Musa Ice Cream Blue Java grow and taste report
 

Cultivar: Musa Blue Java aka Ice Cream


Location: San Francisco Bay Area (zone 9B)

Propagule: Very healthy Sword Sucker (thank you Crazybanana!) Pic of the sword sucker about a year after getting established:


Date of Acquisition: Aug(?) 2015

Date of first flower opening: Aug. 2017 (2 years from planting)



Mature bunch to the left, bunch that flowered perhaps 2 months ago to the right:



Date of maturity: August 2018 (~1 year from first flower opening, ~3 years from planting)


Height: Didn't measure, but the pstem appeared to be somewhere between 12-16' tall.

Propping needed? Definitely. These will fall over once the fruit start getting heavy.

Difficulty: pretty easy, didn't seem anymore difficult than any other banana, but does require a bit more effort to maintain.

Vigor: Decent I guess. Not crazy fast growing compared to others, but not slow growing either.

Cold tolerance: decent, but lots of leaves turned brown, even though we didn't have any hard frost. Dwarf Brazilian and Rajapuri seem to be more cold hardy, but they may have just been more protected due to their shorter height....

Other: Seems to have taken forever for the fruit to mature! Sets a good amount of suckers, but not as many as say American Goldfinger. Others have mentioned to not remove suckers while fruit are forming, as this can stun the plant and mess up fruit production. Plus, the P-stems will probably fall. It's probably wise to follow that advice.


Surprisingly, I haven't been able to find an in depth, honest taste report for the real deal Ice cream AKA blue Java, so here's a new thread! Feel free to post pictures and your opinion as well!

There's so much junk on the internet, mainly set up by online stores trying to pass off tissue cultured Namwah as the real deal Ice Cream (with great success unfortunately). Some stores, such as Florida Hill Nursery, even show Namwah as the photo of their Ice Cream! Unbelievable.

I also remember reading claims that "it tastes just like Ice Cream" and something to the extent that you can eat it with a spoon because the texture is like Ice Cream. Some fingers have just turned completely yellow, and I tried them:


At this stage, there's very little sweetness, and shockingly, it's quite TART! When you smell the un-peeled fruit, it has zero aroma at this stage (I have 20/20 smell, if that exists). I had no idea this banana has so much acid to it, what a pleasant surprise! I actually enjoyed it at this stage, but my wife spit it out in disgust. My guess: You either love this one or hate it. We'll see what the real deal Ice Cream tastes like when it's at peak ripeness. I suspect the peel might need to almost turn brown before you get enough sweetness to balance and mellow out the acidity.

TO BE CONTINUED.........

Re: Musa Ice Cream Blue Java grow and taste report
 

I can't speak for this one but others in this group seem to not be truly ripe at yellow. Gotta wait a day or two.

Re: Musa Ice Cream Blue Java grow and taste report
 

I've bought two Blue Java's from two sources with no blue glaucid? colouring. All plain green / yellow.
Waiting on a third sourced Blue Java to fruit.

I've found the blacker the skin the nicer they become, to a certain extent.

Re: Musa Ice Cream Blue Java grow and taste report
 

Not True Ice Cream / Blue Java.

Re: Musa Ice Cream Blue Java grow and taste report
 

Its very interesting that the "ice cream" banana got this reputation for being so crazy awesome. It taste like Ice cream!
When in fact it is a banana that is far from the best, and is not the most productive or easy.

NOW HERE IS THE TRUTH! :0519:
The nam wah is THE TURE ICE CREAM! People just made the mistake of thinking the blue java is a nam wah.
Problem solved!

But in seriousness; if you want a good tasting, fast fruiting(ripening) banana that is care free, and More COLD TOLERANT than a blue java... You want a good Nam wah variety.
Its nothing to get a nam wah to fruit in a year, they don't need support either.

The only thing with the Nam wah is that there are quite a few mutations around. With all the tissue culturing you do have a few subpar ones getting passed around; small bunches, low vigor.....
But if you find someone with a good line you should not pass on a sucker.

Re: Musa Ice Cream Blue Java grow and taste report
 

Great pictures.. why don't you add those and the notations to the Blue Java in the forum wiki. Also, state the grow location.

Re: Musa Ice Cream Blue Java grow and taste report
 

Thanks for the suggestion! I added some pics!

Re: Musa Ice Cream Blue Java grow and taste report
 

I think you hit the nail on the head on this one! Online stores have convinced the general public that Namwah is Ice Cream. When grown well, I love Namwah!

The real deal Ice Cream is absolutely beautiful and before the fingers turn yellow, everyone (including myself) is amazed by the blue hue to the skin. For ornamental purposes alone, I'm keeping it.
But when it comes to actually eating the banana, I'm very suspicious of this being good quality compared to other varieties. So far, when I peel this banana, it's very stringy, and the "string" isn't really palatable, you don't want to eat it:


When it gets even more ripe, more of the peel sticks to the pulp, which is a PITA to remove. However, the flesh is really, really beautiful! Maybe there's a lot of visual deception going on here! I still haven't tasted it at peak ripeness, so I'll hold off further comments, but it's still tangy with very little sugar content a day after it turns yellow:

Re: Musa Ice Cream Blue Java grow and taste report
 

It takes 14 to 18 months in Southern California.

I agree.

Re: Musa Ice Cream Blue Java grow and taste report
 

Maybe if my Pisang Abu Perak has tasty fruit it can replace the Blue Java.

Re: Musa Ice Cream Blue Java grow and taste report
 

Thanks for the write-up!

Re: Musa Ice Cream Blue Java grow and taste report
 

I thought I read somewhere that there is a blue free Blue Java?
Otherwise what might the cultivar be? Quite tall, very loose crumbly peel, light in weight with an odd, bulky shape.

There's a name that describes the blue colouring? something like glaucid???

Re: Musa Ice Cream Blue Java grow and taste report
 

LOL!

From someone either trying to promote sales of their Namwa or justify their purchase of a Namwa!

Whatever the seller had handy for novice buyers!

This is what the fruit of the true Blue Java / Ice Cream looks like (thanks to meizzwang):

Re: Musa Ice Cream Blue Java grow and taste report
 

The word is glaucous. Cactus people commonly use that word for that description of blue, gray, or powdery giving the impression of blue or gray.

Re: Musa Ice Cream Blue Java grow and taste report
 

Many thanks. So my description above fits a Namwa?
My first BJ supplier was from one of the most reputable TC propagators in Australia as far as I can tell. I queried them a couple of times with no satisfactory answers.
My second supplier was a freebie from a backyarder that guaranteed it was a blue Java.
My third supplier is from another commercial nursery complete with label. Perhaps lucky third time around. Hope it will fruit this year.
Also, will they retain that blue colour while developing a bunch cover?

Cheers!

Re: Musa Ice Cream Blue Java grow and taste report
 

To would be blue java/Ice Cream buyers:
1) the real deal isn't in tissue culture in the US. Your best bet is to get the real plant from reputable forum members here on bananas.org
2) Agristarts, the alleged source of all fake TC'ed ice cream being sold in the US, is knowingly mis-representing namwah as the real deal blue java/Ice Cream. Perhaps the lie has gone on for so long that the general public has accepted Namwah as blue java.
3) The real deal blue java aka Ice Cream is surprisingly rare.
4) TC sellers get away with selling fake Ice Cream because it takes years for you to find out. If you end up with Namwah, consider yourself lucky! As Richard mentioned, online vendors marketing "ice cream" as TC'ed plants often times just send you any variety that looks really good at the time of your order. Speaking from experience, Buy at your own risk!

ICE CREAM BLUE JAVA TASTE REPORT



TEXTURE- creamy, soft, very light and fluffy

FIRMNESS – Ice Cream is only slightly more dense than eating whipped cream right out of the can! The pulp is extremely fragile at peak ripeness and bruises very easily.

SWEETNESS- Compared to other banana varieties, it's not very sweet, even at peak ripeness.

TARTNESS- Very tart, even when at peak ripeness. I personally like tart bananas, but I can see how many would think the tartness of blue java overpowers the low sugar content. In my opinion, there just isn't enough perceived sweetness to balance the tartness, but I can see how some people might like that.

RIPENESS- Right when the peel turns yellow, the acidity dominates the flavor. It's not bitter or so sour that it hurts your teeth or makes your you know what pucker, it's a much different experience that's difficult to explain in words. Peak ripeness under my conditions was about 3 days after they turned yellow. There should be some browning or black spots on the peel, but if you wait too long after that, the texture gets mushy.

PEEL:Right when the fingers turn yellow (right when very little sweetness can be detected), the peel comes off pretty easily. The "neck" of the peel is very sturdy: no need to worry about the fingers breaking off the bunch, even when at peak ripeness. However, the inside of the peel breaks down at peak ripeness, and slightly rough textured, unpleasant fibers stick to the pulp, making peeling a tedious task. Should have some brown or black spots on it at peak ripeness.

FLAVOR- TART! to me, it was a bland tartness: just acid and not much perceivable depth of flavor like you get in American Goldfinger, I can't say I noticed any hints of berry, citrus, or anything. People who claim this banana tastes like Ice Cream are full of it, NOT EVEN CLOSE!!!! I can see how the light, fluffy, slightly more dense than whipped cream texture may have inspired the name of this cultivar, but other than that, there's nothing else about its flavor that resembles the flavor of ice cream.

RATING (out of 10): 7.0/10 That's a C- even from someone who enjoys tart bananas. Yes, just enough to pass and keep in the collection, but barely. I love the ornamental value of this banana, and growing it was exciting the whole way through. But when it comes to the flavor department, I'm not looking forward to harvesting the next 2 bunches that are hanging. I'm not a fan of cavendish, but after I ate Ice Cream, I took a few bites of some well grown organic cavendish, and I'd eat that any day over Ice Cream. However, if there's no other banana available, I'll go for Ice Cream without complaints.

Re: Musa Ice Cream Blue Java grow and taste report
 

Mike,


Woohoo!.....Thank you for the awesome taste report!......


:2723::bananarow::2723:

Re: Musa Ice Cream Blue Java grow and taste report
 

Thank for post! Newbee here. Well I guess I have alot to lean, have brought my first 3 naner plants. Ice cream, ladyfinger and a gross Michel. Dilerved July 2nd and all are growing good in pots. So this came from states so I guess this is not a true ice cream but plant still looks nice for first try.hope this post is in right place only my first. Thanks to all !!!

Re: Musa Ice Cream Blue Java grow and taste report
 

thanks Hector Wcsixty7, and everyone else for checking out this thread!


Great input, thank you Botanical_Bryce! This reminds me: with some succulents, you can wipe off the powder, which alters the color or perceived color of the leaves/stem. With Musa Ice Cream, it's not powdery, and you can't wipe off that blue color! I tried to with no luck LOL

Re: Musa Ice Cream Blue Java grow and taste report
 

Don't have all the answers to your questions, but I can help with a few:
1)Rob on this forum mentioned in another thread a good way to distinguish dwarf namwah from Blue Java/Ice Cream: Dwarf Namwah will rarely need propping when fruiting. Blue Java tends to lean and could fall over if not properly supported when producing a heavy bunch. There's always exceptions to the rule: I have a rajapuri which is famous for almost never needing propping, but if I didn't prop mine, it would have fallen over a long time ago.
2) With pictures of the flowering bunch, lots of people on this forum can verify what you got. If you need help posting pics, PM me, I can help! Keep the male flower in tact just in case, don't cut it off.
3) The fingers will maintain that blue hue from the first day the flower opens (well, maybe a few days after) until they turn yellow.

Re: Musa Ice Cream Blue Java grow and taste report
 

So the banana peel & sap must contain an alkaline chemical that causes the blue color and likely the tart taste of the ripe fruit.


Here is an interesting article about ripe bananas glow blue under Black light.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/sci...ripe-ones.html

Re: Musa Ice Cream Blue Java grow and taste report
 

Welcome! The correct place to introduce yourself is here:
Member Introductions - Bananas.org

Re: Musa Ice Cream Blue Java grow and taste report
 

Tart would be due to acid. Blue pigment could be due to many things.

Re: Musa Ice Cream Blue Java grow and taste report
 

All my so called Blue Java's need strong supports and are tall plants.
Have plenty of pics, just haven't worked out how to upload.
.

Re: Musa Ice Cream Blue Java grow and taste report
 

I'm indebted to meizzwang for guiding me through how to post pics on here.
These are some old pics of what I've always thought to be my glaucous free Blue Java's.
Hopefully I might now get a proper ident.
Sorry about the bell, I remove them asap.

[IMG] [/IMG]

Re: Musa Ice Cream Blue Java grow and taste report
 

It would be nice if they could just make it simple to attach pics here. I'm not sure why they make it so difficult?

I just use a 3rd party site and post the link.

Re: Musa Ice Cream Blue Java grow and taste report
 

Right on growing and taste report of the “real deal” Blue Java/IceCream banana. I agree on everything Mike reported.
I personally had some really good Blue Java bananas which filled in and ripened during the summer month, while I had some crappy ones which were not worth the water spent on growing them during the winter months.
The good ones tasted best during a very short time frame after harvest. A few black spots on the skin were needed for a pleasant sweetness. Harvested and eaten too early they will taste starchy, too late they are mushy.

Re: Musa Ice Cream Blue Java grow and taste report
 

Here's the real deal Musa Ice Cream aka Blue Java at peak ripeness. Notice how difficult it is to peel the banana at this stage:

Re: Musa Ice Cream Blue Java grow and taste report
 

Does anyone know how this type of fruit is typically used? To me it has always been more of a novelty than any true quality. I assume it is a boiling or frying type but have never seen it used or talked about from its original use elsewhere. Often appears as though being adapted to eating ripe and yellow bananas has us trying to alter the use from cooking types to our own tastes. Would be interested to know more of the ethnic use.

Re: Musa Ice Cream Blue Java grow and taste report
 

I was told by a man that bought a Blue Java plant from me that in Hawaii they are served sliced up. The story he told me was that his wife and him were on their honeymoon. They were enjoying, what was sold to them as an authentic Hawaiian feast. For desert the guest were served plates of Blue Java bananas sliced. He said they were the most incredible bananas he had ever had.

I can tell you that grown here in coastal Southern California they are decent. But I am close to the coast so I don't get a lot of heat. During summer when it is 80 degrees at my house it is 85 degrees only two more miles inland. And 5-10 miles further inland it is 90 degrees plus. In my mind this variety needs lots of heat when it is maturing on the plant. The only problem with my theory is that then the growers in Florida should all be raving about this variety and most of them don't.

Bill

Re: Musa Ice Cream Blue Java grow and taste report
 

Even in Hawaii the Blue Java gets mixed up, so most likely it was not a Blue Java served to your customer since there are so many better tasting banana varieties.

Re: Musa Ice Cream Blue Java grow and taste report
 

I ate the true blue java on an island off Taiwan and they tasted great. The locals ate them ripe and cooked them as plantains when green. As a plantain they were ok, but as a ripe fruit they were delicious. No issues with the skin sticking to the flesh. They were as good as FHIA-01 but with a soft fluffy texture, very unique. They were pleasantly sweet/tart in a good balance. They were harvested late summer in the wet tropics though so I suspect that the heat produced more sugar content in the fruit than yours. I have heard New Zealand banana growers say that the blue java produces poor quality fruit there due to there cool climate. It may be the same where you are?

Re: Musa Ice Cream Blue Java grow and taste report
 

without a doubt, environment and when the fruit is picked does play an enormous role on flavor: I've tried a Texas grown Valencia orange and compared it to my california home grown Valencia, and they tasted like two completely different varieties! The homegrown valencia was better only because it was fresher: had the texas one been tasted the day of picking, it probably would have been perceived as higher quality because of the higher sugar to acid ratio.


Personal opinion also plays a huge role, so ratings can be taken with a grain of salt, you'll want to judge a variety by the descriptions.

The second bunch of blue java that I harvested had both better texture and higher perceivable sugar content at peak ripeness. But it still came nowhere close to a well grown american goldfinger.

I don't doubt that Taiwan (tropical climate) grown blue java tastes better than the best blue java grown in Northern California(mediterranean climate). However, I wonder if the opposite is true for goldfinger: I've heard that commercial producers in Australia deem goldfinger unsuitable for mass production due to its unfavorable ratings by consumers. On the other hand, when grown in our cool, mediterranean California climate, multiple growers have rated it as being one of the best tasting varieties.

Re: Musa Ice Cream Blue Java grow and taste report
 

Thanks for this post! I'm in the SF Bay Area (San Leandro), and bought my first banana plant (theoretically, a Blue Java) from Green Earth Co., after reading this thread I'm not sure what I have!

(Or if it would be worth eating?)

I have no idea if it's warm enough at my house to ever have this tree fruit (I'm in zone 9B), so if anyone here has any better ideas for a banana plant that could produce fruit for me, I'm all ears!

I admit to being seduced by the blue color and the 'novelty' factor, I've never grown banana plants before. But my little dude seems healthy, he's making new leaves and is about 12" tall stem-wise now. He's indoors in a pot in my sunroom (bright indirect sun) but I carry him outside for a few hours of morning sun every day. Pampered plant!

Re: Musa Ice Cream Blue Java grow and taste report
 

He didn't mention anything about the vanilla taste.... IV Organics grows "icecream bananas" and said they have a vanilla taste.... are those tall namwa? Just type in, Iv Organics bananas, and watch the video that is called, "Bananas, after 9 months!" Then come back and tell me what you think...….

Re: Musa Ice Cream Blue Java grow and taste report
 

Awesome taste report! Great job!

I see so much difference in tastings of blue java! Mine also never stick to the peel! My peel also seems thicker and more “bluggoe” like! I have your exact clone of blue java now and hope to taste it soon! Although I’m sure they are synonymous. Mine are always a mild sweet flavor! Some may say a “bland” sweet. I love them! I love namwa also! It’s a toss up comparing them! Namwa overall wins! Namwa is one of my top producers! Can’t go wrong with namwa!

I have even questioned if I was crazy and sent fruit to friends who like them more than me! Haha. I too am thinking it may be a climate issue? I have colder winters but rest of the year it is HOT!! On the west cost the temp swings aren’t as big. Not as hot and humid?

I always recommend people grow namwa before blue java and over blue java! Blue java is more of a rare collectors plant. I can name at least 5 and maybe 10 varieties that are better than blue java in taste!

And finally neither blue java nor namwa taste like vanilla or ice cream! They can be creamy maybe but I hate the word “ice cream banana” shouldn’t even be used! The closest thing to a vanilla tasting banana is praying hands!

Re: Musa Ice Cream Blue Java grow and taste report
 

Well put.

Re: Musa Ice Cream Blue Java grow and taste report
 

What kind of banana do you you think IV organics has?