GraceKennedy has been an institution in Caribbean kitchens for generations. Over the decades the brand became known for its sturdy food items: sauces and canned meats, condiments and soup seasonings. But in a modern world where work hours are indefinite, today’s working professional simply has no time to devote to the notoriously labour-intensive preparations behind favourite Jamaican dishes.

Grace has taken note of this and, in recent years, has introduced lines of “instant” products onto supermarket shelves. Stovetop favourites like cornmeal porridge, the award-winning hominy porridge and seasoned rice can be ready in the beep of a microwave.

Grace has gone one step further and is introducing a baked Sunday favourite for the instant gratification set — the classic banana bread.

“It’s specially made to taste like the old-time Jamaican banana bread,” says Grace General Brand Manager Omar Spence. “But we’ve made it easier for that consumer who doesn’t have the time to go step-by-step through the process.”

Easier indeed. A traditional banana bread recipe calls for butter, sugar, eggs, a smattering of various powders and spices, bananas of course, and at least an hour of baking time. Grace’s modern take: bread mix; oil; water; bananas (think adding your own fruits); bake and eat.

The sharp eye will notice that even in this easy-to-use mix, aspiring bakers must still crush in fresh bananas themselves.

“We could’ve gone and put in a banana flavour ourselves,” says Spence, “but we wanted the consumer to have that authentic taste. We’ve identified the home-made taste aspect as very important.”

“Plus,” Spence adds, “we’ve found that someone crushing the bananas themselves was not very time-consuming.”

The Grace Banana Bread mix was first released to expatriate markets in the US and Canada — groups chronically homesick for local favourites — in the first quarter of last year. Feedback was very positive, Spence says.

The bread mix was released locally in December of last year to select supermarkets. A more extensive roll-out is expected for June.