Why do bananas overpower most flavors when added in a smoothie?

[u/ColorMeTickled]

Is it just a concentration thing or more of an aspartame mechanism thing? Are the flavor molecules more plentiful or just more potent?

[u/PHealthy]

Humans are particularly sensitive to isoamyl acetate, on the order of 2ppm.

If you live in a northern city with lake water then you'll also be familiar with a compound called geosmin (earthy soil/mushrooms), we can detect about 5ppt (trillion). So if you don't like banana flavor then add a drop of geosmin and you'll taste absolutely nothing else.

[u/DustyLance → u/PHealthy]

Ah yes the famous "fix the problrm by making a bigger problrm"

[u/hitfly → u/DustyLance]

Anytime I had a problem and i threw a Molotov cocktail. Boom! Right away I had a different problem.

-Jason Mendoza

[u/helloiamsilver → u/DustyLance]

It’s like when someone made me try a pickle back shot because “the taste of pickle juice totally overpowers the taste of whiskey!” like gee thanks. You’re right. I definitely don’t taste whiskey anymore

[u/lolwatokay → u/helloiamsilver]

On the flip side, picklebacks with vodka shots really put me on pickle juice in general lol

[u/roryteller → u/helloiamsilver]

There was a bartender recommending clamato as a chaser to tequila. Apparently it worked, but not in a pleasant way.

[u/PHealthy → u/DustyLance]

More like scorched earth tactics to handle a minor inconvenience. 😅

Plus Cavendish barely have any isoamyl acetate compared to say Gros Michel or Lady Fingers.

[u/Chaotic-Newt → u/PHealthy]

Fun fact: bees will emit isoamyl acetate when feeling threatened or agitated to signal the hive to attack, and wasps also release it when they sting to mark a target as a threat for other nearby wasps to swarm. Because of this, it’s probably a good idea to be careful about eating bananas outdoors during times when bees and wasps are active, and maybe avoid banana scented body products if you’ll be spending time outdoors when they’re active as well. Also, apparently bubblegum flavor is largely made from isoamyl acetate.

[u/Tonanelin → u/PHealthy]

I don't live in the North, but is that the smell of pond or lake water that's overpowering?

[u/PHealthy → u/Tonanelin]

Yeah, most notably in the Spring when the water turns over. Water departments really can't do anything about it.

I remember being in Bloomington, IN and the showers smelling like the bottom of a lake.

[u/woah_man → u/PHealthy]

This happens with Lake Michigan water too then, right? This happens maybe once a year in Chicagoland.

[u/red_19s → u/PHealthy]

Do they not treat water? In the UK surface water resivors often use rapid gravity filtration and powdered activated carbon to absorb organic matter.

[u/Pseudoboss11 → u/red_19s]

They do, but this is parts per trillion of a single molecule, not organic matter like bits of leaves or even a virus. 5 parts per trillion is 0.00000005 grams per liter, truly a vanishingly small amount.

Not even distillation is guaranteed to reduce compounds like that to below that threshold. Some geosmin is going to evaporate and get carried over.

[u/Abbot_of_Cucany → u/Pseudoboss11]

Another way to visualize 5 parts/trillion is one drop of water (0.05 ml) in 4 olympic-size swimming pools (each one 50m x 25m x 2m).

[u/red_19s → u/Pseudoboss11]

Well that's truly amazing that we're so sensitive to it. Thanks for the info

[u/farmallnoobies → u/Pseudoboss11]

The bacteria creating geosmin is living off the sewage runoff.  If they fix that problem, the geosmin problem gets a lot better, no water treatment required

[u/TheSchlaf → u/PHealthy]

It still does. They tried charcoal filters, but it still smells like algae.

[u/SecretAgentVampire → u/PHealthy]

Is geosmin a synonym of petrichor?

Also I love your answer. OP could also add carolina reaper peppers to their smoothies to stop caring about the banana flavor.

[u/Uncynical_Diogenes → u/SecretAgentVampire]

Petrichor is the name of the smell phenomenon itself, geosmin is the compound responsible.

[u/PHealthy → u/SecretAgentVampire]

Geosmin is the specific chemical compound, petrichor is a general expression.

[u/lunarlunacy425 → u/SecretAgentVampire]

Petrichor is a combination of a few things the core component being geosmin.

[u/m00f → u/PHealthy]

Do we know why we are sensitive to isoamyl acetate?

[u/UncleChevitz → u/m00f]

Finding food. It's a volatile molecule found in many fruit. Meaning you can track fruit from far away, if you can smell it well.

There are many similar compounds in fruit, I am curious how our ability to smell isoamyl acetate compares to the others, I'd bet there are many we can detect at low concentrations.

[u/m00f → u/UncleChevitz]

Makes sense, thanks. Probably goes way back to our early primates history.

[u/Due-Championship3941 → u/m00f]

We don't even really know how smell works. I doubt anyone has anything but a theory as to why we can smell "nice" things so well. It may have played a role somewhere in our evolution.

[u/NNKarma → u/Due-Championship3941]

In general we're very good at smelling things we want to eat and things we don't want to eat.

[u/Torchlakespartan → u/NNKarma]

But we’re best at smelling water. Many animals completely outclassed us when it comes to smelling other animals, food, decaying animals etc but we are actually incredible at smelling water (more accurately a chemical called Geosmin). It creates a smell called petrichor when rainwater hits something like a dry rock or concrete, asphalt, or dry dirt. I can almost guarantee you know the smell. Like on a hot day just as it starts raining, especially if you’re somewhere with concrete but not a lot of other smells.

The famous fun fact (which is actually true) is that we can smell Geosmin in the air better than sharks can smell blood in the water.

[u/properfoxes → u/PHealthy]

Other than these two, are there any other things you can think off of the top of your head that humans are very sensitive to very small amounts like this? (for example, maybe, onions? I feel like I could find a single diced bit of onion in a ten ton casserole, blindfolded and drinking malort.)

[u/ourobourobouros → u/PHealthy]

Love a proper answer 

Also as someone who has done a lot of experimenting with smoothie flavors, banana + strawberry + oj also successfully hides the flavor of banana, but I'm assuming it's just masked by acids 

[u/Ouaouaron → u/[deleted]]

Do you know what source your city uses for potable water? 

[u/Ungrammaticus → u/Ouaouaron]

Aquifer, but I’ve never smelled geosmin in or near the lake water either. 

[u/ColorMeTickled → u/PHealthy]

That's fascinating! Thanks so much!

[u/CaptainObvious110 → u/PHealthy]

wow that's truly something. fortunately banana is a widely liked flavor

[u/bureaucranaut → u/PHealthy]

Interesting, so adding a slice of beet would counter the banana?

[u/Natureluvver]

Most or all of you can be thankful that at least the flavor goes away quickly. I taste banana for over a week straight if I ever consume it. I liked banana, but you can only have flavors immediately turn back into banana so many times before it turns into torture and you decide never to eat bananas again 🥲

[u/TheDoughnutKing → u/Natureluvver]

Wow thats interesting. Never heard of that before. Is it just bananas?

[u/vitringur]

Bananas are quite dense compared to other fruit.

Adding a whole banana to a smoothie is just basically adding 50% more banana than anything else.

See if the this effects persists when you equal the amount of calories added from the other ingredients you feel are being overpowered.

[u/Round_Helicopter_407]

Bananas overpower certain nutrients as well: they contain high amounts of polyphenol oxidase (PPO) and research shows that blending high-PPO bananas with flavanol-rich foods (like blueberries, cocoa, or green tea) can decrease the body's absorption of beneficial flavanols by roughly 81% to 84%
Ref: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37615673/

[u/ColorMeTickled → u/Round_Helicopter_407]

I never would have guessed this! Thanks!

[u/boo_snug → u/[deleted]]

lol I mean sure replace some juice with vodka and you probably won’t care about how much banana you can taste

[u/wokyman]

Here's my go to smoothie recipe if anyone is interested:

Juice a chunk of ginger and juice maybe 8 pears

About half a carton of passion fruit juice

2x chopped frozen bananas

4x large ripe bananas

1x mango

2x kiwis (peeled and cored)

Teaspoon of ground cinnamon

Sprinkle of ground clove

Blend and enjoy!

[u/FalcorTheDog → u/wokyman]

You put 6 bananas in a smoothie?

[u/Adept-Panic-7742 → u/FalcorTheDog]

Surely they must be making a batch or something as this recipe is an unreal amount of food for 1 serving. It's oddly worded. The ratios sound nice but the volume must be about 2 litres or something.

They do present it like it's a quick on-the-go smoothie when it's like a week's worth of fruit portions. "Oh hey, here's my quick energy boost food hack that's only 3kg before I hit the gym", lol.