PR-Giants suggested a taste of store bought, imported Williams vs. a farm fresh locally grown one. Well this isn't exactly that, but close.
I bought these both at my nearest grocery store. The one on the left is an imported Dole organic, and on the right is one locally grown from this company-
Hamakua Springs Country Farms They are picked green. The only imported ones at my store were these organic ones.
As I've stated before, I'm not a big fan of cavendish types, though I do still grow some. I think they work well in smoothies.
I tried to taste them both at the same stage of ripeness, though the Dole was maybe 1 day more ripe. I was going to try and do a blind tasting, but the local one was so much bigger than the other, it would have been obvious unless I cut them up into same sized chunks. So I just ate them and tried to be unbiased.
I found the imported one pretty bad. Very bland, with an unpleasant texture. I haven't had a banana this bad in a while, except perhaps some local Iholenas that were mealy. The fruit itself was much smaller, more angular, I assume due to being harvested very early. The local Williams was much better, even better than ones I've grown myself. These are grown in a different part of the island, where they actually have soil, so maybe that makes a difference. It was sweeter and had a better texture. Still not my favorite, but I wouldn't call it bad tasting at all. I really didn't expect to taste much difference, so I found it pretty interesting!