QUick quiz for you here...Which nut is most prevelant in Jell-o Pistachio pudding mix?

For the answer, click below the jump.

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The answer?

Almonds. If you look at the ingredient list on the back of the box, almonds is listed before pistachios, indicating that this is more of an almond pudding mix, and notso much a pistachio pudding mix.

In fact, if you look at the label closer, you see that the mix contains less than 2% of pistachios. Which means that Jell-o Pistachio pudding is at least 98% NOT pistachio. I find that endlessly amusing.

For those of you interested, yes I did make the pudding mix. The things I do for science.

Did you know that it takes 5 minutes to make pudding? I didn't. The chemical composition here is designed for you to essentially stir milk into the mix for five minutes, place in dessert cups, and serve. The results? Well, look at the picture below.

It ends up a bizarre color, an electric neon day-glo kind of green. The kind that of green that special effects wizards in Hollywood use in order to make aliens look more menacing.

How does it taste? At first bite, it starts extrordinarily sweet. There is a hint of pistachio, but only a hint. At the end of the bite, the taste converts to a sickly chemical/soapy taste. When compared against the homemade pistachio pudding I made the other day, there's no comparison. I don't believe I need to tell you which on I prefer.

I have come to a conclusion...people don't purchase pistachio pudding to make pistachio pudding. Rather, they use the mix in order to make many other recipes.

*sigh*

Sometimes I weep for our cultural taste buds.