IF you’re actually curious, it was because we used to import them, and the importers would dye them red due to discoloration in how they were harvested. Domestic production ramped up in the US and since pistachios didn’t have to travel as far, and because modern harvesting was more mechanized. It was easier to wash, dry, roast and salt them in a shorter time period avoiding the discoloration that required the dye in the first place.
I see, so that’s why they have never been red outside the US
Ok that makes sense because I (a 30+ yo canadian) was so confused.
It’s also about ten years out of date, 25 year olds today probably wouldn’t recognize this
I’m 47 and have never seen this. I only remember pistachios in ice cream but they werent fucking red.
Pistachio ice cream was never red afaik, just the plain/salted nuts in shell. They also used to be way more expensive, so I only remember seeing them a couple times. I mostly just remember the color of my fingers after eating them.
Youre not paying attention like most in here. Or are just looking for another reason to hate on “the others”
https://www.bulkbarn.ca/en/Products/All/Mediterranean-Red-Pistachios-Dry-Roasted-and-Salt
Red pistacios still available in canada right now
What? Where was the indication of hate? I said I was confused. Last time I checked it’s not a moral failing to be confused.
Yes it has and currently is
https://www.bulkbarn.ca/en/Products/All/Mediterranean-Red-Pistachios-Dry-Roasted-and-Salt
Youre all just looking to hate on someone
I’m blocked for some reason and can’t access the page.
Might still be a (North) America thing. All I know is that I’m over 30 and I have never seen red pistaccios in Germany. I remember that as a kid, I didn’t like them but my brothers did and I’m pretty sure, I would remember if they were red. Sorry for spreading all the hate.
Wait, this is real? I thought this was a joke…
Like “Back in my day, bananas were bright purple, but that breed died out.”
I also thought this was a joke until I read the comments. Pistachios have always been pistachio coloured in the rest of the world.
There’s something very American about drowning a perfectly healthy natural product in brightly coloured dye.
Iran died them before export. Not Americans.
Presumably at their request, or at least their approval, since it doesn’t seem to be a thing in any other country. Most products in the US are imported, don’t pass the buck. “Iran forced it on us” goes against absolutely everything else we know about US consumers.
It’s absolutely real; there’s a joke about it in The Naked Gun.
It’s not that there used to be a red variety of pistashio, they were sold coated in this oily red gunk that would stain your fingers pink. That stopped at some point in the late 90’s early 2000s.
There are bananas that are dark red to dark purple, those varieties barely get imported to the US. For some reason the import market is 1-variety-of-bananas-at-a-time-until-it-goes-extinct.
Because most banana varieties aren’t very transport stable.
many different kinds of bananas and plantains
and even the “original banana-flavour”-banana is still around, the kind is called “grand michel” and can still be bought, but is no longer suitable for mass farming (due to some fungi/bacteria vulnerability)
The real answer is that yes, they were red, but no it wasn’t because they were poor quality.
It’s because the world’s largest exporter was Iran, and Iran had a blanket policy of dying their pistachios red.
Nope. It’s real. I was actually thinking about this the other day and just “wondered”. Probably got busy with work and forgot to Google it and then this. I remembered them being red when I was a kid. Now I know why.
There are still some dark purple bananas out there. They are usually less than 1/2 the size of a normal (cavendish?) banana. They don’t taste as good to me but many people love them.
Similiar reason cheddar is orange. Cheesemakers used to die it to cover inconsistences in quality or rot.
At this point, cheddar is almost perfectly homogenous, but people expect it to be orange, so its orange.
At least they use natural ingredients to make it yellow and not red #5.
It was less about hiding rot, and more about making it appear to have a higher fat content.
In the same vein… Maraschino cherries aren’t red, they are golden.
Those are cherries that are not yet Marachino. Light-colored cherries are used because the darker ones don’t bleach enough to look good with the dye they use. Maraschino cherries are whatever color they are dyed with (usually red).
So instead of dying them back to green they chose to make them unholy abominations made with red dye that is known to give cancer? Cool.
Yeah, they should’ve used green dye that gives us cancer, that way they at least have their natural colour.
So if in the 80s I lived in an area that didn’t import them already, say, Fresno, the joke would go over my head? Because I sure as hell don’t remember red pistachios
Holy shit you are pinning my exact experience. I grew up in Fresno CA and have never even seen a red pistachio in my life.
Well howdy neighbor! I grew up a few (not gonna say the amount) miles north of you. If you’re in your mid 40s we might have competed against each other in sports/music/&c. growing up.
Beautiful area, great food, no?
Excellent food and a good cultural mix of people. Melting pot of America for sure. Awful heat though. I left there years ago. Though I return to visit old friends.
Takes me back. The Naked Gun | Red pistachios scene
Care to tke dinghy, Frank? No, I took care of that at the press conference.
I know it’s common for actors to not really eat when filming a scene in which the character is eating but it almost adds to the joke that we never really see them eating the pistachios. They’re just fidgeting with the bags and chewing on nothing.
The shell of the pistachio is naturally a beige color, but it may be dyed red or green in commercial pistachios. Originally, dye was applied to hide stains on the shells caused when the nuts were picked by hand.[51] In the 21st century, most pistachios are harvested by machine and the shells remain unstained.[51] Wikipedia
Well now I’m wondering what those stains were. Did they dye them red because the people picking them had their hands bleeding? We were all just ingesting small amounts of laborer’s blood?
Another commenter said it was the oil on people’s hands
Yes, but as technique improved, there was less blood introduced on average and the pistachios would not be evenly coloured. To preserve the impression of quality, the farms then adopted the policy of wringing the worst performing worker of each batch of their blood to cover the batch in red homogeneously. This motivated improved performance batch on batch (less blood) and eventually, two workers had to be wrung, and at some point the remaining workers got so good that no blood was introduced and a drastic policy change had to take place.
That or automation.
They really should do an episode or How It’s Made on this. Super fascinating!
I found this great place that dyes it with garlic
I’m 31 and I’ve never in my life seen red pistachios in the UK and I’ve been eating them all my life. What kind of fuck-ass pistachios did you Americans get wtf?
Hey bud I’ve got some bad news for you.
What number do you see in this circle?
I’m pretty sure this is a prank because I’ve gotten tested for colourblindness, but this is a hilarious prank.
On my phone at least I don’t see a number
IT’S PIKACHU!
- Is that good? Did i get it right?
It’s OK I ain’t seen em either
US defaultism
this is mostly a US thing
Nope. I’ve seen them in other countries.
Ate them in Canada for many years, am not American.
Red-dyed ones were all over the middle east when I was a kid, but I’ve never once seen them in the US sold this way. I think it just depended on what
exporterimporter your region mainly used.
We used to get the red ones around Christmas. I just thought they were decorative for the holidays, like Hersey’s kisses changed to Christmas color wrapping
They tasted better this way. I wish they could bring this pistachio back from extinction.
The Red Pistachio mold plague spread with surprising speed. Horticulturalists were caught flatfooted, but pulled a rabbit out of their hat with the current strain of green pistachios, saving the sector. It was quite a wild ride.
I guess you had to be there.
Pistachio Green!
Say what you will about becoming Pistachio Green, but it’s one of the few jobs that didn’t require you to use AI.
You could always add red food coloring if you have some old bottles from before they took out the toxic
They still exist. They’re just from Iran.
Fun fact, the ketchup chips in Canada were inspired by these
/s
Where did you get that from?
His ass
Lmfao
don’t default to “he”, say “they”
I should have included the tag, I made it up 😄
I’m 34 and have never heard of these.
Was pistachio ice cream also red?
No, pistachio flavored ice cream and puddings and such have always been green.
Good question, no and it confused me as a child in the 60s
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Yet pistachio ice cream has always been green…
