My Love Affair With Ruby Chocolate
And other foods that feel deliciously romantic
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I recently became infatuated with a precious jewel: The confectionary kind.
While buying groceries from my favorite organic wholesaler online, I spotted Chocolove’s Ruby Cacao bars in a line of suggested products. True to their name, these bars had a dusty rose hue and were packaged in light pink wrappers. I was smitten instantly and ordered four of them, thinking my willpower would make it possible for me to stretch out their consumption over several weeks by storing unopened bars in my freezer. It didn’t.
As a parallel to this culinary development, right now I’m in a relationship with a man who makes me happy. This experience, which has lasted over a year now, has been an anchor during the pandemic. It feels great, especially after my dating misadventures in the nation’s capital. Part of why he and I are together is because I’ve become fairly content with my own life, with or without a romantic relationship. I like discovering what makes me happy and going after it.
Ruby chocolate is one such discovery.
There is some debate as to whether this rosy wonder, introduced in 2017 by Barry Callebaut, a Belgian-Swiss cocoa company, is in fact legitimately chocolate. But its staunchest supporters claim it is the fourth kind of chocolate, the newest addition after the creation of white chocolate in the 1930s. Made from reddish cacao beans, ruby chocolate’s color is entirely natural, and a delightful riff on what we expect chocolate to look like.
A piece of ruby chocolate, ideally paired with some fresh raspberries, is a welcome treat, a way to end the day with a kiss of sweet-tart loveliness.
Ruby chocolate is just the latest in a lineup of foods I love that are a bit daring, different, bold, and full of flavor. Here are a few others that make my heart beat faster.
1. Hibiscus
Hibiscus is a seductive flavor infusion for a cocktail. I’ll never forget meeting an old flame of mine for the first time and ordering a heady mix of gin and St. Germaine with hibiscus in it. Somehow in the middle of our conversation, he found a moment to let his finger graze my ankle, in a way that wasn’t creepy…
