this post was submitted on 21 Feb 2026
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[–] in_my_honest_opinion@piefed.social 268 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (7 children)

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.

[–] lugal@lemmy.dbzer0.com 84 points 3 weeks ago (5 children)

I see, so that's why they have never been red outside the US

[–] Banana@sh.itjust.works 37 points 3 weeks ago (4 children)

Ok that makes sense because I (a 30+ yo canadian) was so confused.

[–] idiomaddict@lemmy.world 10 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

It’s also about ten years out of date, 25 year olds today probably wouldn’t recognize this

[–] SweepTheLeg@lemmy.world 9 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

I'm 47 and have never seen this. I only remember pistachios in ice cream but they werent fucking red.

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[–] Armand1@lemmy.world 68 points 3 weeks ago (8 children)

Wait, this is real? I thought this was a joke...

Like "Back in my day, bananas were bright purple, but that breed died out."

[–] rudyharrelson@lemmy.radio 34 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

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.

[–] Mouselemming@sh.itjust.works 37 points 3 weeks ago (4 children)

We over-60s remember when pistachios were red, airplane security was non-existent and everywhere smelled like cigarettes.

[–] Tar_alcaran@sh.itjust.works 17 points 3 weeks ago

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.

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[–] dharmacurious@slrpnk.net 18 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

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

[–] DrSteveBrule@mander.xyz 14 points 3 weeks ago (3 children)

Now smoking is much more financially responsible than eating pistachios

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[–] Dozzi92@lemmy.world 9 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

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.

[–] bhamlin@lemmy.world 7 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Don't sleep on the extra protein, bro!

[–] HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world 7 points 3 weeks ago

It's chew into your brain and make you Secretary of Health, bro!

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.

[–] skisnow@lemmy.ca 24 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

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.

[–] Drusas@fedia.io 13 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

Iran died them before export. Not Americans.

[–] Kacarott@aussie.zone 9 points 3 weeks ago

Know your customer

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[–] chaogomu@lemmy.world 9 points 3 weeks ago

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.

[–] hissingmeerkat@sh.itjust.works 9 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

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.

[–] Jesus_666@lemmy.world 11 points 3 weeks ago

Because most banana varieties aren't very transport stable.

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[–] A_Chilean_Cyborg@feddit.cl 44 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

So is a US defaultism kinda thing huh

[–] Starski@lemmy.zip 18 points 3 weeks ago (4 children)

I hate this idea of "us defaultism" being labeled on anything that even remotely involves the US. This isnt us defaultism, this is someone from the US sharing something about the US worded to be for someone for the US. I see this numerous different times with different topics for different countries, but I don't go "oh this is German defaultism, oh this is Zimbabwean defaultism." It's a fun fact that you're taking too seriously because you have a hate boner for the US, which is honestly fair.

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[–] rainwall@piefed.social 18 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (4 children)

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.

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[–] halcyoncmdr@piefed.social 16 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

In the same vein... Maraschino cherries aren't red, they are golden.

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[–] stupidcasey@lemmy.world 14 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

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.

[–] Darkenfolk@sh.itjust.works 9 points 3 weeks ago

Yeah, they should've used green dye that gives us cancer, that way they at least have their natural colour.

[–] HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world 7 points 3 weeks ago (3 children)

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

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[–] digger@lemmy.ca 73 points 3 weeks ago (3 children)
[–] DrSteveBrule@mander.xyz 11 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

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.

[–] bjoern_tantau@swg-empire.de 20 points 3 weeks ago

Warwick Davis (best known for his roles as Wicket the Ewok or Willow) told this story from when he was an extra at the pod race in Star Wars Episode 1.

He had an awesome looking cocktail and he made the fatal mistake of taking three large sips in the first take. And of course he had to repeat that action every take. And they had to do many takes. Trouble was (apart from the enormous amount of liquid) that the cocktail tasted absolutely awful. But as a professional he stuck to his role of course.

Those takes never made it into the movie. They aren't even available as cut scenes or still photos.

[–] br0da@lemmy.world 10 points 3 weeks ago

Care to tke dinghy, Frank? No, I took care of that at the press conference.

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[–] Zier@fedia.io 53 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

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

[–] dharmacurious@slrpnk.net 8 points 3 weeks ago (4 children)

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?

[–] DrSteveBrule@mander.xyz 12 points 3 weeks ago

Another commenter said it was the oil on people's hands

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[–] SwingingTheLamp@piefed.zip 29 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Was this a regional thing? In my memory, they were all dyed green.

[–] chaogomu@lemmy.world 22 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Pistachios are native to Iran, and until the 1970s Iran was the world's largest exporter. They dyed their exports with a food safe red.

[–] hypeerror@sh.itjust.works 34 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

They were dyed because they were hand picked and oils from the pickers hand would cause discoloration. The red dye covered that up.

Machine harvested pistachios didn't have that problem.

[–] MrScottyTay@sh.itjust.works 21 points 3 weeks ago (3 children)

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?

[–] Agent641@lemmy.world 17 points 3 weeks ago (5 children)

Hey bud I've got some bad news for you.

What number do you see in this circle?

[–] oascany@lemmy.world 15 points 3 weeks ago

I'm pretty sure this is a prank because I've gotten tested for colourblindness, but this is a hilarious prank.

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[–] agingelderly@lemmy.world 18 points 3 weeks ago

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

[–] thethunderwolf@lemmy.dbzer0.com 18 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (3 children)

US defaultism

this is mostly a US thing

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[–] mika_mika@lemmy.world 10 points 3 weeks ago (3 children)

They tasted better this way. I wish they could bring this pistachio back from extinction.

[–] DarrinBrunner@lemmy.world 16 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

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.

[–] cannedtuna@lemmy.world 13 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)
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[–] otter@lemmy.ca 10 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (5 children)

Fun fact, the ketchup chips in Canada were inspired by these

/s

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[–] HerbalGamer@sh.itjust.works 9 points 3 weeks ago

I'm 34 and have never heard of these.

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