Several years ago, I spotted a bunch of small red bananas at the supermarket near my temp job. I bought them because I'd never seen them before. They were tasty, with a more intense flavor than the more usual yellow Cavendish*, but something of a nuisance to eat, because they had a sort of thick, floppy row of seeds down the middle, which I had to eat around. (I'm sure the seeds were harmless, they just didn't taste good.)

The local Safeway currently has bunches of small red bananas; they're more expensive than the large yellow bananas at the same store, even the organic ones (there's about a 20 cent/pound premium for organic; I buy either conventional or organic based on which is closer to my desired ripeness), but not outlandishly so, so I bought a small bunch.

I just ate one. It's tasty, but a lot closer in taste and texture to a yellow Cavendish than to the last small red bananas I had. No noticeable seeds. Quite good, but very much the same kind of thing. Unfortunately, these are just labeled "Reds," list the country of origin as "Ecuador," and have a code number [4236] that I'm going to put here on the theory that it might be useful for something, although I doubt it will help me identify the variety. These are a sort of dull reddish brown, at least by fluorescent light, and about 6 inches (15 cm) long.

* This is the default U.S. banana, the thing that most people I know think of when they think "banana."
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From: [identity profile] don-fitch.livejournal.com


One listing of fruit numbers gives only "4236 - banana, red", so it seems to be only of in-house usefulness. I haven't travelled much in the tropics, but gather that there are at least several red banana varieties, with distinctly different tastes. Sadly, our familiar yellow "Cavendish" seems likely to continue to overwhelm us (possibly because it yields more pounds per acre). On another hand, at least some of the red varieties apparently take months to ripen at room temperature, so they may become more profitable via a savings in shipping cost. (Personally... I made artificial banana flavoring in a highschool chemistry class, and have never much _liked_ bananas since then.)

From: [identity profile] browngirl.livejournal.com


Heh, I went off bananas the same way, after making artificial banana flavoring in my college organic chem lab.
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