The old bananas from the 50s were a variety called Gros Michel (Big Mike) and they got a blight. They are rare now, you can still find them if you feel like trekking into the jungle to find them but mass production is impossible because of the blight. The ones they replaced them with were a type called the cavendish banana and it was considered a “junk banana” meaning it lacked flavor. But it had the most important characteristics, it could be grown on existing plantations as-is and it could withstand long shipping times without spoiling quickly, which the old good bananas could also do but most could not. So we now have the junk banana. I was born after the old ones went away so I never had them. I’ve sometimes wondered if banana flavored candies are somehow reminiscent of them because they taste nothing like modern bananas.
Seems like the Gros Michel bananas could be a profitable specialty item if they really do taste better than the cavendish.