It’s the first new natural colour for chocolate since Nestle started making white chocolate more than 80 years ago and it’s now available in the Blue Mountains.
Josophan’s Fine Chocolates in Leura is one of only four places in Australia to sell ruby chocolate – a sour, fruity, pink chocolate – which was created after a decade of testing.
The product has been created by Callebaut. The beans come from Ivory Coast, Ecuador and Brazil and the unusual colour comes from the powder extracted during processing.
Leura chocolate maker Jodie Van Der Velden was one of the first in Australia to experience the chocolate when it was revealed in 2017 and is getting the product on her shelves six months earlier than expected.
“It’s a really exciting innovation. It’s the fourth type of chocolate – after milk, dark and white.
“It’s a very large and competitive industry and the first major innovation in such a long time, so the world’s gone crazy about it.”
Callebaut’s ruby RB1 owes its colour and specific taste solely to the expert selection and meticulous processing of the ruby beans – no fruit flavouring or colourants are added to the chocolate.
Ms Van Der Velden said it’s a “chocolate for grown-ups” because it has “significantly less sugar”.
The chocolate is only available in three other locations in Australia at the moment – Textbook Patisserie in Sydney and Melbourne’s Burch and Purchase Sweet Studio and Savour Chocolate and Patisserie School are selling ruby desserts or chocolate.
The Josophan’s team are crafting the chocolate into blocks of chocolate, shards with dried raspberry and strawberry, and delicious pistachio and raspberry, clusters of macadamia, almond and crispy wafer, Ruby covered natural honeycomb, and a fine chocolate is in development at the moment.
It will be available in store and online from Monday August 13.
Ms Van Der Velden is the first chocolatier and female chef in Australia to be inducted into the world-wide ‘Chocolate Hero’, program conceived by the giant Belgian chocolate manufacturer Callebaut.
It will be another month before the ruby chocolate –known as Ruby RB1 – will be available to the rest of Australia. A 100 gram block of the Ruby RB1 sells for just under $10.
