Why doesn’t artificial banana flavor taste like bananas?
Well, the reason why artificial banana flavor doesn’t taste like the Cavendish bananas we typically buy in the grocery store is because artificial banana flavor wasn’t developed based on that variety of banana. It was developed based on a variety called the Gros Michel, or the Big Mike. This variety of banana was the standard in America until the 1950s, when a fungus essentially wiped out the Gros Michel. The milder-tasting Cavendish replaced the Gros Michel as our go-to banana.
I found a couple of things that don’t conform with their explanation. To start with, according to this article a business that specialized in importing bananas started in 1870, and banana were available during the US Civil War in the 1860s. This article on artificial flavors indicates the very first one was artificial vanilla flavoring that wasn’t developed until 1874.
And the then the soup thickens. This article is a little confusing but claims artificial banana flavoring was developed in the 1850s. It also claims the original artificial banana flavors were based on the Gros Michel banana.
Africa is HUGE! It’s almost 5000 miles north to south, and 4500 miles east to west. Compare that with Moscow-Vladivostok which is just over 4000 miles. (all straight-line distances).
The other option is they just did a poor job of replicating the flavor of a banana. Just like how grape candy doesn’t taste all that close to real concord grapes. And artificial peach flavor is quite different than real peaches.
I don’t think a flavor that tastes like actual banana (or grape, cherry, watermelon, etc.) would actually taste good in the form of candy or dessert. I think the artificial versions are designed to capture some of the essence of the original, but not enough to make you gag.
I heard somewhere that when they made the flavor they were not replicating actual flavors but for marketing purposes, called it the closest fruit to that flavor. “Hmmm, this tastes vaguely of grape. Let’s call it grape flavored.”
Eh. There’s a lot of potential flavors made by esters. But where a cherry might have a dozen different esters in varying quantities, artificial flavors probably use only one or two.
I took an advanced chemistry class in HS, and one of the units was on esters. The very simplest ester smelled like Juicy Fruit gum!
It’s a shame that major water gap between Russia and Eastern Europe doesn’t exist in real life. Would’ve avoided a lot of invading armies marching across steppes, in both directions, over the centuries.
I have never even so much seen peeps, but I suspect they taste very much not like small birds.
And, for total randomness, I went and looked for Gilligan’s island on Google Earth. It was apparently reported to be at 10° / 140°, at which there is not so much as a seamount. However, the coödinates lack compass letters – very close to 10°S 140°W there is a substantial island, which is very much not uncharted. It is called Tahuata, in the Marquesas, and appears to be inhabited. That the Minnow could have been swept that far in a squall seems somewhat unlikely, though.
There is a short story by Harlan Ellison called “Adrift Just Off the Islets of Langerhans: Latitude 38° 54’ N, Longitude 77° 00’ 13” W". That latitude and longitude is in Washington, D.C. It’s on the sidewalk on the west side of 2nd Street NE, about 25 feet south of the intersection of that street with H Street NE. If you look west from that spot, you see the entrance to the Union Station Bus Terminal. It you look north from that spot, you see a bridge above the street.
