Functional Comfort Food

Back in 2017 (Functional Comfort Food) we reported about ruby red chocolate made from ruby cocoa beans sourced from the Ivory Coast, Ecuador, and Brazil that Swiss mega-chocolatier The Barry Callebaut Group had recently launched into the Shanghai, China market.

Subsequent to the article, ruby chocolate was introduced into the Japan and Europe markets. 

On May 14, 2019 The Barry Callebaut  Group announced that ruby chocolate would now be available to confectioners in the U.S. and Canada.

There is hitch however; the FDA does not recognize products made from ruby cocoa beans as chocolate. The FDA recognizes milk, dark and white only. This will prove to be quite an initial challenge for all the confectioner’s marketing departments who can only label their products ruby cocoa and not use the word chocolate.

A quick search on Amazon shows a KitKat® product manufactured in the UK as being made with “Ruby cocoa beans” inviting you to “discover a new chocolate experience.”  But if you visit Harry & David in the U.S. you will see “Introducing Our New Ruby Cacao Collection…made with the sensational ruby cocoa bean” There is no mention of chocolate in these truffles.

So what is the difference between cocoa and cocao? Stay tuned.