A New Kind of Chocolate

We are used to three forms of chocolate: dark chocolate, milk chocolate, and white chocolate. Barry Callebaut, one of the world's largest chocolate manufacturers and a chocolate research center in Zurich, announced this week that the three main types of chocolate have been joined by a new form they call ruby chocolate, made from the unique ruby cocoa bean.  

The fourth type in chocolate offers a totally new taste experience, which is not bitter, milky or sweet, but a tension between berry-fruitiness and luscious smoothness. To create Ruby chocolate no berries or berry flavor, nor color, is added.

Ruby chocolate was unveiled at an industry event in China on Tuesday. I couldn't find any easily-accessible information on the ruby cocoa bean, but Eater says,

“This is classic marketing hype,” says Megan Giller, food writer, Eater contributor, and author of the new book Bean-to-Bar Chocolate: America’s Craft Chocolate Revolution. “We don’t yet know what Callebaut means by the ‘ruby cocoa bean,’ especially since no expert I’ve ever spoken to has mentioned a unique type of bean that comes from the Ivory Coast, Ecuador, and Brazil.” Giller has done some research and believes this new product is made from “a genetically modified bean, maybe CCN-51, that has been processed in a particular way to get that ruby color.” (Schrauth would not go into specifics regarding how the bean was developed, citing intellectual property.)

The FDA will have to approve the new chocolate before it goes on sale in the US, so we might not see it in stores until Valentines day of 2019. Barry Callebaut is focusing on marketing the chocolate in China.  -via Laughing Squid