Gros Michel banana
Musa acuminata (AAA, Gros Michel subgroup) · Tropical fruit
Top 10 pairings
The Gros Michel — "Big Mike" — was the banana that built the global trade, the large, sweet, full-bodied dessert fruit that filled markets in Europe and North America from the late 19th century until the 1950s. A triploid (AAA) clone of Musa acuminata, it was prized for a fuller flavour, a more perfumed aroma and a thick, hard-wearing skin that shipped superbly. Panama disease drove it from the export trade, and the milder Cavendish took its place.
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. These cues are Banana's, and hold across its varieties; where this one differs, its own page says so.
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