In Japanese, it's being described as "Mongee" -- the "super" banana. It looks just like any other banana, but it's supposed to be softer and sweeter -- and its peel is edible¹.

 

这种香蕉的日文名叫做“Mongee”，即“超级”香蕉的意思。超级香蕉和其他香蕉看起来一样，但号称口感更软更甜，且外皮可以食用。
 

 

Even though they cost around $6 each, the special bananas have had no trouble attracting customers to the one place in the country where they're sold, the Tenmaya store in the southwestern city of Okayama.

 

The technique used by D&T Farm to create the Mongee banana is called "freeze thaw² awakening³." The process involves starting banana trees out in an environment that's nearly minus-80 degrees Fahrenheit⁴, then moving the trees with their still-ripening bananas to a more temperate⁵ climate of around 80 degrees -- an environment banana trees typically grow in the entire time.

 

The extreme temperature variation puts the banana's growth into a sort of hyperspeed mode, so the peel doesn't fully⁶ mature, leaving it with a texture⁷ like "lettuce," a D&T Farm spokesman says, per the New York Post.

 

Taste-testers for the RocketNews24 site in Japan say the banana fruit itself -- which has about 5 more grams of sugar per banana than the regular version -- boasts a "very strong tropical flavor" akin⁸ to that of a pineapple. But the peel apparently⁹ lacks any specific taste.

 

Although it's said not to have a "strange texture" and is "fairly easy to eat," the tasters add there "isn't much flavor"; one experimenter even said it was somewhat bitter, though not as much so as the peels of regular bananas, which he also tasted.

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