venturabananas

The banana I have most enjoyed eating when in French Polynesia is a thin skinned, short (4 inch or so), stubby one that must appear quite ripe (brown spots on skin) to be ready to eat. The peel is much thinner than the typical supermarket Cavendish type banana. The taste is more complex and acidic that the Cavendish types.

I had always assumed it was an "apple" banana, having eaten similar fruit called that in Hawaii and the Caribbean, but without paying too much attention to exactly what they looked like. Now, as a "more educated" banana aficionado (thanks Bananas.org), I understand that lots of things are called apple bananas, but the two most common varieties that go by that name are Manzano (Apple) and Brazilian. I had concluded, given that Brazilian appears to have come to Hawaii via Tahiti and is called apple in Hawaii, that the fruits in Tahiti were Brazilians. But now that I've seen some pictures of Brazilian fruits that show pretty thick peels, I'm wondering if those bananas in Tahiti are actually Manzano. Whatever they are, they are widely available there.

I have no pictures of the plant or the fruit, but the fruit look just like those in the following photo from Jon's website (webebananas), which was listed under the Apple variety.



In short, can you distinguish the fruit of Brazilian's and manzanos simply by the thickness of the skin? Or might what I've eaten many times in Tahiti (Moorea) be something else altogether?

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momoese

A novice would have a hard time telling the difference between Manzano and Brazilian. If you like one you'd like the other, and this is coming from someone who currently has both and has tasted both. That said on a side by side comparison I'd choose Brazilian/Hawaiian Apple because it has more flavor.

venturabananas

Thanks Mitchel. Aside from the flavor, are the fruits of the two distinguishable by the thickness of the skin (peel)?

I've had what was probably dwarf Brazilian fruit and it was very good, but I prefer the flavor of the thin skinned bananas in Tahiti. That said, it's not a fair comparison because the the dwarf Braz were grown in Ventura not Tahiti, and I understand that growing climate can affect flavor.

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momoese

From memory I'd say the skins are about the same thickness. Both are fairly thin. I don't have either fruiting at the moment or I'd go cut some in half and take pics for ya.

island cassie

I don't think those look like my Manzano at all - how about Oritos??

Gabe15

The 'Manzano' have thin skin and more rounded fruits, whereas the 'Brazilian' has thicker skin and rather more angular fruit. But that doesn't really mean that what you had was either necessarily. The photo you show from Jon's site is 'Mazano'. It's really hard to say what variety you ate unless you could show us a photo of the actual fruit you ate, preferably on the plant. The fruit bunches look very different, here are some photos.

Manzano type, 'Ungoye Sweet'


'Santa Catarina Prata'/'Dwarf Brazilian' ("Hawaiian Apple"), one of the most common varieties in Hawaii.

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Growing bananas in Colorado, Washington, Hawaii since 2004. Commercial banana farmer, 200+ varieties.

venturabananas

Thanks Gabe. Whatever the fruit is, it isn't Brazilian. Looks like manzano or something very similar. I have a friend in Moorea right now and he's going to take some pictures of the fruit. He probably won't have time to photograph the plants, unfortunately.

Is there a Polynesian cultivar that is similar to manzano but not actually manzano? In either words, thin skinned, more rounded than Brazilian, peel must have some spots to actually be ripe?

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Gabe15

Your description of the fruit sounds like 'Manzano', but we should wait for the photos to really say for sure. Many common varieties are well distributed throughout the Pacific from modern trading and movement, and its highly unlikely the fruit you had was a true Polynesian cultivar. 'Manzano' is just one cultivar in the Silk subgroup. There are many other Silk cultivars which are different in some ways from the common 'Manzano' on the mainland US, so perhaps it was one of those, but it's also likely it's just about the same as you could find in Florida.

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Growing bananas in Colorado, Washington, Hawaii since 2004. Commercial banana farmer, 200+ varieties.

venturabananas

OK, here are some photos of the fruit. Unfortunately, my friend in Moorea is too busy doing what we do (research on coral reef fish ecology) to track down an entire bunch or find one of plants themselves. From what I see and the description of Manzano, it is that, or something very closely related. Thin skinned and dries out your mouth and is generally awful if not fully ripe. The fruit in the photo has the minimum amount of brown on the peel you would want in a fruit that would be ready to eat.

Watcha think Gabe?

(Scale bar -- ruler -- in cm)

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Gabe15

Fruit, although helpful, is not usually detailed enough to ID a plant, but those fruits do look like 'Manzano' and I wouldn't doubt that the plant is 'Manzano'/some Silk cultivar.

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Growing bananas in Colorado, Washington, Hawaii since 2004. Commercial banana farmer, 200+ varieties.