Is White Chocolate Really a Chocolate?

Many of us think that white chocolate is the same as an ordinary chocolate. But actually it’s not considered as “real chocolate” because it does not contain chocolate liquor. It is only because of the cocoa butter content present in white chocolate that falls into the category. Among the ingredients are sugar, cocoa butter, milk solids, sugar lecithin, and flavorings such as vanilla. This if often called confectionery or summer coating. According to the Food and Drug Administration of the United States, products labeled as chocolates should contain cocoa solids from chocolate liquor.

Chocolate liquor is derived from fermenting, drying, roasting and grinding cocoa beans. “Real Chocolates” are those dark chocolates and milk chocolates which contains considerable amounts of cocoa solids and chocolate liquor.

To retain the quality of the chocolate, it should contain cocoa butter otherwise, it is considered an inferior brand especially if instead of cocoa butter, vegetable fat is used to create a confectionery similar to white chocolate but with lesser taste and quality.

Identifying the kind of chocolate can be based on its color. Ivory-colored chocolate is made with cocoa butter, white-colored chocolate however is made with vegetable fat. Those of high quality gourmet chocolate have a rich and creamy texture and have a sweet and subtle flavor.

Rich chocolate treats undergo the same procedure that creates dark chocolate and milk chocolate. Sugar and milk however are the only ingredients added to the cocoa butter to produce its creamy chocolate instead of re-blending the cocoa butter with the cocoa solids. Compared to dark and milk chocolate, these chocolate does not contain caffeine and theobromine since these are found in the cocoa solids. For these chocolate to be considered as true gourmet chocolate must contain at least 20% cocoa butter, 14% total milk solids, 3.5% milk fat and lean than 55% sugar or other sweeteners.

This creamy version became popular in recent years that several well-known chocolate industries have their own line of white chocolate products both for eating and baking purposes. These include:

• Lindt
• Baker’s
• Ghirardelli
• Cadbury
• Godiva
• Hershey’s
• Kit Kat
• Toblerone

Even though white chocolate is not considered as “real chocolate,” it is still on the top three of the most popular kind of chocolates along with milk chocolate and dark chocolate. As a mater of fact, chocoholics would prefer white chocolate without really knowing that it isn’t “real chocolate”. Its sweet “chocolate” goodness is enough to make it real.