Banana Candy is one of those legacy flavors from a time in the past when our ability to create artificial flavors was extremely limited.

Same goes for artificial apple flavor.

Ooooh I get to be the know it all asshole who says this and the runts flavor banana don't taste like banana to us because we're used to the modern dominant banana cultivar, the Cavandish, while the inventor of Runts and Laffy Taffy were familiar with the then dominant banana cultivar, the Gros Michele!

The Gros Michele was swapped out as it was plagued by blight and the Cavandish was resistant to this kind of blight. Nowadays, the Cavandish is also starting to show signs of mass blight issues and some growers are considering switching back to the Gros Michele to combat that!

Edit: Whoohoo! I'm wrong and I learned new things!

I also heard that the reason Big Mike was the dominant banana of choice for so long and the Cavendish was not is because the fruit companies firmly believed that the Cavendish was too disgusting in comparison and no one would ever buy it.

Hank green did a video about that where he tasted a gros michele and if I'm remembering correctly he said it didn't really taste like the candy

It's myth. Don't trust AI.

"A food history myth is that artificial banana flavor was specifically developed from the Gros Michel, but isoamyl acetate is a simple compound and was not based on any specific cultivar."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gros_Michel

I'm the other asshole, who's seen someone on YouTube trying a Gros Michele banana and saying it doesn't taste like the candy flavour. Maybe this just was as close as they could get to the flavour back in the day. And then, once established, this became "banana" forever and ever.

This myth predates AI by a lot

This myth existed way before AI

I go to the banana festival every year. I've had all of these varieties and many many more. I have three different varieties growing (including dwarf Cavendish). You can try gros michel at the fest, along with many more flavors.

I'll say first hand that gros michel is a much more flavorful banana than Cavendish. Its more fragrant and perfumed, and very sweet. But also, just about any other banana is better tasting that Cavendish. My Tahitian blues are delicious. And the star of our yard is our unnamed variety of apple banana.

The Tahitian blues are more mild and sweet. But with better texture than a Cavendish. But the apples. They're the dream banana. A but more tart and firm, even when iver ripe. And if you can let them get fully ripe on the tree, just amazing flavors.

The issue with the apple though is that the trees are massive and super aggressive. If I had more space I would just grow those, but it ends up being a few hours a month in management just to keep the apple bananas from taking over. There's a farm I'm helping to start and this is the variety we growing there.

Banana fest is only 15 for a wrist band and all you can eat bananas

Like raspberry.

$15 + "get to hawaii." The last half is the tricky part, but I'm still onboard.

I hate actual bananas, least fave fruit. LOVE fake banana flavor. They're clearly nothing alike.

Blue raspberry is incredibly accurate though…

…It’s a bit ironic the actual fruit is now extinct…

None of that is true.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubus_leucodermis

#dominantbanana

You didn't answer the question that we all have - do the candies actually taste like the Gros Michel?

Which is why “AI” will parrot it.

Most candy flavors don't taste much like their fruit counterpart. IDK why banana is single out most often.

We should form a banana government!

Thank you for your service! You saved me from having to do it haha.

So how much to send a mixed crate to Germany? Because all I ever had was "the most unripe shit, ripened in special container"-Cavendish. And I'm mad about it 😅

I'm sure there are some specialty shipping companies, but at the price of shipping, could probably fly to Hawaii (or Samoa, or Fiji, or Costa Rica, or Mexico, or Ecuador, or Brazil, etc). Any fruit market in a tropical country is going to have 10+ varieties of banana.

I have a neighbor who bought a commercial freeze drying machine, and I would say that freeze drying is the best way to keep the flavor as "true" to the flavor you get when ripe. When we get plenty bunches coming in we get maybe 20-30kg a week. We freeze them because things really slow down in the winter (maybe 20-30 kg every 6 week?). If can, I'll get some freeze dried and could ship much more affordably.

A more flavorful and sweet banana sounds awful IMO. To each their own banana nerd.

derived from otters’ anal glands or some such?

Yeah maybe the description wasn't the best?

Like, my apple bananas. They taste "sharper", and have a more authentic banana flavor, and are less cloying. And the texture is more firm, even when ripe/ overripe. Even when ripe they have structure, they aren't mush.

Cavendish is disgusting to me. Like I can't even eat one. Its literally gross. But I can eat like 3-5 apple bananas in one sitting.

Because the artificial banana taste is based on a kind of banana that doesn't exist anymore, so its very inaccurate compared to the taste of actual bananas that people know

edit: apparently that's not true, TIL

They usually single out one or two compounds out of dozens which make up the flavor profile, pair it with citric acid and sugar in whatever ratio, and call it good. If they actually synthesized a complex, realistic fruit taste, your laffy taffy would cost about as much as a fine bottle of perfume, which is where they DO pull many compounds together to create an immersive profile.

Gros michel is a cultivar, Cavendish is a cultivar, Tahitian blues a cultivar, and "apple banana" is cultivar, but also an often used name for "unnamed cultivar".

The difference is as big as the difference between a Fuji apple and a granny smith. They're practically different fruit.

Isoamyl acetate, the chemical which is traditionally used for artificial banana flavor, was first synthesized in the UK where it was marketed as Jargonelle pear flavor. Companies importing it to the US believed that the American public wouldn't be interested in pear candy, so they decided to call it banana flavor instead.

Also, as an aside, Lecroy now sells "sunshine" flavored sparkling water which I'm 90% sure is flavored with isoamyl acetate. I think they just decided to lean into the fact that it tastes distinctly fruity, but not like any one fruit in particular.

That's a myth.

https://youtu.be/I9ZtvpBoXzI

Ok, how us that relevant? People parrot it, just like done here, even more.

From having to spread misinformation...?

Did you somehow not see the many comments here proving that's not true? It's been widely reported as being false for years.

I have not

I asked, it stated the lie. I told it to research (just said research it) and it gave me the right answer complete with the chemical flavoring being the issue and link to the proof. It’s like google. You don’t trust the first thing you’re told.

Bananas are a mono-crop. There was a disease in the latter half of the 20th century that threatened all bananas on the planet. A particular strain survived called the Cavendish. It is what you NOW think of as a banana. The candy tastes like the way bananas used to taste.

This sounds dope and as an enjoyer of bananas I am intrigued

Surely someone on the south of the continent can grow some rare bananas?

Watermelon Jolly Rancher Gang represent

There are still places you can get the good bananas but they are not very common anymore

Ironically the best laffy taffy flavor.

Yeah and unless the guy who made the above video got ripped off, they're roughly $100 a dozen 😬

This one bananas.

Does cinnamon really taste like this?

counterpoint: https://youtu.be/I9ZtvpBoXzI

TL;DW banana candy does not taste like gros michel either