“Ruby” chocolate is the fourth kind of chocolate, but what is it and is it any good?
In 2018, Nestlé released a pink-coloured Kit Kat in Japan, a country filled with special, one-of-a-kind Kit Kat varieties such as green tea, sweet potato, banana, and sake. What made this specific release stand out was that the chocolate is naturally pink. This innovative foodstuff has been called the “fourth kind of chocolate.” (It also cost 400 yen per stick, about $3.60 USD at the time.)
A year later, in 2019, Nestlé Canada released the Ruby Kit Kat. The rose-tinted packaging boasts these special beans and having ‘no added colour’ which is important when talking about a pink-coloured chocolate bar. Canada is already host to a bevy of different chocolates, even beyond Kit Kat’s impressive domestic portfolio, but this was the first pink chocolate bar to be commercially-available. To understand the difference, one should look at the origin of the cocoa bean itself.
When cocoa pods are harvested, there are two components which are sent into the global chocolate supply chain: the beans and the butter. Cocoa beans, once separated from the pods, are piled into heaps for fermentation. The fermentation process, according to the International Cocoa Organization (ICCO), takes about 5 to 7 days depending on the type of bean and size of the heap. Fermentation is critical for creating the chocolate flavour which has come to define chocolate. This is also where the real story of ruby chocolate begins.
The Belgian-Swiss chocolate company Barry Callebaut is credited as introducing ruby chocolate to the market. The chocolate gets its name from the vivid pink colour of the ‘Ruby’ cocoa beans used – beans which have a red-pink colour and are fermented less than the normal number of days. All cocoa beans actually have a natural red or purple colour, but the fermentation process turns that brown, closer to what we associate with cocoa. The fermentation is also what causes the stereotypical chocolate flavour – but what happens to the taste when you use unfermented cocoa beans?
Well, to better understand this, let’s look at Starbucks Blonde Roast which is a worthy parallel to ruby cocoa. The taste, aroma and caffeine content of a blonde/light roast is different from a medium or dark roast due to the amount of time the beans have been – roasted. The beans themselves appear a caramel orange mixed with a softer brown, almost like the tone of bread crust caused by the Maillard reaction. In contrast to medium and dark roasted beans, these beans are basically undercooked. By taking the beans out of the process before it was completed to the normal specification, the flavour is anything but normal. The same goes for ruby cocoa beans.
Ruby chocolate’s different colour and taste is further reinforced by how it is packaged and formed before going to market. In the case of Nestlé’s Ruby Kit Kat, the red-tinted cocoa is mixed with sugar, cocoa butter and milk solids to basically become a milk chocolate bordering on white chocolate, but pink. It’s really more of a “fourth colour of chocolate” rather than a “fourth kind”. The taste of ruby chocolate is described as “sweet, yet sour” and that is fairly accurate for most varieties of white chocolate too.
Ultimately, no amount of typing can compare with an actual taste test. For this task, we have two standard Ruby Kit Kat bars, which have been kept at room temperature for one day in my backpack. In the interest of disclosure, I (Andrew) have already tried this candy, but I’m still going to weigh in.
The verdict from our panel
It has a bright taste to it.
Clarisse
It tastes like those Brookside chocolates; chocolate-covered berries.
Kengi
Given the choice between this and a normal Kit Kat, I probably wouldn’t choose Ruby. Sometimes normal is just more comfortable than new.
Andrew
F*ck regular Kit Kats. It’s like cascara, the shell of the coffee bean. It tastes like red bean, that sweet bean flavour.
Matt T.
It reminds me of raisins. A raisin kind of sweet.
Matthew S.
In conclusion
According to our team, ruby chocolate is definitely worth a try. It’s a great way to kick off a conversation with your friends or to bring something interesting to try at a party. It is also very aesthetic, Instagram-friendly, and Matt will probably grab it out of your hands if given the opportunity. He really, really liked it.
If you want to try the Ruby Kitkat for yourself, you can find them at the retailers such as London Drugs or Walmart, or online. Stock may vary by store.
YEAT 