There’s A New Chocolate Color For The First Time In 80 Years

Image courtesy of Barry Callebaut

For the last 80 years, chocolate lovers have only had three types to choose from: dark, milk, and white (which some may argue isn’t really chocolate). But now there’s a new option heading for shelves — “ruby.”

This, according to the world’s largest cocoa-processing company, Barry Callebaut AG, which says the new type of chocolate is natural and does not contain any dyes or added flavors.

The company spent years developing the new flavor from the Ruby cocoa bean — sourced from different regions around the world — which Barry Callebaut claims “is unique because the fresh berry-fruitiness and color precursors are naturally present.”

“The fourth type in chocolate offers a totally new taste experience, which is not bitter, milky or sweet, but a tension between berry-fruitiness and luscious smoothness,” Barry Callebaut says.

Will people bite? After testing and “extensive consumer research” in the U.K., U.S., China, and Japan, Barry Callebaut says it thinks so, especially the younger set.

“It’s natural, it’s colorful, it’s hedonistic, there’s an indulgence aspect to it, but it keeps the authenticity of chocolate,” CEO Antoine de Saint-Affrique told Bloomberg. “It has a nice balance that speaks a lot to millennials.”

Nestle was the last company to produce a new kind of chocolate, introducing white chocolate to the market back in the 1930s.

And now, please enjoy the gloriousness of this classic ’80s commercial, as well as the iconic cover version by Faith No More.

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