robguz24

If you've ever seen those wine wheels that describe all the various wine smells and tastes, I wish there was some sort of taste description guide for bananas. Now it wouldn't need to be something as ridiculous as some of the wine ones, with descriptions like "roasted chestnuts on fresh asphalt with a hint of asparagus" and such.

I would love to have some standard taste description guide, maybe put in the Wiki that could help any of us give taste reports. Taste reports are one of the most interesting things to me on this site. But maybe just a list of major parameters and words to describe them that would make it easier for any of us to give a good description.

I'd love suggestions and input here on how to develop such a guide. I guess the parameters would be as follows, and it would be nice to develop descriptive words with a scale, such as very sweet to very sour, or use 1-10 for sweetness and tartness:

TEXTURE-(this would differ from how hard or soft it feels, for example, sucrier can feel firm when you bite into them, but then kind of mushy textured once you chew it, and something like Ice Cream can also be firm, but have a fluffy texture when chewed). Not sure how the scale would be here, but maybe include FLUFFY, STARCHY, MEALY, MUSHY, CREAMY, VELVETY, SPONGY, RUBBERY, any others?

FIRMNESS-(Not sure if firmness is the best word here, but some bananas seem very firm even when more ripe, such as plantains, while a typical cavendish feels somewhat soft when first biting into it even when somewhat green. Should MUSHY go under firmness?). Range from VERY FIRM to VERY SOFT. Maybe this parameter would be more important in describing the stage of ripeness when tasted.

SWEETNESS-(Breaking up sweetness and tartness here, because some seem to have both, such as a Dwarf Brazilian, while others kind of have neither, like a plantain that is only slightly ripe) Range NONE to VERY SWEET. (I'd put a ripe Sucrier at the VERY SWEET end of the scale, and DB in the middle).

TARTNESS-maybe NONE to SOUR or VERY TART. (Maybe use sub-acid, etc, but I still kind of find those terms confusing, and it is more so for newbies. I'd put Mysore at the VERY TART end of the scale and a cavendish or plantain at NONE).

RIPENESS-simply describe the skin when tasted, from totally green to totally black.

FLAVOR-This is where it gets difficult and there isn't really a scale to use, but maybe some standard words would help, along with whatever the user wants to add. I think we all know what a store cavendish tastes like, and I'm not sure how you can explain that exactly, so maybe use CAVENDISH as a term, along with others like VEGETAL, APPLE, PEACH, CANTALOUPE, and whatever other food flavors will work.

OTHER: Sort of free form description. Maybe OTHER could include things like smell, size, fruit flesh color, and opinions such as whether you liked it or not. Could also include source of the fruit.

All of these would of course vary to some degree even on the same bunch depending on ripeness.

So I've got two types of nanners from my yard in front of me so here goes my attempt to use the above for a taste report.

Ice Cream: RIPENESS: Tasted yellow with some black spots.
FIRMNESS: medium soft.
TEXTURE: fluffy on first bite, becoming somewhat mushy and mealy as chewed.
SWEETNESS: Medium sweetness
TARTNESS: slightly tangy
FLAVOR: slight apple taste
OTHER: When ripe many of the strands from the peel stick to the fruit, making it somewhat stringy and unpleasant unless they are removed first. Not among my favorites. I prefer letting them get very ripe, freezing them, then blending with a little soy or coconut milk to make a soft-serve type dessert without needing to add sugar. Home grown.

Dwarf Brazilian: RIPENESS: Fully yellow with few brown specks.
FIRMNESS:firm
TEXTURE: slightly rubbery, becoming very creamy and velvety as chewed
SWEETNESS: Medium sweetness
TARTNESS: somewhat tangy (this particular one is less tangy than normal, I'd usually describe them as just tangy)
FLAVOR: slight apple and pineapple taste
OTHER: Overall a good balance of pleasing texture, firmness, flavor, sweetness, and enough tartness to make it interesting and easy to eat more. My favorite banana. Home grown.

and since I previously gave a taste report on Sucrier, here is how I would adapt it to this standard.

Sucrier: RIPENESS: Fully yellow with few brown specks.
FIRMNESS:firm
TEXTURE: firm on the first bite, quickly becoming mushy as chewed. The center of the fruit feels harder than you'd expect. Mushy in a different (more pleasant) way than a cavendish
SWEETNESS: Very sweet
TARTNESS: None
FLAVOR: brown sugar, slightly vegetal, like a hint of green pepper, especially the less ripe it is.
OTHER: Tasty and small with very thin skin. About as sweet as a banana gets, almost too sweet. Enjoyable but 1-2 at a time is plenty. I've read that they should be eaten very ripe with almost black skin. I'd disagree with that-too sweet but firmness held up well on one with only some black. Yellow with slight green at the tips was ok, a little vegetal, and it seemed best with no sign of green or black on the peel. Would work well sliced on cereal, in a fruit salad where it isn't so dominant, or in desserts. Home grown.

I welcome suggestions on how we can come up with some standards to give some uniformity to taste reports and make descriptions more clear and understandable. Of course anybody could just use this if they want to, and can throw in whatever else they want to say under OTHER in each review.

Thoughts?

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