Fun fact: artificial banana flavor is based off of the Gros Michel banana, which was mostly wiped out due to disease. We eat Cavendish bananas these days, although there’s a new disease spreading because ( just like last time) it’s a monoculture
So it’s not that it’s artificial tasting, it’s that you’ve never had the real thing and are used to the bananas you’ve grown up eating. Which is normal! Just a weird bit of trivia.
It’s actually based off pears. It was developed in britain first and they have jargonelle pears that taste like that flavor. In the US those pears weren’t popular so they marketed it as banana flavor instead. The chemical is isoamyl acetate if you want to look into its history.
Fun fact: artificial banana flavor is based off of the Gros Michel banana, which was mostly wiped out due to disease. We eat Cavendish bananas these days, although there’s a new disease spreading because ( just like last time) it’s a monoculture
So it’s not that it’s artificial tasting, it’s that you’ve never had the real thing and are used to the bananas you’ve grown up eating. Which is normal! Just a weird bit of trivia.
It’s actually based off pears. It was developed in britain first and they have jargonelle pears that taste like that flavor. In the US those pears weren’t popular so they marketed it as banana flavor instead. The chemical is isoamyl acetate if you want to look into its history.
/jaw drops What the… Indeed! So both have a high level of isoamyl acetate. Does that mean that jargonelle pears smell/taste like bananas?!
https://massivesci.com/articles/banana-flavor-cavendish-gros-michael-science-friday/
Thanks! TIL!
I believe you but I still think there are chemists out there that have made their own approximation of banana flavor. Solid fun fact, thanks.
like artificial grape flavor, the true worst flavour ever created
No that goes to Cherry, which just tastes like cough medicine.
Or does cough medicine taste like artificial cherry?
I could get behind that
Me too, except it is the best. Further illustrating the variations in people’s taste.