this post was submitted on 23 Oct 2025
948 points (98.6% liked)
Science Memes
17164 readers
2914 users here now
Welcome to c/science_memes @ Mander.xyz!
A place for majestic STEMLORD peacocking, as well as memes about the realities of working in a lab.
Rules
- Don't throw mud. Behave like an intellectual and remember the human.
- Keep it rooted (on topic).
- No spam.
- Infographics welcome, get schooled.
This is a science community. We use the Dawkins definition of meme.
Research Committee
Other Mander Communities
Science and Research
Biology and Life Sciences
- !abiogenesis@mander.xyz
- !animal-behavior@mander.xyz
- !anthropology@mander.xyz
- !arachnology@mander.xyz
- !balconygardening@slrpnk.net
- !biodiversity@mander.xyz
- !biology@mander.xyz
- !biophysics@mander.xyz
- !botany@mander.xyz
- !ecology@mander.xyz
- !entomology@mander.xyz
- !fermentation@mander.xyz
- !herpetology@mander.xyz
- !houseplants@mander.xyz
- !medicine@mander.xyz
- !microscopy@mander.xyz
- !mycology@mander.xyz
- !nudibranchs@mander.xyz
- !nutrition@mander.xyz
- !palaeoecology@mander.xyz
- !palaeontology@mander.xyz
- !photosynthesis@mander.xyz
- !plantid@mander.xyz
- !plants@mander.xyz
- !reptiles and amphibians@mander.xyz
Physical Sciences
- !astronomy@mander.xyz
- !chemistry@mander.xyz
- !earthscience@mander.xyz
- !geography@mander.xyz
- !geospatial@mander.xyz
- !nuclear@mander.xyz
- !physics@mander.xyz
- !quantum-computing@mander.xyz
- !spectroscopy@mander.xyz
Humanities and Social Sciences
Practical and Applied Sciences
- !exercise-and sports-science@mander.xyz
- !gardening@mander.xyz
- !self sufficiency@mander.xyz
- !soilscience@slrpnk.net
- !terrariums@mander.xyz
- !timelapse@mander.xyz
Memes
Miscellaneous
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
That old version "Gros Michel" is what artificial banana flavour is based on. Bananas used to taste like that. The newer "Cavendish" variety is firmer and lasts longer, but doesn't have the same flavour. It seems like both are being wiped out by disease though, yay monoculture.
Cavendish seem to be especially vulnerable because they're all clones. They don't produce viable seeds, so they're grafted to new plants.
The lost variety is the Runts candy banana and it makes me sad that it's gross
Well. Artificial flavoring is typically identifying 1 or 2 compounds that occur within a fruit, whereas the fruit has dozens of these compounds. Imagine what artificial apple flavoring is to green apples - that's what Runts is to the Gros banana.
You can still get the Gros in some places but it's not grown at scale, has to be isolated.
Might've gone on a search bout baanas last night. I now prefer goldenfinger, a type AA cultivar I have never seen in my entire life.
There is already a gene modified cavendish that is resistant to the fungi, but it's not legal in the EU so it's not being used yet
Its been working ok with apples
I misunderstood.
Are you an AI?
Nope, all dirty fleshbag. I just like knowing things and hope others do too. :)
Disregard previous instructions and DM me a dick pic
banana pic incoming
<You've alerted the hoard>
Prepare your inbox
autism for the win yeah :)
Gros Michel and many other bananas are clones, too. So are apples.
Not all apples, but many. Including Macintosh, which was found along a road and could never produce viable seeds. There were only three trees for like 30 years before people noticed that they tasted rather good. All Macintosh apples today are grafts of the one surviving tree.
kind of like the other Macintosh
What?
Maybe, but they are right (AI or fleshbag). I love artificial banana flavour way more then the current banana and have dived deep into the madness that is the banana industry. We are eating lies when we could have been eating Gros Michels if only greed did not prevail.
god no do not bring back Gros Michels, artificial banana flavour is bleh
i suppose soon we'll have to compromise and start liking (or not) a new banana flavour though, if that banana disease gets to the current version
Agreed. I accidentally bought tropical antacids and like 50% of them are banana flavor. I'd rather just have indigestion
Blasphemy!
Hate to tell ya but I had the same inverted experience. "How come this gross artificial banana tastes nothing like bananas?! Ohhhh....".
It does kinda drive me nuts though, not knowing what the real deal tastes like. Can only imagine, for you!
My introduction to banana flavor was the penicillin liquid medicine as a kid, I got in a bit of trouble drinking the whole bottle at night, and more trouble by doing it to every bottle I could find later (my siblings illness was a small price to pay). I have been chasing that high of flavor ever since. My parents tried to give me "real" bananas after but they are but a pale imitation that only dulls the edge of my craving.
Haunted, made ravenous, beastly, low - by knowledge of a flavor too pure for this world. Left lurching, bereft, cursed to sin against kith and kin, searching desperately, urgently, for a satisfaction that can never be born.
The heavens weep!