how far off from Turkish pistachios are they? I can get those through nuts.com and a few other places and they are certainly different from what we encounter in the super market.
Pretty far. Iranian pistachios are identical to Californian pistachios, just red in color. Commenter above probably is influenced by the red dye and in a blind taste would fail to distinguish between the two. Turkish/Armenian pistachios on the other hand are smaller, more elongated and if salted typically are packaged with coarser salt. I prefer the latter, although they can be more pain to peel.