Freakonomics plug:
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Expanding on previous comments on the Gros Michel and fake flavor:
The Gros Michel banana used to be the banana cultivar that was sold throughout the world. It got phased out due to disease susceptibility. It tasted a little different than the current popular cultivar, the Cavendish. Fake banana flavor is isoamyl acetate, and the Gros Michel had a lot more of that ester than the Cavendish does. Presumably the fake flavor tastes closer to what bananas used to taste like
The Cavendish is now becoming susceptible to disease, and given the lack of any genetic diversity it’s very likely that it will have to be phased out for another variety. It’s likely that the next generation of bananas will taste differently than what we are used to.
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Back in my day banana flavoring tasted like banana!
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Do the grocery stores in your area not have plantains and those mini brown bananas?
(Yes! Plantains are also bananas)
am I the only one disappointed that The Most Interesting Fruit in the World is somehow not a Tenacious D song?
The McIntosh apple was discovered where I’m from. Im friends with a girl who used to live on the farm where it was found. So I’m sort of famous-adjacent.
Was it in 1984?
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and piling on, there is a book on the cultural history of bananas in the U.S., because of course there is:
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travelling by knight
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Between a rook and a hard place?
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asking him for directions, what a rookie mistake
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