Barnana Original Organic Chewy Banana Bites, Packed In Santa Monica California – Various Grocery and Health Food Stores Approx. $5.95 (40g Bag)
Whilst I’m not usually one for snacks, discovering these semi-dehydrated banana bits has been a bit of an epiphany for me.
Always searching for a healthy way to satiate our son’s hunger when he requires a little something to eat between meals, I recently came across these Barnana Bites at No Frills. As it turns out our wee guy is not so fond of these as he thinks that they “look like poo poo”, so one afternoon, while he was in his swimming class, I was left with a small bag of these all to myself.
To give him some credit, I have to hand it to him, they do look rather suspect, but if one can put their appearance aside there is a whole load of extreme tastiness compacted into these tiny partly-dried pieces of bananas. As soon as you open the bag one will notice that they do smell strongly of ripe bananas, but it’s really once you get them in your mouth and start masticating that they begin to explode with an seriously intense (and natural) banana flavour. The texture is not quite as dry as I had at first expected, and despite being pleasantly chewy they are also remarkably juicy.
So I started wholeheartedly enjoying them, and the next thing I knew I looked down into my hand and I had finished the entire bag. Seeing as I rarely eat snacks, I was quite surprised by what had just happened.
The bananas that become these delicious snacks are up-cycled from those deemed unsuitable for the organic banana industry due to cosmetic imperfections, being too overripe for international transport, or not exactly the right size. So as well as being a fantastic source of potassium and fibre, these snacks also help to tackle the food-waste that the banana industry is notorious for.
These also come in a variety of flavours (peanut butter, chocolate, and coconut), but I haven’t tried those yet. I guess I’ll pick some of those up next week.
Highly recommended.
(Five out of a possible five apples)
Edinburgh-born/Toronto-based Sommelier, consultant, writer, judge, and educator Jamie Drummond is the Director of Programs/Editor of Good Food Revolution… And he has found a new favourite.
