“On a traffic light green means go and yellow means yield, but on a banana it’s just the opposite. Green means hold on, yellow means go ahead, and red means where the hell did you get that banana at…”

Mitch Hedberg (American comedian)

A little over a week ago I made my trip to Morgantown’s new Kroger. While I was there, I picked up something a little unusual: red bananas. They were tiny compared to the regular Cavendish bananas, only about 4 inches long, which was quite cute. I decided to give them a try.

(via)

After I got home, I did a little research. The Costa Rican red banana (which is what I purchased) is a deep reddish purple color when ripe, and can be used in all the same ways as the more common Cavendish. They are available year-round, which is especially nice, and will ripen at room temperature. (via) I also learned that the proper term for a bunch of bananas is a “hand” and that a single fruit is referred to as a “finger.”

When it came time to eat the bananas, I found I liked the smaller size, since it made them ideal for snacking. The flavor was not noticeably different from other bananas; perhaps a tad more sweet. The flesh of the fruit looked to be the same sort of cream color as a regular Cavendish, not the pinkish color that was mentioned in other articles online.

While outcries that our beloved yellow Cavendish banana will soon go extinct may be overstated, it’s still not impossible that a disease could wipe out the entire population, so it’s worth exploring the options! I consider the red bananas a success, and at 79 cents a pound, that meant I got the whole hand of bananas for 89 cents! A definite winner.