By now, I’m sure you have heard about so called ruby chocolate. It’s been widely talked about topic in the chocolate world and chocolatiers around the world are using this chocolate to create amazing chocolate treats. So, what’s so special about this type of chocolate? How was this chocolate discovered?
So, let’s start at the beginning.
The invention of ruby chocolate
Ruby chocolate was created by a leading chocolate brand, Barry Callebaut and introduced to the world in 2017. Ruby chocolate wasn’t just discovered, it was invented and carefully researched by a team of chocolate experts at Barry Callebaut over the last ten years prior to the launch. The ruby chocolate was registered as a patent in 2009.
As you would have expected, the actual recipe is a secret, but the flavour and colour of the chocolate comes directly from the special cross bread ruby cocoa beans which were cultivated in the Ivory Coast, Equador and Brazil.
The cocoa beans, which are naturally unfermented (or fermented only for up to 3 days) are blended with white chocolate to create sweet, fruity flavour and lovely smooth finish. The flavour is completely natural and the fruity tones come directly from the cocoa seeds.
The ruby chocolate gets it’s name from the red cocoa bean pods. Ruby chocolate is light pink in colour, which is unfortunately very sensitive to light (if you leave your ruby chocolate buttons on direct light the colour changes to very unappetising gray colour).
Ruby chocolate is also referred to as the fourth type of chocolate, after dark, milk and white chocolate. Whilst dark chocolate was the original type of chocolate, milk chocolate was only invented in 1920s and white chocolate much later. The new ruby chocolate comes along after about 80 years gap.
How do you use ruby chocolate?
You can use ruby chocolate in place of your usual chocolate, it just depends on what you’d like to create. The natural fruity and sweet flavour, combined with a fairly high price tag, means that you will probably use the chocolate as it is with very few additions in terms of flavour or style.
Big chocolate brands have already started to experiment with ruby chocolate. Nestle’s already introduced ruby chocolate in to their KitKats and even served hot chocolate made with ruby chocolate and raspberry puree to launch the new Ruby KitKat Bar.
What are the ingredients in Ruby Chocolate?
The ruby chocolate includes the following ingredients:
Cocoa solids (min 47,3% cocoa solids), sugar, cocoa butter, skimmed milk powder, whole milk powder, cocoa mass, emulsifier (soya lecithin, acid (citric acid), natural vanilla flavouring.
What does ruby chocolate taste like?
Personally I really like the fruity flavour of this chocolate. I was surprised that the ruby chocolate is quite sweet, but as an alternative to a even sweater white chocolate, this chocolate is not as sweet. It has creamy texture with a fruity finish.
If you like sweet milk or white chocolate, you’ll definitely like ruby chocolate. Callebaut mentioned sour finish to the chocolate, but I don’t think it’s too strong, just a hint of sourness, which is very pleasant.
Since tasting chocolate is very personal, you might taste ruby chocolate and think it’s slightly different to the description. This is perfectly normal as everyone’s taste buds are different and it also depends on what you’ve just eaten, whether you drink or smoke.
The best way to taste the ruby chocolate is to drink a little bit of water to clear your palette and then taste the chocolate. This way, you should be able to detect all the tasting notes.
What’s the best way to use ruby chocolate?
Ruby chocolate is closest to white chocolate in terms of how it behaves and the flavour, so it’s best to use it in recipes where you would normally use white (or milk) chocolate. Since ruby chocolate has a very delicate flavour you don’t want to use it in anything that will overpower it.
Ruby chocolate is perfect for making light mousses for puddings, creating chocolate truffle ganache or creating chocolate bars and other treats. You could also use ruby chocolate for baking.
What flavours can I use with ruby chocolate?
Since the main flavour of ruby chocolate is raspberry/fruity flavour, anything that you would normally pair up with raspberries or berries will work well. Often chocolatiers choose to keep the ruby chocolate unflavoured, since it already contains a lot of flavour.
But there is nothing wrong with pairing up this amazing chocolate with some more adventurous flavours, such as pepper, curry spice, cinnamon, vanilla, ginger, mint, wasabi, basil, saffron, rosemary, passion fruit, lychee, apricot, pineapple, coconut, citrus fruit, red fruits, mango, algae, rose champagne, fruity beer, Gueuze beer, honey, cuberdon, caramel, almonds, hazelnuts, sesame oil, camembert, roquefort, green tea, sake, coffee, vinegars, dark chocolate, gold chocolate, velvet chocolate and scallops (St Jacques shells).
How to temper ruby chocolate?
Ruby chocolate needs to be tempered at lower temperature (think in between white & milk chocolate) and it’s working temperature is around 29 C. This is the temperature you should be pouring your chocolate to your moulds or use for chocolate truffles dipping. You can find my chocolate tempering tips in my recent blog post.
How to store ruby chocolate?
Ruby chocolate is fairly pricey, so when you buy it you want to make sure you store it in the best environment you can. Like other chocolate, ruby chocolate doesn’t like a huge differences in storing temperature, so try find a place in your kitchen or house, that will have a constant temperature. 18C is ideal.
As I mentioned before, ruby chocolate is very sensitive to light, so keep the chocolate in it’s original packaging and place in a cupboard that doesn’t have a direct sunlight (e.g. not in a glass cabinet).
Ruby chocolate unfortunately goes slightly grey (and loose it’s pink colour) if you leave it on a direct light (or any light!). You can still use the chocolate, as the taste and texture doesn’t change, but you will need to add pink or red colouring if you’d want to still have a pink chocolate product at the end.
Where can I buy ruby chocolate?
Callebaut sells their chocolate through various re-sellers, but you get the best value for money by buying ruby chocolate directly from Callebaut Shop.
What do you think of ruby chocolate? Have you tried it yet? I’d love to know!
Until next time – happy chocolate making!
Magdalena
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