Bang Khonthi, Samut Songkhram
Namwa banana
The everyday Thai banana everyone loves
Thailand's kitchen banana: fragrant and mellow-sweet when ripe, lovely fresh and even better in desserts. Grown the organic way, never chemically ripened.
Get to know Namwa banana
Namwa is the Thai home banana, grown in every region of the country. Botanically it belongs to the ABB group. Abroad it's known as Pisang Awak, the most widely grown ABB banana in the world.
Unripe, the flesh is hard and astringent. Once ripe, the skin turns yellow all over with cute brown freckles, the fruit smells lovely, the flesh is mellow and sweet, and it peels easily. Eat it just as it is, or head to the kitchen for bananas in coconut milk, steamed banana cake or sun-dried bananas.
At Catherine Farm our Namwa bananas grow in a diverse, mixed orchard, with no herbicides, no growth accelerators, no chemicals and no chemical ripening agents. The ReCAP farmers' handbook even lists bananas as an intercrop that gives young coconut palms shade and moisture. Read more about regenerative farming.
Would you like bananas from our farm? Send us an email.
Highlights
- An ABB-group banana, known abroad as Pisang Awak
- The most widely grown ABB banana in the world
- Hard and astringent when green; yellow, fragrant, sweet and easy to peel when ripe
- The base of many Thai sweets: bananas in coconut milk, candied bananas, sun-dried bananas and grilled bananas
- Almost every part is useful: the fruit, the leaves and the banana blossom
Handy tips
How to choose, store and enjoy Namwa banana at its best.
How to enjoy
- Eat it fresh as a filling snack
- Make bananas in coconut milk, steamed banana cake or sun-dried bananas
- Slice it over yoghurt or oats, or blend it into a smoothie
- Save very ripe, heavily freckled bananas for banana cake: that's when they smell best
How to choose
- For eating fresh, choose bananas that are yellow all over with a few freckles and a sweet smell
- For bananas in coconut milk, use just-ripe fruit that is still firm, so it won't turn mushy
- For banana cake or sun-dried bananas, use very ripe, well-freckled fruit for more sweetness and aroma
- Green skin means hard, astringent flesh. Leave them at room temperature to ripen first
Storage
- Keep them at room temperature, in the shade and out of the sun. Hanging the whole hand helps prevent bruising
- Don't refrigerate unripe bananas: the cold darkens the peel and slows ripening
- Once ripe, the fridge buys you a few extra days. The peel darkens, but the fruit inside stays tasty
- Too ripe to eat in time? Peel, slice and freeze them for smoothies or baking
Good to know
- Bananas in general contain potassium, about 358 mg per 100 g, plus vitamin B6 and fibre (general banana data from USDA FoodData Central (opens in a new tab))
- A Thai study found that ripe Namwa bananas contain phenolic compounds and flavonoids such as rutin (Molecules, 2022 (opens in a new tab))
