It is beginning to be known as ‘the fourth chocolate’ – after black (very dark in colour), white (slightly yellowish) and ‘milk’ (light brown) – and is generating great interest from professional confectioners , by offering new possibilities to pastry chefs when making their most original creations.
Pink chocolate -or ‘Ruby’- does not contain dyes (this is important to understand). No additives either. To achieve that suggestive pinkish hue, a specific variety of cocoa beans that only grows in Ecuador, Brazil and some regions of the Ivory Coast (known as the Ruby variety, hence its name) is used in the creation process.
The ‘Ruby’ variety of the cocoa plant has a characteristic reddish colour.
Although this specific type of cocoa bean (reddish in color and with a peculiar flavor, neither milky, nor bitter, nor sweet), was discovered some time ago, it was not presented in society until 2017 and it has not been until now that it has begun to reach the general public through the daring bets of chefs (some with Michelin stars) and confectioners with restless minds.
This is what a ‘Ruby’ variety cocoa bean looks like from the inside.
The specialized company Barry Callebaut spent almost 15 years researching this specialty until finding a suitable formula for consumption and marketing.
A very complex manufacturing process that, like the Coca-Cola formula, is kept absolutely secret by the company.
Among many other edible applications, Ruby chocolate ice creams (and therefore pink), butter cream, chocolates, pralines, eclairs or petisús and even pink waffles have been created.
Pink chocolate has multiple applications in confectionery.
Its creators consider it the greatest advance in the chocolate world in many decades (in this sense, it is curious to remember that white chocolate -so common today- did not always exist, since it was ‘discovered’ 80 years ago) and they highlight its intense aroma and an elegant fruit flavor in which no bitter notes appear.
Pink chocolate has a very characteristic fruity and elegant flavor.
Just as a terroir influences the quality and characteristics of the grapes from the vines planted on its soil (and of the wines obtained from its must), some people think that the composition of the soil in some areas of Ecuador, Brazil and Costa of Ivory – together with unique climatic conditions – could influence the special characteristics of these cocoa beans.
The Barry Callebaut Group – the company behind pink chocolate – generates annual sales of 6.5 billion euros (according to fiscal year 2018-19). Headquartered in Zurich, it is the world’s leading manufacturer of high-quality chocolate and cocoa products.
The interest of the ‘millennial’ public in the ‘foodporn’ phenomenon is helping to popularize this product.
According to various studies and market surveys, the millennial public would be a niche that is especially sensitive to pink chocolate, since the fever of the phenomenon called ‘foodporn’ (the mania of photographing everything you eat with your mobile and uploading it to the networks) demands especially striking or curious foods on the plate. And the pink or Ruby chocolate, without a doubt, is.
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