We got our hands on our first bag of Ruby Chocolate in late September 2018, one week after Ruby was released in Australia. It’s known as the newest innovation in the chocolate world, a 4th type after dark, milk and white chocolate, bearing a signature pink colour with a berry taste. Ruby is definitely very different to what we thought it would taste like. Watch our reaction tasting it for the first time in the video below.

From first look, one would assume it would taste like white chocolate and strawberry.

Upon examination of the packet’s labelling and the chocolate’s composition, Ruby can be understood as a natural chocolate made of cacao, “crafted from the Ruby cocoa bean”. With 47.3% cocoa solids, the composition matches much more closely to a milk chocolate rather than a white chocolate. Besides some sugar, milk solids and emulsifier, no berries, berry flavouring or colouring can be seen to be added.

If Ruby contains no colourants, no fruit and no fruit flavourings, then it really is just chocolate. The flavour profile of chocolate is known to be influenced by the terrain in which the cocoa beans are grown, but how fruity can Ruby really taste when it is composed similarly to milk chocolate?

We were sceptical of Ruby being a completely new chocolate experience. We thought that the citric acid or other which may be added during the chocolate production process to create the pink colour reaction would create a minimal difference to flavour and smell, or whichever other method to preserve the pink colour from the type of cocoa bean was used to only develop this pink-coloured milk chocolate variant.

After tasting it first hand, we were very satisfied that Ruby was definitely a unique type of chocolate that justifies excitement and hype for its novelty.

We found the smell and flavour to be significantly punchy, with noticeable fruity, fresh and sour notes. The colour had a consistent purple tinge in the pink, close to a mauve or dusty pink tone. It did not taste like milk chocolate at all, bearing no similarity to the rich cocoa flavour that is normally associated with milk or dark chocolate. It also did not taste very sweet nor did it have any bitterness, which means Ruby is great to balance out more decadent flavours.

We found it hard to believe that Ruby was pure chocolate with such intense fruitiness. The cocoa bean derived flavour was a new flavour, with a different smell, taste and look. Overall, Ruby was a very interesting experience and worth a try.

Barry Callebaut, the owner of the Ruby patent, describes the unique flavour of Ruby as “neither bitter, milky or sweet, but a tension of fresh berry fruitiness and luscious smoothness.”

In comparing Ruby to white and milk chocolate, we found that white chocolate was much more prominently sweet with a rounded and buttery vanilla flavour but no fruity undertones. Whereas milk chocolate, which was very similar in composition to Ruby, tasted nothing alike either, with no common familiar cocoa flavour in Ruby as was in milk.

Personally, Ruby was not our favourite chocolate, nor flavour in general. We did enjoy the experience and thought Ruby was tasty, but our palates are subjectively skewed towards earthier and nuttier flavours.

Ruby is a worthy celebration for the dessert world, as it will allow dessertisans to take desserts forward with new flavour pairings and exciting new creations.

The next question is, is it really the ‘4th type’ of chocolate? To be debated another day...