Chocolate

This New "Ruby Chocolate" is a Charming Shade of Pink

by: Valerio Farris

September 5, 2017

Swiss chocolate makers have added a new color to the chocolate cache. It’s rosy, fruity, and looks like it came straight out of that generator that’s slowly turning everything around us millennial pink. Introducing ruby chocolate, the newest natural chocolate variety since the creation of white chocolate 80 years ago by Nestle.

The pink hued product comes to us from the labs of Barry Callebaut AG, the world’s largest cocoa processors. Though the color may lean more pink than red, its developers are sticking to “ruby” when labelling their newest chocolate.

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The name comes from the ruby cocoa bean, the red-tinged fruit that gives the chocolate its distinct pink pigment. After a decade of development, Barry Callebaut devised a method for utilizing the bean’s unique appearance and flavor profile without the use of additives. Red-dyed cocoa power and chocolate may exist, but ruby chocolate's color is notably natural.

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Its color is not the only thing drawing attention to the chocolate. It supposedly tastes fruity and smooth, with hints of berry. "It’s natural, it’s colorful, it’s hedonistic, there’s an indulgence aspect to it, but it keeps the authenticity of chocolate," the company’s CEO, Antoine de Saint-Affrique, told Bloomberg.

The enchanting new chocolate was revealed at an event in Shanghai, China, today, but its arrival in our local grocery stores remains unknown. For now, I’ll just fantasize about the dreamy new color all these chocolate-based desserts will take.

Andrea Bemis' Fresh Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies

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Nigella Lawson's Dark and Sumptuous Vegan Chocolate Cake

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Babka au Chocolat Brioche

Rose Levy Beranbaum's Chocolate Oblivion Truffle Torte

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HELL
HalfPint

Valerio is a freelance food writer, editor, researcher and cook. He grew up in his parent's Italian restaurants covered in pizza flour and drinking a Shirley Temple a day. Since, he's worked as a cheesemonger in New York City and a paella instructor in Barcelona. He now lives in Berlin, Germany where he's most likely to be found eating shawarma.

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3 Comments

HELL September 6, 2017

hOW CAN THIS BE A "NATURAL" CHOCOLATE - IT HAS BEEN GENETICALLY MODIFIED & "CREATED" - WHO ARE YOU KIDDING LOL

HalfPint September 6, 2017

Calm down. We don't know that they used genes from some species to produce this type of cacao. What probably took the longest in development is plant propagation. It can take years to cross-breed to get the desired traits, e.g. the pink color. You can't just take the "parent" plant, cross pollinate, and hope to get viable offsprings with the same traits. DNA is like a crap shoot.