Some artificial fruit flavors are better than others. Green apple, for example, almost always knocks it out of the park when it comes to mouth-puckering sourness, while cherry can end up tasting like the cough medicine you choked down as a child. However, the worst artificial cherry has nothing on the best artificial banana flavor.
Banana candy tastes nothing like banana, much to the chagrin of banana lovers and especially kids who are going to be disappointed by a handful of Runts for the first time. While real bananas are mild and floral with a subtle starch, banana candy is sickly sweet. Most banana candy tastes like it was made in a lab by a mad scientist who learned about bananas from an encyclopedia rather than a taste test.
The Great Banana Plague
In the long-standing quest to figure out why artificial banana flavor pales so far in comparison to the real thing that it's practically anemic, you'll see one claim repeated over and over again. Banana candy is based on an extinct banana variety; that's why it tastes nothing like the bananas you get at the supermarket. While there's a nugget of truth to this claim, we have to dig a little deeper to sort out the facts.
The bananas you get today, whether they have a Dole or Chiquita sticker on the peel, are from the Cavendish cultivar. 99.9% of the bananas for sale, unless you're extremely lucky while visiting Jamaica and/or Martinique, you've probably only had Cavendish bananas.
There's nothing wrong with Cavendish bananas, but they weren't always the go-to. Until the 1950s, there was another big name in bananas that's no longer with us except in a reduced capacity: Gros Michel.
Also known as Big Mike, these bananas were originally grown in Southeast Asia before being transplanted to the Caribbean. From the 1830s to the 1950s, Big Mikes were the main global banana crop exported from Central America. Unfortunately, this new location also left Big Mikes open to disease.
In the 1950s, a fungus called Panama disease wiped out the majority of the Bike Mike crop. This was the beginning of the end for Gros Michel bananas. Within a decade, exporters were unable to keep up with both the demand and the threat of wilt.
Instead, growers shifted to a different cultivar: the Cavendish bananas we enjoy today. Cavendish bananas are resistant to Panama disease, making them a much more stable crop for export and growing. At least until another banana plague wipes out the Cavendish bananas.
There's Always Money In The Banana Stand
When it comes down to taste, there isn't much difference between the two varieties, although we haven't been lucky enough to try one of the few remaining Gros Michels. According to people who have tried them, Gros Michel/Big Mike is more floral in terms of both aroma and taste. That candied sweetness you get with artificial banana flavoring is pure Big Mike.
Artificial banana flavor comes to us from a compound called isoamyl acetate. While this compound is found in both Cavendish and Big Mike bananas, it's more obvious in Gros Michel. In fact, synthetic banana flavoring existed in America before most Americans had ever tasted a real banana!
So, many early 20th century recipes such as banana cream pie and bananas Foster, were developed with Big Mikes in mind. Big Mikes hold up a little better in cooking, staying firm and creamy without breaking down completely. The difference is relatively subtle, but it's there.
Whether it's the chewy pull of banana Laffy Taffy, the crunch of Runts, or even the floral flesh of a rare Gros Michel banana, that sweet artificial flavor that explodes on your tongue is a taste of the past.
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