Artificial banana flavoring was common in the U.S. long before real bananas.

Artificial banana flavoring was first sold in the United States around the 1850s, predating the widespread availability of the tropical fruit itself by more than two decades. Bananas were a known commodity in the United States for most of the 19th century, as the first recorded shipment arrived in New York City in 1804. But those shipments were rare and limited, and the fruit remained a highly desirable exotic luxury that few Americans had access to. 

In an effort to capitalize on these culinary curiosities, a so-called “banana essence” was created and sold in the U.S. by 1855. This flavoring was added to sugar candy and marketed as a purportedly authentic alternative to the fruit itself before advances in shipping and refrigeration made it easier to import bananas en masse.

Bananas are technically classified as a berry.

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Bananas are botanically berries. All berries have seeds and pulp, the latter of which is known scientifically as “pericarp.” In bananas and other berries, the pericarp is divided into the exocarp (the skin), mesocarp (the part most often eaten), and endocarp (which envelops the seeds).

Real bananas only became widely available in the United States beginning in the 1870s. As noted by historian John Soluri in his 2005 book Banana Cultures, the fruit was slowly but surely introduced to the country through Central America via small-scale farms in Cuba and Jamaica. Bananas were later unveiled to the masses at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition of 1876, where they were wrapped in foil and sold for a dime each. The fair helped the formerly exotic fruit gain widespread popularity throughout the U.S. decades after the artificial flavor first came on the scene.

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