Red-Stained Memories

Who remembers these?

If you are old like I am you likely have a memory of red pistachios. When you shelled and ate them your fingers would become stained red. And your tongue, lips and mouth would be colored bright crimson. So why were pistachios dyed red anyway?  And why aren’t they any longer?

Pistachios play an integral role in Middle Eastern culture and cuisine. As a consequence, virtually all pistachios were sourced in Iran. And it was a Syrian (not Iranian) pistachio import/export guy who took pistachios destined for export and dyed them red to mask minor imperfections from harvesting methods of the time.

Fast-forward to 1979 and the assault on the American embassy in Tehran and the Iranian Hostage Crisis. President Jimmy Carter, among other things, froze Iranian assets held in the US, cut-off diplomatic ties to the country, and embargoed the sale of Iranian oil and other export goods. Including pistachios.

The trade actions taken by Carter had the unintended consequence of serving-up a monopoly on the pistachio market for California’s small number of growers. The consequence is that nowadays, almost all of our delicious pistachios come from California. California pistachios have become a $3.6 billion industry!  And because the harvesting of the nuts is automated the nuts have no unsightly imperfections.  There is nothing to hide and thus, no red dye.

For the nostalgic among us red-dyed pistachios can still be found as a novelty – mostly around the Christmas holiday. Speaking for myself, this blogger doesn’t miss the red fingers and mouth.

You can learn more about the story here.