Roasted Pistachios

The most important producing countries are the USA and Iran, but in recent years Greece and Turkey have also been supplying pistachios on a large scale.

General Information
The pistachio is a small tree from the sumac family. The pistachio originally comes from Asia, but is nowadays widely cultivated in Europe for its edible, green seeds. The word pistachio comes from the Persian pista.

When the pistachio tree grows in the wild, it looks more like a shrub than a tree. The fruits are egg-shaped, about 2.5 cm long and have a hard shell. They contain green seeds. The nut is surrounded by a thin, hard shell, which in turn is surrounded by a soft, fleshy husk. As the nut ripens and grows, the hard shell opens over time. These nuts are called 'splits'. Every harvest also contains a percentage of 'non-splits'. These nuts have not ripened enough for the shell to open.

After harvesting, the nuts are dried and treated with sulphur. In the factory, splits and non-splits are separated from each other by means of sound. A closed pistachio makes a different sound than an open pistachio when it falls onto a block of steel. Pistachios are available in the shell and shelled, as well as roasted/salted.