New York Daily News

There’s a new chocolate in town: ruby

- BY CONSTANCE GIBBS

Swiss chocolatie­rs debuted a new “ruby” chocolate this week in Shanghai — but they might be a bit color-blind. Despite the name, it looks more pink than the hue of Dorothy’s slippers.

The ruby chocolate joins milk, dark and white varieties as a naturally sourced type of chocolate, meaning it doesn’t take dye or food coloring to get its Pepto-Bismol look.

Barry Callebaut AG, a Switzerlan­d-based cocoa producer and grinder, created the new blush chocolate with “ruby cocoa beans” sourced from the Ivory Coast, Ecuador and Brazil.

But it really does look pink, even though its producers don’t refer to it as that.

Don’t worry, it doesn’t taste like Pepto-Bismol. The chocolate has a sour-sweet “berry-fruitiness,” though no berries are used, and a “luscious smoothness,” whatever that means, according to the inventors.

The production of the rosy-hued chocolate took over a decade to create, since the formula had to be stabilized and audience tested. The producers are excited most for the millennial market.

“Consumer research in very different markets confirms that Ruby chocolate not only satisfies a new consumer need found among Millennial­s — Hedonistic Indulgence — but also high purchase intent at different price points,” said Peter Boone, Barry Callebaut’s Chief Innovation & Quality Officer, in a statement.

Ruby chocolate should definitely be a hit among Generation Y since the color is perfect for impressing followers on Instagram and it matches the popular “millennial pink” color that has taken the fashion world by storm.

Ruby chocolate is sure to be a hit in Valentine’s Day heart-shaped boxes, mocha lattes and social media timelines once its approved by the FDA. Food site Eater.com notes that the new chocolate may take nearly a year to make it to the U.S.

Ruby chocolate is the first new kind of chocolate in 80 years, since Nestle created white chocolate, which is made with cocoa butter, in the 1930s.

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