We were sitting around eating pistachios on Saturday when I suddenly realized that I had not seen red pistachios for many years. All the pistachios were red when I was growing up. Why aren’t there red pistachios anymore?
I’d guess that people stopped paying for them? Because they got tired of the dye making their hands and mouths all red? So when they went to the store and had a choice between red and plain, they went for “plain”? And so nobody was buying “red” anymore, and the manufacturers finally got a clue?
OTOH, PopSci says it’s a “domestic vs. foreign” thing.
http://www.popsci.com/popsci/science/article/0,12543,331634,00.html
No, they still make them. They’re just scarce right now, come Christmas time you see them at all the stores with the white and natural pistachios.
I thought it was because the pistachios imported from the middle eastern farms (Iran, in particular) had harmless stains on the shells, making them appear unappetizing to the Western consumer.
And that in recent years, it was figured out how to produce pistachios in California, and they don’t have the stains.
Cite.
-AmbushBug
Still around. Not to mention red, white, and blue in a patriotic 4th of July package, made with especially sticky, off-tasting dye (and from California!).
Staff Report: Why are pistachios colored red?
Yeah, I’d always heard that it was more of a marketing thing to compete with candy, gum, and the like. Makes sense that nowadays, something seen as an “unnatural additive” would be undesireable, and thus fased out due to consumer opinion.