Well, I know it's only been a day but curiosity got the better of me. I decided to check on the progress of my Berry Blue and Grape pickles.
Not looking good.
The berry blue:
sort of a really, really, really deep teal when you combine it with the green the pickle was already. It was so dark you could just barely tell that it was blue, at first glance.
Here's the cross section:
You can see that barely any blue has made it past the skin. I sliced off a bit for a taste, and it can best be described as "fruit punch and bile". I'll leave them soaking and hope something magical happens in the next couple of days.
The grape was even worse:
It came out of the kool-aid/brine mixture black as ink, and the brine had changed from purple to raisin-brown. The smell was horrendous.
The cross section was much the same as the blue one, not a lot of penetration there. In this case, that's probably not a bad thing. I made myself try a slice, and that's a flavor I'd be happy to never experience again. Think "grape jolly rancher dipped in salted puke" and you'd come close. Truly, truly vile. A good thing to make someone eat on a dare.
I don't know why the cherry ones are working and the others aren't, but I have a feeling it has something to do with the warm flavor working better with the brining spices. Grape and blue raspberry have strong personalities, and apparently they don't play well with others.