What is white chocolate? Is it really chocolate?

What is white chocolate made from?

The basis for a traditional real white chocolate is cocoa butter (the fat from the cocoa bean), sugar, and milk powder. The cocoa butter is extracted by pressing the cocoa beans. Vanilla or vanilla flavouring is usually added as well. This is different from dark and milk chocolate white utilizes the whole cocoa nib. In the case of dark chocolate, the nib is ground up together with sugar. In the case of milk chocolate, the nib is ground up together with sugar and milk powder.

High Quality vs Low Quality white Chocolate

Image by @jankao

High quality white chocolate should only contain cocoa butter as the fat. There should be no other fats. Lower quality white chocolate contains other fats such as palm kernel oil. When a “white chocolate” contains no cocoa butter, and only other fats (such as palm kernel oil, or cocoa butter replacers), this is not in any way white chocolate. What makes it chocolate is the use of cocoa butter. If it does not contain cocoa butter, then it cannot be called chocolate.

White chocolate is usually made from deodorized cocoa butter, as nondeodorized cocoa butter has a flavour that most people don’t enjoy and interferes with the milk and vanilla flavour people have learned to appreciate in white chocolate. However, white chocolate can be made with either deodorized or nondeodorized cocoa butter.

Is White Chocolate really chocolate?

Yes. If it contains cocoa butter, it is still chocolate. What makes chocolate so unique is not only the flavour, but also the fat which we call cocoa butter. No other natural fat has the same characteristics as cocoa butter. It is not waxy, it is not too oily, it is solid at room temperature, and has a very satisfying creamy soft texture.

Think of white chocolate as an egg white omelet. An egg white omelet is still egg, but only half the egg. White chocolate is made from half of the cocoa nib, the fat portion.

Keep in mind that even a high quality white chocolate is not of the same caliber as high quality dark or milk chocolate. One does not require high quality cocoa beans to make high quality white chocolate, all they require is the fat.