A photo on Instagram has ignited a passionate debate among fruit lovers about the perfect stage of banana ripeness. 

The image shows a spectrum of bananas, numbered from 1 to 15, ranging from bright green to heavily spotted brown.

Each number represents a different stage of ripeness, from totally unripe to banana-bread-ready brown.

Naturally, it’s prompted people to declare their preferences in the comments. 

But I decided to use this opportunity to see where the Kidspot team sat on this debate, so I could secretly judge them.

“Lucky number 7 is by far the superior banana, although 6 and 8 will both work. The minute a banana gets fluffy, it’s time to go. Dots are a dead giveaway. Vomit,” said Em.

This comment echoed the sentiment of many others, who agreed that bananas with spots (a.k.a 10 onwards) were well past their prime.

“7 for sure,” Leah chimed in. “6 would still have that dry taste where it sticks to the roof of your mouth.”

Then Jordanna said she preferred her bananas in the “8-9” range and said she follows the rule of “if it doesn’t peel easily, it’s a no-go.”

Ally agreed that this was the ideal ripeness as well, “so it’s not too ripe but not smushy and gross.”

Meanwhile, Joel added to the chat in an unhelpful way and simply said he “didn’t like bananas” no matter how ripe or unripe they were.

While his comment caused a flurry of “are you crazy?!” responses for a while, it was Clara’s comment that really shocked people. 

“10,” she simply stated. 

Clara, you can’t just drop that, provoke/intrigue everyone and then go back to your work.

We need answers, girl.

“Are you… baking with it?” I probed.

“Nope,” she re-emerged. “I just like to smush it on top of things.”

It was then that I knew I had found an ally. 

If you haven’t already guessed, I, too, am a mushy banana lover. 

(Why do I feel like I’m in AA right now?)

But here me out. The best part about eating fruit is that it’s sweet, right?

And a 10 gives you that.

I feel like a little monkey eating my little sweet banana and it just hits the spot like you know a 7 just never will.

Case closed, fight me in the comments.