It tastes like that because it was flavored to taste like the gros michel banana.
It doesn't taste exactly like that either, but that's why it doesn't taste like the Cavendish banana that you're used to.
this post was submitted on 22 Feb 2026
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Got the process backwards. The early flavoring was designed by finding something with a strong scent or flavor and then labeling it as whatever they thought it was closest to or would sell best.
Less "finally, this tastes like banana" and more "I bet no one will complain if I call this banana".
Wasn't Hank Green who made a video about that?
Probably dozens of people have. Can't remember the channel name (it was the name of their candy shop but fuck me if I remember the shop's name) but I saw a video from a candy maker about that about 10 years ago.
Boy, I haven't thought of Lofty Pursuits in a long time
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.
counterpoint: https://youtu.be/I9ZtvpBoXzI
TL;DW banana candy does not taste like gros michel either
He did find that the artificial banana flavor tastes the way gros michel bananas smell when they're very ripe, though. So I don't think it's wrong to say the flavor is based on the gros michel rather than the cavendish, it's just that flavor is a really complex equation and artificial flavors tend to fail to capture the totality of the experience.
This is the same reason tomatoes are borderline impossible to emulate artificially. Instead of one or two volatile chemicals that create the aroma, there is something like twenty different compounds that makes tomato-flavour.
Yeah it's only with grapes that they really captured the best part
I have never had fake grape flavoring that didn't taste like some kind of soviet-era urinal cleaner, is that just a me thing? Do people really like grape flavouring, and my dislike stems from a horrible repressed childhood trauma or something?
Where I live, grape flavour is not common at all. The few times I tasted it, I didn't like it. It tasted super artificial and not like grape at all.
Buuuuut, when I was in Romania I ate some thick skinned, round, fleshy grapes that taste exactly like the candy grape flavour. They were good actually
Same here. But my grandma made grape juice. The grapes taste nothing like the artificial flavour but the juice does. It tastes exactly like the artificial flavour and it is kinda baffling.
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The Japanese have nailed green apple
My friend and I ordered dried Gros Michel from the same vendor Hank ordered after watching his video. They do indeed smell like banana candy. It tasted great!
Can confirm. I went on a banana adventure during the pandemic where I ate nearly 10kg of all sorts of different bananas, including the "Big Mike". I learned the Cavendish is a shit banana and we've been cheated out of superior nanners for decades.
There are still places you can get the good bananas but they are not very common anymore
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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!
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
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.
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
$15 + "get to hawaii." The last half is the tricky part, but I'm still onboard.
You didn't answer the question that we all have - do the candies actually taste like the Gros Michel?
This made me snort. Thank you for sharing your unskippable cutscenes.
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 😅
Maybe this can help
I'm too scared to provide my shipping info to see the shipment cost 😅
I bet it'll cost me my left kidney. Maybe still worth it, dunno.
Thanks 💖
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.
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This one bananas.
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I read your entire comment, and didn't see the edit at the bottom until later. I feel like hundreds of people are doing the same thing and you're helping to perpetuate the myth.
Whenever I post a comment and I'm wrong, I strike it out. I suggest you do the same.
~~this syntax produces this:~~
~~this syntax produces this:~~
(Note: You have to strike out each paragraph individually.)
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."
This myth existed way before AI
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rather the aim, chap
Most candy flavors don't taste much like their fruit counterpart. IDK why banana is single out most often.
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.
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Always assumed is was some kind of petroleum derivative
Banana Candy is one of those legacy flavors from a time in the past when our ability to create artificial flavors was extremely limited.
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.
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I hate actual bananas, least fave fruit. LOVE fake banana flavor. They're clearly nothing alike.
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