By: Alex Harmon, ellaslist

Is there anything the Swiss can't do? Create delicious cheese. Produce the world's best watches. Remain neutral. Now they've gone and made our lives better by creating a new flavour of chocolate! Because the dark, milk and white they invented simply wasn't not enough. Switzerland, we salute your ambition!  

The new chocolate, named Ruby after its pinkish-red hue, is the newest chocolate in 80 years (the last was the white version in the 1930s). 

Swiss chocolate giant Barry Callebaut says it used the ruby cocoa bean to create a confectionary with “berry-fruitiness and luscious smoothness”.

What Does It Taste Like?

Ruby's taste is a sour yet sweet, with a subtle berry flavour, according to the company. Said to have an “intense sensorial delight” the sweet treat offers a “totally new taste experience, which is not bitter, milky or sweet."

Although its colour and name makes it scream of artificial additives, its flavours and colouring are entirely natural with no berries or berry flavour added. The chocolate is made from beans grown in the Ivory Coast, Ecuador, and Brazil and the colour “comes from the powder extracted during processing.”

Valentines Day Sorted

Producers say the new product may help boost sales in a struggling global chocolate market (um, hello us mums are definitely doing our bit to save the industry!) and is said to be appealing to Millennial consumers. Although it hasn't hit the market just yet (it still needs FDA approval) we say, start putting in your hints to your partner for next year's Valentines Day....just imagine those cute pink heart chocolates! 

Not To Everyone's Taste

It's true you can't please everyone and some critics have already slammed Ruby for being a bit of a gimmick. 

“This is classic marketing hype,” says Megan Giller, food writer, author and someone who'll be sticking to Cadbury's this Valentine's Day. 

Giller, who is an advocate for artisanal, fair-trade chocolate — something the Ruby creators are not known for — “hopes that in the future, big chocolate companies will focus on making quality chocolates with unique flavors and pure, ethically sourced ingredients rather than gimmicks designed to trick consumers. There are already single-origin chocolates with delicious fruity notes — they just aren’t bright pink.” 

Ruby should be available for consumers to purchase in 6-18 months.