Banana that tastes like alcohol

[Cachetes]

I just ate a banana, and it had a vague but definitely present taste of alcohol to it. It was a very, very ripe banana, though no more ripe than many others that I've eaten in the past. Is it possible that it had begun to ferment?

[LaureltQ]

Absolutely! I was sniffing around in our pantry last night thinking that hubby had knocked a liquor bottle down from the top shelf before I found a bag of lemons with 2 that had begun to mold and rot.

[LorenM]

When life gives you moldy lemons- make lemon wine!

[Midlife]

A little Googling suggests that bananas do, indeed, ferment and are made into beer and other alcoholic beverages in some parts of the world. Each article also mentions the addition of some other agent (flour, for example), so the relationship is not clear, BUT sugars do turn into alcohol via fermentation with many fruits, so the answer is most probably YES.

[ttoommyy]

I'm no scientist, but I've often thought the same. I really do not like overly ripe bananas; I think they taste like cough medicine, which can also be interpreted as tasting like alcohol.