The Banana Experience

The Banana Experience was born out of a simple idea: “To give everyone a new and exciting experience with an all-time favorite fruit, the banana".

The Banana Experience was first conceptualized in late 2007 by its founder, Gerald S. Abarca out of his passion and love for the banana fruit, given its delicious taste and numerous health benefits. The initial concept was to bring inside the mall the banana fruit through the popular Philippine street foods, the Turon and Banana Que. The original concept name of The Banana Experience at the time was even called “The Turon Experience”. Realizing that the popular street food may not sell enough as it is, through endless product research and development, the Turon and Banana Que recipe were perfected and taken to a whole new level in terms of quality and taste. They were even made more interesting with various dips and flavors.

One other product that was gaining tremendous popularity in the USA at the time was the frozen banana. During the study trip of the founder to the USA in 2008, after trying the frozen banana, it became his instant favorite. With fresh bananas covered with chocolate and various goodies like chocolate chip cookies, Oreo cookies, crushed peanuts and more, the founder figured that it would be a sure hit among Filipinos as well. This gave him an idea to include the frozen banana in the product mix, together with other popular banana products like the Banana Split and Banana Smoothies. In late 2008, the founder decided to change the name from “The Turon Experience” to what it is known now as “The Banana Experience.”

After a year of extensive research and development here in the Philippines and in North America, the founder went home to finally launch The Banana Experience. On January 2009, he teamed up with Mascy C. Cabuhat, his friend and classmate from MBA who is also an expert in brand/marketing management, to further market the brand and to launch the first ever branch of The Banana Experience targeted in Alabang area. Through this partnership, The Banana Experience team was born and other new products were introduced as well such as the delicious Turon Delight made of Turon topped with ice cream and syrup, plus another Filipino favorite dessert, the Saba Con Hielo.

On July 28, 2009, The Banana Experience’s first ever branch located at Festival Supermall Alabang Branch was soft-launched. After just a few days since it opened, The Banana Experience already gained huge popularity and loyal followings in the South, and was already invited and featured on popular TV shows. On August 15, 2009, The Banana Experience was officially launched, declaring August 15 the Official Banana Day! To date, The Banana Experience is on its way to opening new branches in Quezon City and Makati Area through its company-owned branches, plus other areas in Metro Manila and nearby provinces through company franchises.