The future of chocolate is looking rosy — literally.
Barry Callebaut’s ruby — a pink-hued cocoa with a slight berry flavor — officially launched in North America last week, promising to add a splash of color to cakes, bon bons, ice cream and all manner of sweets.
The Swiss chocolatier, which added no color or flavor to achieve the pink concoction, is billing its invention as the greatest innovation in chocolate since Nestle introduced white chocolate 80 years ago.
Now, if only it can get the Food and Drug Administration to agree.
Barry Callebaut, which has its North American headquarters in Chicago, has been waiting for more than a year to get permission from the FDA to market ruby as “chocolate,” with the hope of creating a fourth type of chocolate after dark, milk and white.
Once it gets a temporary marketing permit and can sell the product as chocolate, it can begin gauging interest from manufacturers and consumers in creating a whole new category of chocolate that it says could be a game-changer for the $22 billion U.S. chocolate industry.
Peter Boone, president and CEO of Barry Callebaut Americas, said the company could no longer wait to bring the product to the U.S. because customers were so eager for it after seeing its success in Asia, Europe, Australia and New Zealand. A soft launch in the U.S. with a small group of artisans over the past six months — including Vosges Haut-Chocolat, Chocolove and Trader Joe’s — also was popular.
For now, Barry Callebaut is calling the product ruby couverture. Whatever it’s called, chocolate lovers are excited.
At the Sweets & Snacks Expo at McCormick Place this week, the Barry Callebaut booth was bustling with visitors eager to taste the pink chocolate-type thingamabob.
“If you’re looking for something unique, this definitely fits that profile,” said Toni Montoya, marketing and projects manager at TR Topper, a Colorado-based company that supplies chopped candy for Dairy Queen Blizzards and other desserts that use chopped toppings.
She took a bite of a marshmallow enrobed in Callebaut Ruby. “I like the texture. It’s soft. It pops with flavor, it’s smooth in your mouth,” Montoya said. “You can taste a hint of strawberry.”
JerriDee and Grace Flage, a mother-daughter team behind a small chain of gift shops in Chicago’s northwest suburbs called Every Good Thing, tried describing it by what it was not: Not as sweet as milk chocolate, not as intense as dark chocolate, and more flavorful than white chocolate.
“It’s its own thing,” said JerriDee Flage, who could see it selling well as a truffle. “And it’s pretty, it’s feminine.”
Barry Callebaut is tight-lipped about how it makes ruby, saying only that its proprietary processing techniques “unlock the flavor and color tone” of a specific type of cocoa bean it sources from the Ivory Coast, Brazil and Ecuador. It has been under development for more than 10 years.
Boone describes ruby as having “the smoothness of white chocolate with the fruitiness of berry in the end.” The hope is that it appeals to millennials, who like products that are “pure” and natural and aren’t already targeted by a chocolate indulgence, he said.
It could be a challenge to convince Americans to think pink when they are accustomed to chocolate looking and tasting a certain way. Barry Callebaut debuted ruby in Asia — specifically, in Shanghai in September 2017 — because Asian consumers didn’t necessarily grow up with favorite childhood chocolate favorites and are more open to innovation, Boone said.
Consumers in Japan were treated to products like Kit Kat Ruby, made by Nestle, but whether pink variations of mainstay brands come to North America remains to be seen.
Hershey, which makes Kit Kats in the U.S., is not planning to launch a ruby Kit Kat bar stateside at this time, said Hershey spokesperson Anna Lingeris.
“Hershey is consistently evaluating innovation opportunities; we want to ensure that we are delivering new items that our fans and consumers want,” she said in an emailed statement.
The brand does have other innovations in store, including the launch this December of mint and dark chocolate Kit Kat duos, which will be the first year-round flavor addition in nearly a decade, she said.
Mars Wrigley Confectionery, which has its global headquarters in Chicago, expressed a similar sentiment.
“We do not have anything to share related to ruby cacao at this time, but we’re always evaluating different innovations across our portfolio to excite, as well as satisfy the ever-changing expectations and taste buds of our customers and consumers,” the company said in a statement.
There was no indication from Mondelez International that ruby Oreos are in the works.
“We’re focused on accelerating consumer-centric innovation to drive our growth across our brands and categories. We don’t comment on the details of our innovation pipeline for competitive reasons,” Mondelez spokesman Tom Armitage wrote in an emailed statement.
Some candy-makers see potential. The 1% to 2% annual sales growth in U.S. chocolate has been driven by premium products, a category that would include Callebaut Ruby.
ChocXO, a contract manufacturer of chocolate snacks and nut butter cups, which also sells its own brands at Costco, started experimenting with ruby six weeks ago after CEO Richard Foley learned of the product at European trade shows.
The Irvine, Calif.-based company, which is seeking retailers to bring its products to consumers, has produced a PB and Ruby, a peanut butter cup with ruby providing a subtle jam flavor; Pink Lemonade, which pairs the pink chocolate with lemon truffle filling; and Ruby Snaps, which are crunchy ruby chocolate squares with organic quinoa and raspberries.
“We are ready to go before anyone else is,” Foley said.
He expects people who love milk and white chocolate will love ruby. Still, Foley stopped short of calling ruby a game-changer. With health-conscious consumers asking for chocolate with more cocoa and less sugar, he expects healthier dark chocolate to be a bigger trend than the pink stuff.
U.S. chocolate lovers eager to taste what all the fuss is about can find Ruby Truffles from Vosges Haut-Chocolat, Ruby Cacao Bars from Chocolove and Ruby Cacao Truffles from Harry and David.
Trader Joe’s offered Ruby Cacao Wafers for a limited time around Valentine’s Day.
aelejalderuiz@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @alexiaer
