How a crazy idea put us on a serious mission
Diana’s Bananas started in the mid-80s, as the delicious result of an inspired whim. There in our booth at The Taste of Chicago, the city’s yearly open-air food fest, we hit upon the idea of freezing a fresh, ripe banana and giving it a bath in delicious chocolatier-grade melted bar chocolate. We each took a bite and passed it around. Our taste buds leapt for joy... and we sprung into action.
We sent our team to the local supermarkets and cleaned them out of bananas. Around the clock, we melted chocolate, peeled bananas, inserted sticks, froze the bananas and dunked them in chocolate... oh, and we also sold the living daylights out of them. Ten days and 25,000 bananas later, we knew we had a hit on our hands.
From there, we became weekend warriors, bringing our bananas out in force to the various street fairs and music festivals that make up summertime in Chicago and the outlying areas. Everywhere we went, the response was the same: “Can I buy these in stores?” There was even one smart fellow who wheeled up a cooler and told us to fill it with our frozen bananas, no matter what it cost him.
It became apparent that people felt as strongly about Banana Babies as we did, and getting them in stores was the next step. Just like with any small business, there were hurdles to overcome (not with our beloved banana; we had that recipe worked out almost immediately) but eventually we took our rightful place in the grocer’s freezer—and your home.
Let’s face it, in a business like ours you can’t take yourself too seriously. Just look at our packaging, or this website, for that matter. There are pictures of chimps all over the place. But there is one thing we’re unwaveringly serious about—producing the world’s best chocolate-dipped frozen banana™.