I know that I like (say) Coxes apples, and don't like Golden Delicious.
I like Comice pears, but am less keen on Conference.
But it seems that the shops feel that "a banana, is a banana, is a banana".
But that's patently not true - I love the small, sweet ones from (mainly) the West Indian Islands but cordially dislike the big, boring ones from Costa Rica.
But it's not always that easy to spot the right ones (size/colour/bendiness are pretty variable) and one country may produce both good and less good types.
So why don't they label the fruit by variety as well as origin?
Very few fruits/vegetables are sold by variety. Peas, carrots, plums (mostly) oranges, strawberries, tomatoes etc. If you look at the varieties available as seeds for carrots etc they are rarely sold as such.
//Bananas are all Clones
Unless you've had the good fortune to chomp down on a banana in the tropics, it's likely that all the bananas you have ever eaten were genetic twins. That's because most supermarkets only sell one banana variety – the Cavendish. The Cavendish doesn't reproduce by itself. To propagate, the Cavendish relies on humans to plant a cutting of another Cavendish.13 Selling clones has it advantages—they’re all the same size, and they all ripen at the same rate. Writer Dan Koeppel summed it up this way: “The Cavendish is the fruit equivalent of a fast-food hamburger: efficient to produce, uniform in quality and universally affordable.”14 //
The "ethnic" shops in my area sell plantains but that is all the variety I can think of. A lot of fruit is sold by variety, not just apples, pears, plums, but also strawberries and oranges and melons, so why not bananas ?
Mamy is right about the Cavendish though.
I try never to run out of bananas. They are a quick and nutritious snack, easily portable and make wonderful sandwiches, especially combined with some nice mature cheddar !