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.
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.
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.
I also figured this was just a “let’s screw with the youth”-type post. We used to eat pistachios all the time when I was a kid (I’m 35) and I don’t think I’ve ever seen a red one before today. They were always beige/greenish.
Yeah, I’m 38 and remember red pistachios. Also remember finding some sort of worm thing burrowed into one of those red pistachios, while I was sitting at my grandfather’s kitchen table eating pistachios. Didn’t stop me. Well, it stopped me from eating that one. But I’m always leery if a pistachio has a hole in it.
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.
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.
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.
Wait, this is real? I thought this was a joke…
Like “Back in my day, bananas were bright purple, but that breed died out.”
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.
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.
I also figured this was just a “let’s screw with the youth”-type post. We used to eat pistachios all the time when I was a kid (I’m 35) and I don’t think I’ve ever seen a red one before today. They were always beige/greenish.
We over-60s remember when pistachios were red, airplane security was non-existent and everywhere smelled like cigarettes.
Hey, I’m not even 40 and I remember getting to check out the cockpit of a plane multiple times. And the brown glass ashtrays at McDonalds.
I’m also 35, and I remember the red ones. But my mom ate a lot of pistachios and sunflower seeds when she quit smoking in the mid 90s
Now smoking is much more financially responsible than eating pistachios
Yeah, I’m 38 and remember red pistachios. Also remember finding some sort of worm thing burrowed into one of those red pistachios, while I was sitting at my grandfather’s kitchen table eating pistachios. Didn’t stop me. Well, it stopped me from eating that one. But I’m always leery if a pistachio has a hole in it.
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.
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.
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