Banana Ripeness EXPLAINED! When to buy vs When to eat: SUPERCHEF VS SUPERMARKET

Mar 13, 2026 · 2:39

Summary

Bananas aren't rocket science. But here's what blows most people's minds: Darnell breaks down exactly which ripeness stage you need based on when you're actually eating them. Green means Sunday. Brown spots mean today. Shopping once a week? You gotta buy different phases, not just one random hand. He's got genius hacks too, like throwing bananas in a paper bag with an apple to speed up ripening, plus the surprising truth that you don't need organic bananas. It's "Banana 101" that'll make you look like a produce wizard at your local supermarket.

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All right

So, in this episode, Super Chef Supermarket, we we're going to expose you to a lot of fruits, vegetables, everything

Show you how to pick them, how to clean them, how to store them

But let's go with something you already know

Bananas

We're going to start here first

So, bananas are

easy

Green unripened, not ready to go

We got down here, you come a little further right here

This is ripe

You see the green up here close to the stem? It's ripe, but it's firm still

The green lets you know it's still firm

But the further we go down, which I don't really have any like ready

to go today

This is right now

You see it has the brown spots on it

This is ripe and ready

Still a little firm though

A fully ripened, sweetened to the max banana will not have any green on it yet

So therefore, the key to bananas is people have been picking them forever

This is nothing new to people.

The question is, how do you shop for bananas? If you grocery shop once a week, you're most likely coming in and you need some of these

But the question is, you're not going to have no bananas to eat

Well, this one's good

These ones ain't

But this is this whole hand of bananas is not made for somebody

that's right now trying to eat

So, if you shop once a week, you need to buy different ready to go bananas

I may buy some green ones that's ready for Sunday

I may come down here, buy a hand of bananas like this that's going to be ready in 2 3 days

And then tomorrow, my kids love bananas, so I would need some

bananas that are ready to go tomorrow

Like, I can't wait

I'm not investing in fruit now

My fruit needs to be ready to go today

So, those are some of the small things about bananas

But just remember, different phases for different things

Like, I love cutting up bananas and putting them on their um yogurt

So,

if I was doing that, I wouldn't do the most super ripen one because it's going to be a little mushy

So, just know that bananas matter in when you're picking them based on when you're going to use them

And also know that when you store them, don't store them by any other fruit because it'll make it spoil

faster

And lastly, and shortly, do not forget, this is the only one of the only fruits that I think you don't need to buy organic

I would just buy regular bananas

There are some fruits I say get organic

This is not one of them

So, I don't tell you to waste your money, waste your time, but just make sure if

you need those bananas the next day, and sometimes all they have is this, then just go ahead, get you a paper bag, put your bananas in there with an apple or an orange

It will release the fumes that will help ripen that banana in a day

That's it

Banana 101.