Short Stuff: Artificial Banana Flavor

This episode explores the surprising truth behind why banana candy tastes nothing like real bananas—and it turns out the chemists actually nailed it, just with the wrong banana. The hosts discover that artificial banana flavoring was created in 1912 to mimic the Gros Michel, a now-extinct banana variety that dominated the market until Panama disease wiped it out in the 1950s, forcing the industry to switch to the Cavendish banana we eat today. Since nobody alive today has tasted a Gros Michel, the old-fashioned banana flavor seems weird and inaccurate, but a Hawaiian grower and the BBC confirmed that artificial banana flavoring actually tastes exactly like the original fruit it was designed to replicate.