Banana Mozart

This is the season for classical music! Listening to Mozart may (or may not) increase your intelligence, but one thing we know for sure: Playing that lovely music in the fields helps bananas to grow and Japan (where beautiful fruits and vegetables command high prices) is taking advantage of this fact.

The fruit company Toyoka Chuo Seika shipped out its first batch of "Mozart Bananas" to supermarkets in Japan. They aren’t grown in Japan (the weather isn’t tropical enough for that)–they are arrive in Japan as ordinary unripe bananas from the Philippines and are exposed to Mozart’s music as they ripen.

This isn’t the first example of music-inspired food in that country: Some of the foods and drinks that have been exposed to classical music include soy sauce in Kyoto and udon noodles in Tokyo, as well as miso and mushrooms in other parts of Japan. Some food stores are even selling "Beethoven Bread." Rice used in sake has also been exposed to classical music. In the Japan Times, Daniel Krieger quotes brewery owner Ohara Shuzo as saying, "We found Mozart works best for sake, and that’s why we use only his music."

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