My Love Affair With Ruby Chocolate

And other foods that feel deliciously romantic

Photo: Zacharie Grossen via Wikimedia Commons/CC BY-SA 4.0

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…