Parable of the Banana

Just an anecdotal mention that over the course of multiple vacations I finally managed to try a Gros Michel some years ago. They're still grown in parts of Africa and Asia.

When you read into the topic, it always sounds like the Cavendish tastes much more bland than the Michel and that the Michel tastes much more like the synthetic banana taste we sometimes find in sweets.

I can't say that it was a huge taste difference when I tried it, though I might just have had bad luck with the specimen.

I've seen several mentions that bananas are dying from some sort of disease. Can somebody explain why this effect has not carried down to grocery stores?

I'd expect the price of store bananas to go up or the stores' supply of bananas to go down, but I haven't witnessed either.

>Eat for sustenance and pleasure, not principle.

I do remember a time when the Red Delicious and Cavendish seemed like the platonic ideals of apples and bananas. But it wasn't some principle of form or color we struggled to maintain against physical reality. They were delicious and plentiful.

Later quality dropped, and later still grocery stores finally expanded their offerings. Now you even find alternate bananas (other than plantains), like the delicious burro banana, which tend to have much better shelf life than the Cavendish, anyway.