Life is a box of naturally-pink chocolates. Really?
london/zurich — A breakthrough by a Swiss chocolate maker expands the industry’s hues beyond just dark, milk and white.
Barry Callebaut, the world’s largest cocoa processor, has come up with the first new natural colour for chocolate since Nestle started making bars of white chocolate more than 80 years ago. While it has a pinkish hue and a fruity flavour, the Zurich-based company prefers to refer to it as ‘ruby chocolate’.
The new product may help boost sales in a struggling global chocolate market that producers hope has touched bottom.
As Hershey cuts 15 per cent of its staff and Nestle tries to sell its US chocolate business, ruby chocolate raises the possibility that next Valentine’s Day may arrive with store shelves full of natural pink chocolate hearts.
The innovation, based on a special type of cocoa bean, comes after about a decade of development, according to CEO Antoine de Saint-Affrique. The chocolate, unveiled in Shanghai, has a natural berry flavor that’s sour yet sweet, according to the Zurich-based company, which works behind the scenes to produce chocolate sold by all the major producers including Hershey and Cadbury.
“It’s natural, it’s colourful, it’s hedonistic, there’s an indulgence aspect to it, but it keeps the authenticity of chocolate,” the CEO said in a telephone interview.
“It has a nice balance that speaks a lot to millennials.”
The new product may also appeal to Chinese consumers, a nascent market for chocolate, De Saint-Affrique said. The company has tested the product in the UK,
It’s natural, it’s colourful, it’s hedonistic, there’s an indulgence aspect to it, but it keeps the authenticity of chocolate Antoine de Saint-Affrique, CEO of Barry Callebaut
US, China and Japan through independent consumer research carried out by Haystack and Ipsos.
Innovations in chocolate often take years because of the complex structures and the challenge of maintaining texture and taste. Nestle scientists have found a way to reduce the amount of sugar in chocolate by as much as 40 per cent, though it won’t be available in confectionery products until next year.
Barry Callebaut’s research department came across the possibility of ruby chocolate by chance about 13 years ago as it studied cocoa beans, and Germany’s Jacobs University in Bremen cooperated in the development.
The beans used to make ruby chocolate come from Ivory Coast, Ecuador and Brazil and the unusual colour comes from the powder extracted during processing, De Saint-Affrique said. No berries or colours are added. — Bloomberg