackened, the buzz gone
Market freshEveryday bestLeaves cook as a green by the handful - tacaca, tucupi broths, rice. Buttons are the concentrated part, eaten sparingly: one is a portion. A tingle that fades, not a poison.
Where it came fromA food-grade edible-flower punnet, source on it
The flower buttonsColour still strong, a button or two softening
Leaf and stemGreen, the gloss dulling, a nick or yellow rim
Lift the bunchHolds, the lowest leaves starting to hang
Rub a leaf, then nibble the edgeGreen, the buzz slower to arrive but clear