Is White Chocolate A Real Chocolate?
May 24, 2022
Do you like white chocolate? This type of chocolate, whether it’s considered a real chocolate or not, always seem to split chocolate lovers between those who hate and love it. What do you think it really is?
I have a friend who loves white chocolate to the point that she only buys all the white versions of the famous chocolates we love. Toblerone? Hershey’s? Lindt? Even Snickers and KitKat have a white chocolate version!
Before we decide whether we really like it or not, let’s first discuss how it was discovered and made.
History
Back in 1930s, Nestlé was manufacturing a supplement for children called Nestrovit. In order to make the milk into a solid form, they added cacao butter thus accidentally creating white chocolate.
Cacao butter is formed from chocolate liquor, which is the base form of chocolate. It is derived by grinding peeled cacao nibs using stones until a thick chocolate paste is formed and then liquefied. Chocolate liquor may be separated into cacao solids and cacao butter, which is the fat.
Adding milk, sugar, lecithin, and vanilla to the cacao butter forms the white chocolate. And as you may have noticed, it does not contain any cocoa solids so technically it’s not a real chocolate. Moreover, because it does not contain chocolate liquor, it has very little caffeine properties compared to regular chocolate.
Sweets covered in confectioner’s are also often mistaken as a white chocolate. Due to this, in 2002, the FDA released a classification of white chocolate. It says it should not contain more than 55% of additive sweetener, and white chocolate should contain not less than 20% by weight cocoa butter, not less than 14% by weight of total milk solids and not less than 3.5% by weight milkfat. This was later on followed suit by the European Union by implementing the same standards, minus the percentage of sweeteners which they did not discuss.
Overall
One thing white chocolate has over dark chocolate is that people who are allergic to the chemical composition of cacao nibs can now enjoy white chocolate. Though keep in mind that they do not taste the same.
Overall, even though by definition white chocolate is not a real chocolate, it will still depend on us whether we accept it in the chocolate family or not. I do enjoy it from time to time even though milk chocolate is still my number one. In fact, I have a small stack of Kinder Bueno White hiding under my desk for “emergencies”. 😉
How about you? Do you like white chocolate and do you think it should be considered as a real chocolate? Share your thoughts in the comment section below and don’t forget to follow our Facebook and Twitter accounts for more fun and interesting chocolatey ideas!
Oh, and P.S. Did you know that September 22nd is National White Chocolate Day? Better add that to my calendar so I could shop for white chocolates and not feel guilty!
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