The grocery store labeled them “Red Bananas.” They are indeed little red bananas. But the wikipedia article for red bananas says that they are sweeter than the Cavendish bananas I’m used to. That was not true of my little red bananas at all. They tasted like nuts. Very bitter, bitter disgusting nuts. And the images on the Wikipedia article don’t match what I had–what I had was short, stubby and solid dark red. The images are of longer, lighter-colored fruits with a splotched redish/yellowish pattern.
I bought some recently too thinking they must be great because they looked so odd and crappy. Nope. They tasted OK but weren’t even as good as mediocre yellow Chiquita bananas to me. The texture was a little sticky and mushy and they weren’t that sweet. I don’t know where you get ones that match the description. I saw that too when I looked them up and it wasn’t true for mine either.
Since all of these bananas are picked before they are ripe and shipped to the US, they will never be as good as ripe ones off the vine. I’ve had a variety of different bananas ripened on the vine, and they were all superior to any I’ve ever had in the US.
I miss the banana plantation outside Santa Barbara. They didn’t re-locate did they?
They had bananas that tasted a bit like raspberries, or like real bananas, not squishy potatoes. It’s true TriPolar and WhyNot– vine ripened is the way to go, if you can.