# Pistachios - why no reds? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 21, 2002, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pistachios-why-no-reds/133220 "2002-10-21T13:16:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Knighted\_Vorpal\_Sword](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ac91a4/32.png) [@Knighted\_Vorpal\_Sword](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knighted_Vorpal_Sword)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2002, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pistachios-why-no-reds/133220/1 "2002-10-21T13:16:29Z")
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? ---
**Author:** ![Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/50afbb/32.png) [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2002, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pistachios-why-no-reds/133220/2 "2002-10-21T13:22:09Z")
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](http://www.popsci.com/popsci/science/article/0,12543,331634,00.html) > [@](#): > > Until the mid-1970s, all pistachios sold in the United States were imported, mainly from the Middle East. The traditional growing and harvesting methods used by pistachio farmers in countries such as Iran, Syria, and Greece often left blemishes on the outer shell, which American importers would mask with a red vegetable dye. But with the growth of the domestic pistachio industry, the days of the red pistachio may be numbered. About 96 percent of the pistachios currently sold in the United States are grown in California. These nuts are harvested without blemishes, which makes the red dyes moot. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2002, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pistachios-why-no-reds/133220/3 "2002-10-21T15:01:38Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![AmbushBug](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ambushbug/32/4600_2.png) [@AmbushBug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AmbushBug)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2002, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pistachios-why-no-reds/133220/4 "2002-10-21T22:19:30Z")
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](http://www.pistachios.org/History/History.asp). -AmbushBug ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2002, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pistachios-why-no-reds/133220/5 "2002-10-21T22:31:35Z")
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!). ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2002, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pistachios-why-no-reds/133220/6 "2002-10-22T03:15:02Z")
Staff Report: [Why are pistachios colored red?](http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mpistachio.html) ---
**Author:** ![occ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8c91f0/32.png) [@occ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/occ)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2002, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pistachios-why-no-reds/133220/7 "2002-10-23T00:51:42Z")
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.