  We study the possibility that the current accelerated expansion of the
universe is driven by the vacuum energy density of a colored scalar field which
is responsible for a phase transition in which the gauge SU(3)_c symmetry
breaks. We show that if we are stuck in a SU(3)_c - preserving false vacuum,
then SU(3)_c symmetry breaking can be accommodated without violating any
experimental QCD bounds or bounds from cosmological observations. Moreover,
unless there is an unnatural fine-tuning beyond the usual cosmological constant
fine-tuning, the true vacuum state of the universe is anti-de Sitter. The model
can likely be tested at the LHC. A possible (though not necessary) consequence
of the model is the existence of fractionally charged massive hadrons. The
model can be embedded in supersymmetric theories where massive colored scalar
fields appear naturally.
