Why do so many people think that banana candy tastes nothing like bananas? Sneak Break breaks it down for us in their video.
Here is a summary of their explanation: There was a variety of banana called the Gros Michel that was popular before the 1960s. A lot of banana candy flavoring was based on the way that the Gros Michel tasted. The Gros Michel was attacked by a pathogen called Panama Disease and nearly wiped out. When you taste banana-flavored candy, it's likely that you're tasting something that was based on the Gros Michel variety of banana, and many people born after 1960 have never eaten a Gros Michel Banana.
It's hard to imagine the flavor of a real banana tasting anything like artificial banana candy, such as banana-flavored Laffy Taffy. I've always enjoyed artificial banana flavor, but have always wondered why it tastes the way it does. What do you think? Has the flavor of banana candy always been unrealistic, or was there a time when it resembled a real-life variety of banana more closely?
