White, black, milk and… pink chocolate!

Everyone has seen white chocolate with pink dye, this one is different, it is really a new type of pink chocolate, without dyes and made of cocoa!

The Millenial generation supposedly loves the pink color (supposedly, because I believe that the color of fashion influences all generations and it is not thanks to the Millenials that the rose has fallen in the graces of the industry). The adoration is so much that a rose shade was named after the young people of today, it is the “millenial rose”.

And why am I telling you this? Because millenial rose is the color of the new chocolate created by the Swiss manufacturer Barry Callebaut together with Jacobs University, from Germany. Despite the rosy coloration, the company guarantees that the chocolate is reddish and therefore named it as “ruby chocolate”.

Do not expect dyed white chocolate, this is produced in an innovative way, a new method of cocoa bean isolation to “isolate taste precursors that preserve a red color.” The company spent 10 years developing this technique to reach the product they presented to the world recently. Oh, and the taste is that of a typical Swiss chocolate 70% cocoa.

Why has the news made such an impact on the industry?

Because the latest disruptive innovation in chocolates happened more than 80 years ago when Nestlé created white chocolate. Pink chocolate is the hope of recovering sales of a falling category. Imagine the next Valentine’s Day with these chocolates on the market, how many new products will be created?

Barry Callebaut itself launched a novelty in 2015, the chocolate that supports high temperatures, we talked about it in the first few months of Eat Innovation (click here), but of course it’s not something as huge as the announcement of a fourth primary type of chocolate .

What about the law?

The FDA (Food and Drug Administration) has yet to approve the product and the company claims that the entire legal approval process in major world markets will take at least a year. They also seek partners to produce in other continents.

Although the FDA needs to approve the name “ruby chocolate” before its labeling, there is one exception that allows a new product to be marketed as a new invention while the authorization is pending. The delay in registration is due to the fact that pink chocolate does not contain enough milk to be classified as milk chocolate and has cocoa solids, so it also can not enter the category of white chocolate, it will be created a new designation for it.

We have already talked about the impact of law on food innovation, another product that went through the registration problem was the blue wine Gik (read about it here).

What are the millennial pink news on the market?

Pink chocolate is just one of the new products with the color of fashion. There is also Burleigh’s  limited-edition Gin inspired by Japanese cherries and also contains hibiscus, grapefruit and roses.

The competitor, Gordon’s, also made its version of gin.

Tequila Código 1530 is pink, however the color is guaranteed by another process. The drink rests on barrels that were previously used to store red wine, so besides the benefit of color, there is still the flavor that has Cabernet notes.

Does pink gin harmonize well with pink chocolate?

References: Bloomberg , Trend Hunter, Eater, Mode Area, Refinery 29, NYMag, Punch, Independent