Colours of food and drink
Colour added to what is eaten and drunk.
Yellow
Turmeric
A golden yellow dye and spice from the rhizome of a tropical plantColour named from nature · 🇮🇳 India +5
White
Zinc oxide
A white inorganic powder used in pigments, ointments, ceramics and electronicsPigment · 🇮🇳 India +2
Red
Rubia
A group of plants whose roots once dyed cloth and paint a lasting redColour named from nature · 🇪🇬 Egypt +5
#DC143C
Crimson
A deep red with a hint of purple, once made from insectsNamed shade · 🇳🇵 Nepal
Orange
Annatto
A yellow-orange dye and flavour from the seeds of the achiote treeDye · 🇲🇽 Mexico +5
Green
Scheele's green
A yellowish-green pigment once prized for its brilliance, now infamous for its toxicityPigment
Red
Polish cochinealczerwiec polski
A crimson dye once vital to Poland, made from a native scale insectDye · 🇵🇱 Poland +5
Brown
Bryoria fremontii
A dark brown lichen used for food, medicine, and dye by First Nations in North AmericaColour named from nature · 🇷🇺 Russia
Red
Wine colour
The range of colours seen in wines, from pale yellow to deep red and tawnyNamed shade · 🇫🇷 France
Red
Red pigment
Pigments made from minerals, plants, and insects to create red colours in artPigment · 🇫🇷 France +4
Yellow
Saffronزعفران
A golden-yellow colour from the dried stigmas of the saffron crocus flowerColour named from nature · 🇮🇷 Iran +5
Purple and violet
Mangosteen purple
The deep reddish-purple of ripe mangosteen fruit rindColour named from nature · 🇲🇾 Malaysia +4
Yellow
Safflower
A thistle-like plant whose petals yield red and yellow dyesColour named from nature · 🇪🇬 Egypt +4
Orange
Annatto
A natural orange-red dye from the seeds of a tropical shrubColour named from nature · 🇲🇽 Mexico +5
Red
Tormentil red
A red dye for leather made from the root of the tormentil plantDye · 🇺🇦 Ukraine
Blue
Butterfly pea blue
A vivid blue from the butterfly pea flower, used in Asian food and drinkColour named from nature · 🇮🇩 Indonesia +5
Brown
Catechu
A reddish-brown dye and extract from the heartwood of Senegalia catechuDye · 🇮🇳 India +3
Yellow
Tagetes patula dye
A golden yellow dye and spice made from French marigold flowersColour named from nature · 🇲🇽 Mexico +3
Red
Alkanet
A Mediterranean plant whose root gives a red dye used since ancient timesColour named from nature · 🇺🇦 Ukraine +2
Yellow
Cosmos sulphureus dye
An orange-yellow dye from the flowers of the Cosmos sulphureus plantColour named from nature · 🇲🇽 Mexico +5
Purple and violet
Turnsole
A blue-purple dye once prized for manuscripts and textilesDye · 🇮🇳 India +2
Red
Red yeast rice红曲米
A vivid reddish purple rice coloured by a special mould, used in food and medicineColour named from nature · 🇨🇳 China +3
Blue
Vaccinium bracteatum dye
A bluish-violet dye from the leaves of an Asian bilberry shrubDye · 🇨🇳 China +2
Brown
Gambier
A yellow-brown plant extract used as dye, tannin and traditional medicineDye · 🇮🇩 Indonesia +4
Yellow
Zafferano dell'Aquila
A prized saffron grown on the Navelli plateau in Abruzzo, ItalyColour named from nature · 🇮🇹 Italy
Yellow
Borututu
A yellow colouring from the bark of an African tree, used in Ghana and AngolaColour named from nature · 🇦🇴 Angola +1
Yellow
Gamboge (from Garcinia cambogioides)
A yellow resin from the Garcinia cambogioides tree, used in food, paint and medicineColour named from nature · 🇮🇳 India +2
Purple and violet
Turnsole
A medieval dye from Chrozophora tinctoria, shifting from blue to red with acidityDye
Orange
Argythamnia heterantha
A Mexican shrub whose orange seed endosperm colours and flavours foodColour named from nature · 🇲🇽 Mexico
Photo credits on this page
The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.
- Safflower: AndrewMT, CC BY 3.0, source
- Bryoria fremontii: Millifolium, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Turmeric: J.M.Garg, CC BY 3.0, source
- Rubia: Unknown author, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Annatto: Porto Neto, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Zinc oxide: Andrew Silver, USGS, Public domain, source
- Scheele's green: Georg Friedrich Kersting, Public domain, source
- Polish cochineal: Unknown author, Public domain, source
- Borututu: Contreiras45, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Annatto: Primejyothi, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Tormentil red: User:Tigerente, CC BY 2.5, source
- Wine colour: Mick Stephenson mixpix 20:28, 2 April 2007 (UTC), CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Crimson: F ASTILY, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Red pigment: Marco Almbauer, Public domain, source
- Butterfly pea blue: Suyash Dwivedi, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Mangosteen purple: VpuipV, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Saffron: Hubertl, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Catechu: Shaik Jaber Al-Shihab, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Gamboge (from Garcinia cambogioides): Franz Eugen Köhler, Köhler's Medizinal-Pflanzen, Public domain, source
- Tagetes patula dye: Muhammad Mahdi Karim, GFDL 1.2, source
- Turnsole: Solanum, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Alkanet: Unknown author, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Cosmos sulphureus dye: Alejandro Bayer Tamayo, CC BY-SA 2.0, source
- Red yeast rice: Gluo88, Public domain, source
- Vaccinium bracteatum dye: Alpsdake, CC0, source
- Zafferano dell'Aquila: Giancarlo Vetrone, CC BY-SA 2.0, source