I want some credit. Despite disliking bananas in general, I've given them quite a few tries over the years. Witness my post on dried banana snacks on June 17th, 2023, my post on banana "milk" on April 25th, 2020, and one about unusual fresh bananas on June 2nd, 2018. (Although I do like their close cousins, plantains, probably because they're usually cooked.) This is yet another chance for them. Specifically, two banana waters from the Woodstock brand--their blueberry kind, and their chocolate one.
The Thai part of this title was because the bananas were grown there. Other than that, though, Thailand doesn't really figure into the Woodstock brand. Woodstock is a brand of the United Natural Foods, Inc. company, usually abbreviated as UNFI. The roots of this firm date back to the 1970's. In 1973 Norman Cloutier started a company called Cornucopia Natural Foods, in Providence, Rhode Island, which quickly became a wholesale distributer. Across the country, in Auburn, California, another guy named Michael Funk opened up Mountain People's Warehouse three years later. This business, which handled organic produce, rapidly became a hugely successful distributer in the West. Twenty years later, in 1996, the two companies merged, becoming United Natural Foods. And, since they were leaders in the organic/natural foods industries on the West coast, and the East coast, combining them resulted in a company with a national reach. During the next few years, UNFI bought up some other businesses, mostly organic distributers like Albert's Organics, Source Organic, and Blooming Prairie. And in 2018 they acquired the SUPERVALU company. As of now, UNFI owns at least eight brands, including Equaline, Essential Everyday, Culinary Circle, Wild Harvest, Field Day, Stone Ridge Creamery, Shoppers Value, and, of course, Woodstock. All told the company makes over 170 non-GMO products, and over 160 organic products. (Left unsaid is if any of their wares use GMOs. Presumably not?) Their total product line includes breakfast foods, condiments, frozen fruit, frozen vegetables, pickled vegetables, frozen pastas, nut and seed butters, sugars and sweeteners, rice bites, tofu, and, for some reason, charcoal. They also reportedly utilize farms located in over 25 countries around the world, including, obviously, Thailand.
Woodstock organic banana water, blueberry flavor: It had a dark brown, cloudy color, and its odor was both banana-y and blueberry-ish. The texture was a bit thick--kind of between a water and a milkshake. The taste was....surprisingly good. Apparently the blueberry juice is doing a lot of heavy lifting in this drink, because this mix worked. And I could still detect the banana flavor, but the blueberry somehow enhanced and smoothed it out. I would recommend this.
Woodstock organic banana water, chocolate flavor: The color of this one was brown, and the smell was just banana-y, not really chocolate-y. The texture was like the first one, thickish. I could, though, taste both of these flavors. This one was just okay. The mix did improve the banana flavor, certainly, but I would have liked a stronger chocolate taste. And masking the bananas more would also have helped. So it wasn't as good as the previous one, but it was still decent. I would recommend this one, too, but only slightly.
So, these drinks were significantly better than I predicted going in. I fully expected to dislike or even hate these, and I figured a drain pour might even be in the cards. But sometimes when you gamble you win. Every so often, I like banana-flavored products.
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