ThisIsHowIVegan

I bought me a box of Turbana Baby Bananas for the first time at a super great price, but am curious of the texture they should be when ripe. Currently, they all have light black spots (the reason I got them at a great price), and some are even falling right off the bunch when you pick them up. I eat standard US store-bought cavadesh bananas on the regular (about 20-30 a day), and I like them littered with spots so they are super sweet, but the consistency I'm seeing inside the baby bananas is not at all similar to that of cavadesh when at a similar ripening stage. Although they have quite a few spots, the baby bananas are still very firm, especially near the core. Also, the peel comes off without splitting (and by this I mean what would happen if you peeled an unripe banana), but it seems to "stick" to the actual flesh of the banana. The taste I'm getting isn't that of an unripe banana, but it's really not sweet like a ripe banana. I can't really describe the exact taste I'm getting.

Are these are supposed to taste as sweet as a ripened cavadesh, or more mild?

Is the consistency supposed to be firm or softer like a ripened cavadesh?

Are these simply just not ripe enough for my sweet tooth yet?


I doubt this plays a huge part, but something that may be worth noting is that I usually only eat organic cavadesh bananas, and the Turbana Baby Bananas are obviously not organic. Perhaps I'm used to the more subtle, natural taste and sweetness of organic cavadesh, so much that the baby banana flavor just seems foreign?

Abnshrek

They should be sweet enough once the whole peel is black.. :^)

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I'm a Nannerhead :^)

ThisIsHowIVegan

Okay. I guess I'll just have to battle the surface mold (my apartment gets super moist in the winter) that is forming while waiting for them to ripen.

venturabananas

Your description makes them sound different from what is typically sold as baby bananas. Even with no brown spots, I find them more squishy than Cavendish. They are typically very soft, sweet, and with a nice floral aroma that is lacking in Cavendish.

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sunfish

Why would you get a special price unless they're ripe or over ripe ?

TURBANA

venturabananas

Now that I think about it, I did have some that never ripened properly and sound a lot like the ones you are eating. I think they were either harvested too early, or maybe kept to cold at some point.

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Lancelot

The Baby bananas I picked up were very sweet, with a more firm texture. They were a little resistant to getting yellow, but they did eventually get there. I got a bag full of them in a 99 cent reduced shopping cart, otherwise they are $1.39 a pound. I bought two just to try them out at that price, but was overjoyed to get the less than perfect ones, because there was more than enough good ones to make it worth the effort of sorting through them. Plus the bruised ones still make good banana muffins.

ThisIsHowIVegan

I picked up the bananas from a wholesale warehouse market in my area. I got 15lbs. of the babies for $2.00, so decided to give them a go. The wholesale place I get my fruit at sells overly ripe (perfectly ripe to me) fruit as "seconds" just because it usually still has to sit on the shelf for a while after being purchased if sold for resale. Since I'm consuming the fruit myself, I usually score amazing deals just because they want the fruit out of their hands, and are willing to take whatever they can get for it.

I'm thinking that perhaps what venturabananas said about being harvested too early or kept too cold may be the problem here. I've had standard Cavendish that have stayed brown-ish while still getting spotty, and I assumed it was a storage problem. These babies are not really super yellow with spots, but not really brown either, which is why I question if they are a poor batch or just not ripened fully. There were regular Cavendish also on sale that same day that were somewhat spotty with that lingering brown color, but I really didn't pay much attention to it since I was stocked with organics at home.