Pink chocolate joins millennial palette obsession

A breakthrough by a Swiss chocolate maker expands the industry’s hues beyond just dark, milk and white.

Barry Callebaut, the world’s largest cocoa processor, has come up with the first new natural colour for chocolate since Nestle SA started making bars of white chocolate more than 80 years ago. While it has a pinkish hue and a fruity flavour, the Zurich-based company prefers to refer to it as “ruby chocolate.”

The innovation, based on a special type of cocoa bean, comes after about a decade of development, according to chief executive officer Antoine de Saint-Affrique. The chocolate, unveiled in Shanghai Tuesday, has a natural berry flavour that’s sour yet sweet, according to the Zurich-based company, which works behind the scenes to produce chocolate sold by all the major producers including Hershey and Cadbury.

“It’s natural, it’s colourful, it’s hedonistic, there’s an indulgence aspect to it, but it keeps the authenticity of chocolate,” the CEO said in a telephone interview. “It has a nice balance that speaks a lot to millennials.”

The new product may also appeal to Chinese consumers, a nascent market for chocolate, De Saint-Affrique said. The company has tested the product in the UK, US, China and Japan through independent consumer research carried out by Haystack and Ipsos.

“We had very good response in the key countries where we tested, but we’ve also had very good response in China, which for chocolate is quite unusual,” he said, adding the colour is attractive in that market.

Innovations in chocolate often take years because of the complex structures and the challenge of maintaining texture and taste. Nestle scientists have found a way to reduce the amount of sugar in chocolate by as much as 40 per cent, though it won’t be available in confectionery products until next year. Barry Callebaut also sells chocolate that withstands higher temperatures, a goal chocolate companies had sought to achieve for decades.