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Any type of chocolate, whether white, dark, or milk, all begins with the beans of the cacao tree. The trees, which can only be grown in a narrow region 20° above or below the equator, produce the cocoa bean, the main ingredient used to make chocolate.
The transformation from raw, bitter beans into commercial chocolate is a lengthy process. The beans have to be fermented, dried, and roasted. Later in processing, the formulation for each chocolate variety diverges.
Milk chocolate contains additional milk ingredients, usually in the form of milk powder. White chocolate is made without cocoa powder, explaining its lack of brown coloring. Finally, dark chocolate is produced without any milk powder, meaning the cocoa is more concentrated. For years, these three chocolates reigned.
In 2017, the world was introduced to a pink-hued chocolatey treat named Ruby. Swiss company Barry Callebaut created the first rose-colored cacao product, something people had never seen before or even imagined could exist.
Nearly two years after its introduction to the world, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration finally gave Barry Callebaut the go-ahead to sell and market Ruby as chocolate.
Previously, Ruby was referred to as a couverture, an homage to the French term for chocolate that’s mostly used for making bonbons and other confections. But what makes something chocolate? More importantly, how do you go from dark, milk, and white chocolate to pink chocolate?
To attain the coveted chocolate status, Ruby went through a lengthy legal process stemming from the strict food laws in place within the U.S. Here, many foods have legal definitions, or “standard of identities,” that mandate specific ingredients, processing steps, or list banned ingredients. Essentially, Barry Callebaut had to prove that this unusual, blush-colored treat was indeed chocolate.
Creating pink chocolate does seem like a magic trick, but if the FDA approved Ruby to be labeled as chocolate, it has to be derived from cocoa beans. Barry Callebaut is adamant that these flavors are all-natural and produced from the cocoa bean. This means with a little investigative digging and some food…
