Is blue corn really blue?

Yes. It’s blue.

When I was a boy in Nebraska, I can remember being amazed to discover that the local Sioux, Arapaho and other Native Americans commonly produced ears of corn with beautifully colored individual kernels. There seemed to be no uniformity in the patterns or distribution of colors between ears. But you could find ears that were predominantly blue, red, pink, etc. with only a few yellow, white, red,etc. kernels. I remember the pleasant surprise as a kid when my friend’s mom took us into this sort of trading post somewhere on the way to Grand Island. There was a big tub right inside the door piled high with a virtual rainbow of corn. It remains one of the most impressive things I’ve ever seen.

Blue corn is a real thing. I believe it’s mostly grown in Mexico, but I guess the US maybe does also. There are other colors of corn also as mentioned. My Mexican inlaws have asked me more than once if there is only sweet corn here. The corn on the cob for them here often tastes to sweet to them.

Blue corn, just like you would guess, does have a slightly different nutritional make up than yellow corn.

Blue corn is common in New Mexico.

@JLeslie “Normal” American yellow corn on the cob is a variety known as sweet corn because of its high sugar content.

I’m glad blue corn is a real thing, and not just corn with blue coloring added!

^^Possibly, some of the blue corn tortillas and chips are color enhanced. My guess is it could be made from real blue corn, or could be made from white corn with food dye. You might want to check the labels carefully. I’ve never read anything about the possibility, but logic tells me it could go either way. Just like wheat bread and whole wheat bread are very different things, and really easy not to realize wheat bread can be white bread just dyed brown.