What is the difference between dole bananas and chiquita bananas?

Answer 1

1st answer: Absolutely Nothing. It's just a name.

2nd answer: None. It is just the name of the company that processed the banana.

3rd answer: This is just anecdotal, of course; and it may sound crazy, but in my personal experience (and that's partly what makes it anecdotal) there might actually be some kind of small difference. My wife thought there was no difference, either, and so was buying DOLE brand for years from the local Safeway store, even though I've always told her that, crazy as it may sound, it seemed that Chiquitas were better. Then, after about the 50th time over the years that I complained to her that the Dole bananas were kind of... well... "wet," is the best word I can think of to describe them... sort of almost-slimy under the skin... about the 50th time over the years that I complained to her about that, I asked her if Chiquita-brand was available, and she said not from the Safeway, but that it was from another store she frequented. I asked her to give the Chiquitas a try; that those were what I grew-up eating back in Chicago all my life, and that they were somehow better. She insisted that I was crazy; that there was no difference, but I talked her into at least trying. For over a year, now, we've gotten nothing but Chiquitas, and the other day she remarked, out of the blue, that I was right; that the Chiquitas were somehow more dry; never slimy or "wet" under the skin like the occasional Dole bunch that we used to get. She also remarked that the Chiquitas are sweeter when they're still kinda' green, whereas the Doles, she said, always taste more bland until they yellow-up. I would have laughed at her for that observation except that it's precisely what I noticed about Chiquita versus Dole over twenty years ago. And, trust me, I never shared the whole sweeter-when-still-green thing with her prior to that moment; so she came-up with that one entirely on her own. So, my overarching point is that maybe -- and I stress that word, because I don't know, for sure, nor can prove it... but I'm suggesting that maybe -- Dole bananas and Chiquita bananas are an ever-so-slightly different type or variety or something; that there's maybe some kind of extremely minor difference between them which only a scientist or otherwise expert in varieties of bananas could explain. Or maybe it's because they're harvested differently or something. Who knows. Like I said, it's entirely anectodal; but I'll go to my grave believing that there's at least SOME kind of difference -- whatever it is -- which makes the Chiquitas more generally "dry" than the Doles. Like I said, I know it sounds crazy, but I can definitely discern at least those two very minor differences. I really can.

4th Answer: I just had to post here to comment about the Chiquita vs Dole bananas. In my experience, the Chiquitas are much tastier bananas, though the Dole bananas seem to be bigger. I would much prefer Chiquita, but it seems stores sell either and only one or the other. Perhaps it's the fertilizer or country the bananas are grown in because I thought all bananas are Cavendish bananas. All I know is, Chiquita bananas are better than Dole. (03/07/2012)