Chocolate diamonds are a term that people are hearing more and more without when is comes to diamonds and gemstones. But where exactly do chocolate diamonds come from? We do know that with with pink and yellow diamonds, they tend to be rare and they are often seen to be more valuable than regular diamonds. That said do chocolate diamonds fall in the same category? Jezebel took a deeper look into this to see exactly where chocolate diamonds come from. Are they valuable? Are they rare? Or is it clever marketing?
For starters, the term “Chocolate Diamond” comes from the Le Vian Corporation. Le Vian trademarked the term and it seems that its origin originated with Eddie LeVian, the designer and CEO of the Le Vian Corporation. According to Eddie LeVian, chocolate diamonds are a brand of natural fancy colored diamonds that are chosen for their rarity. As a company, Le Vian has a specific criteria in which they use to choose the appropriate diamonds. The diamonds were inspired by friend of the company, Bill Furman’s passion and addiction to the actual food chocolate. In 2000, Le Vian branded Chocolate Diamonds, achieving registration by 2008 giving it a worldwide brand appeal.
One thing that seems to be missing here is the fact that “chocolate” diamonds are simply “brown” diamonds and in fact, brown diamonds are the most common diamonds available. So is this just a clever marketing scheme? Jezebel spoke with Dr. George Harlow, who has a background in geology, specializing in mineralogy and crystallography. Dr. Harlow confirmed that brown is the most common color with colorless being the next. In actuality, the rarest colors are actually blue and red. True greens also fall in the “very rare” category. That said, most diamonds are brown. And since they’re seen as “dirty” and unattractive and are so common, many people were just not interested.
That said, it’s been evident that LeVian created a phenomenal marketing scheme in an attempt to market a common diamond. It seems to be working as they’ve been wildly successful.