Banana
Musa acuminata · Tropical fruit
8 varietiesTop 10 pairings
Bananas are long, curved fruit from a giant tropical plant, eaten sweet and ripe out of hand, fried or boiled green as a starchy staple, and baked overripe into bread and cake. Export bananas are nearly all Cavendish.
Picking a good onedrag
UnderripeOverripe
All yellowBuy itSweet but still firm, so it slices cleanly over cereal or eats well out of hand.
SkinEven yellow, green tips gone
FleshFirm with a little spring
StemCrown drying, fingers tight
SmellLight, clean banana
Reading a just ripe one. Move the slider and the rest of this page — nutrition, pairings — updates with it.
What you get from one
64%
Edible part
118 g · peel off
184 g
Weight each
each one
Keeping ittap a temperature
Chilled green fruit greys and never ripens. Ripe fruit keeps 5–7 days chilled; the peel blackens.
90-95%
Humidity
Open air, unbagged
Airflow