[anotheryou]

I like the story of the artificial banana flavour to be like the old tasteful bananas there where. I guess it's not true, but the story of the banana is simmilar to the fate of the tomato, if not worse, because banas have no seeds, are all clones and the old kind of banana got mostly wiped by some fungi.

[skykooler]

And there is a new breed of the same fungus that is attacking the modern banana - the Cavendish - and as of yet, there is no replacement banana that we can substitute if the Cavendish gets wiped out.

[Nursie]

There are loads of awesome bananas out there, they just either aren't so soft and sweet or don't ship well.

Within the last year I have had lady-finger, apple and Fe'i bananas and various plantains. All delicious!

I want to try red and blue/ice-cream but am having trouble finding them in the UK or on my travels...

[skykooler]

But, as you say, none of these are a good substitute Cavendish, though they may be fine bananas in their own right.

[Nursie]

Apple and lady-finger I have had in the UK, seemed to ship OK and tasted good.

They were much smaller. Red Daccas (the red banana) are commercially available in some countries like Australia, but probably because they grow them.

I think commercial development of a "Cavendish Replacement" ought to be a real plan to diversify the banana business. Monocultures are inherently troublesome. If we could lose this meme in the Europe and North America that there is such a thing as "a banana" and start eating different varieties, I think that would be great.