Do you have any issues with white chocolate being called chocolate?
Milk has different state-of-matter, taste and flavor. But other than these, yes, perfect name ;-)
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I'm pretty sure there's more cocoa butter in white chocolate than there is milk, so I don't think this works.
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I agree. A significantly less sweet version of white chocolate should be amazing. I wonder why no company tries to make and market it.
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Some 'baking' varieties of white chocolate are less sweet, I guess assuming your recipe will already call for sugar.
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I've found that basically all good quality white chocolates are only about as sweet as a mildly sweet milk chocolate. The sweeter any chocolate, generally the lower quality it is.
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I don't know if it's just where I live but I have the absolute worst time buying white chocolate. It's my favourite but it's so rare to actually find being sold. =/
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I'm fine with it's name. Don't have an opinion on whether it's accurate or not because I don't know what is in it, what constitues chocolate or not and don't particularly care.
Happy to remain ignorant while my tastebuds enjoy it.
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I'm not a big fan a chocolate, especially white, but I don't have a problem with the name. fruit candy and drinks don't actually need to be made with real fruit, I don't see why white chocolate needs to actually be chocolate.
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Where I live we make and like all kinds of choclate but white chocolate is indeed very sweet. :-)
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Yes, believe me I know. I spent a day in Brussels several years ago and was busy devouring as many different kinds of chocolate and pralines as I could. I don't know how you people manage to not become obese with this variety and quality (and the fantastic beer shouldn't help either).
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Maybe they do like me; eat some of those very tasty pralines and chocolates and beer and fries and waffles and a lot of other less know products but also keep in shape by sporting, swimming and fitness. :-)
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I like dark chocolate and white chocolate, but not a big fan of milk chocolate.
White chocolate is just cocoa butter, which is still cocoa.
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that's exactly what I needed to see to get out of the internet for today
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I consider it just a name. It's like getting mad at peanut butter's only similarity with actual butter being that you can spread it on bread.
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So long as the "white" is included as a public service warning, then I'm content with it being called chocolate.
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i prefer white chocolate, pity it's tagged with the same price.
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Well, it won't kill you like the Lindt 100gr chocolate bunnies...those are on the foodwatch list of carcinogenics :P
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White Chocolate Power!
Is this thread even real life?
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? Never heard anyone complaining about it's name
I prefer "normal" Chocolate with Nuts or sth, but i do eat white Chocolate from Time to Time
I am addicted to Chocolate anyways :3
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I read this as "Do you have any issues with white people being called chocolate?" and was deeply confused.
But as for the matter at hand, I don't mind. It's more often than not used where chocolate would be (in bars, hot cocoa, cakes...) so as a white alternative to chocolate "white chocolate" works better than anything else for a name. Although personally I like to call it "better chocolate."
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Oh, nonono- I know how this routine goes.
First you call me chocolate, then, as with actual chocolate, you'll want to start licking me, then biting me, and next thing I know, you'll want to cover your entire body with me.
We'll have none of that, now, you scamp.
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If people can call Bud Light "beer", then I see no problem here...
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I suppose people can, but I can also call the sun the great big flaming cheesewheel- it doesn't mean it actually has cheese in it.
In fairness, I find that most non-Americans don't consider Lite (also known as American) beers to actually be beers.
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voted "The name is fine, and I consider it to be accurate (its main ingredient comes from cocoa beans, good enough for me)", then read up on chocolate, changed the vote to "The name is fine, even if incorrect (it contains cocoa butter, not cocoa solids hahah!!)"
Once again SG mades me educate myself on things I don't care about.
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Noone ever said that chocolate had to be made from cocoa solids and cocoa butter. :P
Chocolate is a range of foods derived from cocoa (cacao), mixed with fat (ie, cocoa butter) and finely powdered sugar to produce a solid confectionery.
As long as it uses the cacao plant and has fat and sugar, it's chocolate.
Which is why candy bar coatings in the US qualify as chocolate, even though they're Compound Chocolates- ie, the opposite of white chocolate, in that they have cocoa solids but no butter.
..of course, apparently in some places it's illegal to call compound chocolate chocolate, much like American Cheese product has to have that 'product' tagged on, so perhaps not the best counter-example :P
Still, how often do you hear people complain that candy bars aren't chocolate, compared to white chocolate? :X
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Still, how often do you hear people complain that candy bars aren't chocolate, compared to white chocolate? :X
Actually I've never heard anyone complaining about white chocolate not being chocolate before this thread. It's a real novelty to me. And pretty interesting, as I normally don't wonder a lot about sweets and I'd never think that some people are elitist about chocolate. :D
Noone ever said that chocolate had to be made from cocoa solids and cocoa butter. :P
It all depends how you define chocolate. I've seen definitions that state both cocoa solids and cocoa butter as ingriedients of chocolate (and the way it's produced is important too, if we want to have the best definition). In that case a lot of "chocolates" on the market wouldn't be chocolates in strict sense.
If we use definition you've provided then you might call white chocolate, as well as compound chocolates. In everyday life that is the most common use of the term "chocolate". And I'm okay with this as we usually refer to what it tastes like, not the manufacturing process and ingredients. But it's nice to know the difference :D
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Well, sure.
It's like distinguishing between vanilla ice cream and chocolate ice cream.
Vanilla may feel more 'normal', and the difference in flavors may seem notable, but in the end they all still taste like ice cream :P
..compound chocolates'd be skim milk ice cream in this metaphor? :P
But yeah, my point was, you can either categorize them by flavor, in which case they'd all be chocolate, or by specific ingredient requirements, at which point we'd have to exclude both compound and white chocolates off the list.
However, at that point, what do we call them?
And moreover, why are we wanting to do things in reverse of the norm (which is we categorize based on similarity, and then subdivide with clarifications)?
For example, single malt scotch is delicious and high quality, and we can compare it to high end dark chocolates.
But it's still technically a whisky.
So in this example, white chocolate'd be, say, a bourbon.
Distinctly different in flavor, in totally a different direction. But again, still a whisky.
Isn't it easier to say "I like whiskies, but I really prefer scotch the most" and "I like chocolates, but not white chocolates" than "I like chocolates, but I hate psudeo-chocolates- but only the white ones"? :P
I mean, I like clarity as much or more than anyone, but I'm unsure what kind of distinction people are trying to make here~
In any case, the best alternative example'd be [American] cheese product- we can always start calling white and compound chocolates 'chocolate product'. But that's surely going to end up being a whole lot more confusing on people than just being clear in the first place :P
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It's not chocolate, but as they were telling this lie for many years I think it has stuck with it.
There is no cocoa in this fat-milk-sugar stuff, so I don't know how it can be named chocolate D: But yeah, great move from marketting point of view, mix some stuff together, form it to look like chocolate bars and sell as amazing "white chocolate". Just as they are adding mineral salts to water to make super cheap drinks, and then write on the label "have extra stuff, it's better than normal water in keeping you hydrated" xD
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White chocolate is usually 30% cocoa, Milk is usually 40%.
(White chocolate goes up to 45% cocoa while Milk chocolate ranges between 34% and 50%;
60% or more is usually already considered Dark Chocolate.
In other words, differences in cocoa content are usually minimal, and white can actually have more cocoa than milk.)
I'm not sure where you got the 'no cocoa' idea from, but whatever you've been eating, it probably wasn't actual white chocolate-
Like you say, probably just something marketed to look like it, much like nasty fake cheeses. :X
http://www.seriouseats.com/2014/12/what-is-white-chocolate-best-brands.html
http://perfecthealthdiet.com/2014/03/white-chocolate/
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Also, electrolytes are salts we expel when exercising, so it is helpful to replenish those. Of course, gatorade and powerade have electrolytes, and they're cheap enough. Can't argue that most health/vitamin waters are gross-tasting and of little extra benefit, though when you move up a step to health shakes, they're usually fine.
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Cocoa as cocoa grains - so stuff that gives chocolate it's flavour and brown-black colour.
In white "chocolate" you have cocoa butter (fat), sugar, milk (sometimes it's only sugar and non-cocoa fat - other plant fats are cheaper, so companies try to cheat, selling plant fat and sugar as white "chocolate").
In USA (and Europe) this stuff has to have at least 20% of cocoa butter, 14% milk solids, 3,5% milk fat and no more than 55% of sugar, to be rightfully named as white chocolate.
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I'm familiar with the requirements of white chocolate, so I guess your second paragraph is about the fakes you mentioned? Haven't heard of any that substitute out the cocoa butter, but that sounds grossly cheap.
I find gourmet white chocolates to have a rather distinct, delightful flavor [and good quality white chocolate makes for fabulous hot cocoa].
You even get some high end chocolates that layer white and dark chocolate for a delightful contrast.
I mean, I'm all about the flavor, which is why I'm of a "darker the better" mentality, but white chocolate is both tasty, and meets the requirements of being chocolate (as I quoted to entropia above).
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It's easier to make a trash white chocolate, and harder to create a good one, because over-sweetening it, or using wrong additives can smother it's own taste. Most commercially available white chocolates sadly are only white, sugary, faintly cocoa-releated sweet bars, hence the bad reputation of white chocolate.
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In fairness, I only eat good quality non-American gourmet/organic/etc chocolates as a rule, so I'm sure my perspective is a bit different.
As I noted at one point, American compound chocolates are generally gross ["sugary, faintly cocoa-related sweet bars"], so it wouldn't surprise me to learn that holds true for cheap white chocolates as well.
High end white chocolate is velvety, vanilla-y, with a rich cocoa butter creamyness.
(And like all good chocolates (or desserts in general), not too sugary.)
Mmmmmm~!
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During manufacturing of chocolate they separate cocoa powder from cocoa butter, and then mix it up once more in right proportions to make chocolate (milk, dark, with nuts and so on).
When they make white "chocolate" they separate cocoa grains as above, but then use coca powder to make something else, and remained cocoa butter is mixed with milk and sugar to make this chocolate-like product.
From the other side you have compound "chocolate" - here they mix cocoa powder with other plants fats, as cocoa butter isn't available - it was quite popular in Poland when we were part of USSR - cocoa powdder was easy to get, but not cocoa butter. So they were forced to use other plants fat to make "chocolate" - tho it's taste is nowhere compared to chocolate taste.
In white chocolate they have to add additional flavourings - like vanilla or something like that, as pure cocoa butter is not really tasty.
That's why I don't agree that this white stuff should be named chocolate. It's not about taste of this something, but manufacturing process. You won't say that chips have bell pepper flavour, just because fried potato chips had for a moment contact with fresh bell pepper, and then bell pepper was used to make pepper pickles, and chips are left without any kind of "pepper coating" D:
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Usually vanilla is added to white chocolate, yeah.
The fact that white chocolate can easily express added flavors like vanilla is what makes it so tasty. :D
I'm really not sure you've had good white chocolate. :P
Cocoa butter has a very distinct creamy taste to it- it may differ a bit from the taste of other chocolates, but it's still a flavor unique to its inclusion of the cacao plant.
That aside, at least here, white chocolate and compound chocolate are both considered chocolate by definition. So any arguments would be against the official definition, or simply elitist in nature :P
If you want to take a more precise approach to your local or personal definition, than I'd have to expect that neither Compound or white chocolate be treated as chocolate, since they're essentially identical, except in reverse of one another.
Cocoa solid > cocoa butter just doesn't work for me as a prioritization :P
To me, white chocolate and milk chocolate taste rather similar [other than white chocolate's creamier, vanilla flavor]- it's only the strongly cocoa dark chocolate that really tastes distinctly different.
I mean, I'm all in favor of calling dark chocolate "Real Chocolate" and everything else "those other chocolate-like things", but that's about as arbitrary a division as yours seems to me.
Of course, I'm also used to things like Couverture chocolates, so I'm well familiar with how cocoa butter can shape the taste of a chocolate :D
So to me, white chocolate is really just a creamy, even smoother version of a couverture chocolate :X
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Great post! I'm learning a lot from this thread.
Any recommendations for specific high quality white chocolates sold in the US? I'll be there (NYC/DC/Boston/Philly/Baltimore) next month and won't mind doing some legwork to find the good stuff.
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Look, if I have to call 'Milk Chocolate' chocolate, then 'White Chocolate' definitely is chocolate as well.
Nevermind American chocolates usually are about as worthy of the name as American Cheese Product is.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to find the darkest, blackest, most cocoa-i-est bar of chocolate an dramatically bite off a piece for emphasis.
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White chocolate might be the most unpopular of its kind,
for obvious reasons and statistics ... but its still chocolate.\o\
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I'm fine with people calling it chocolate, I do as well, while it's technically not chocolate.
They are only using the cocoa fat from the cocoa beans, adding milk powder, sugar and often vanilla extract - it not a bad thing, but using only one component of a whole (cocoa fat/cocoa butter from the beans) makes it really different from other foods that uses the whole, even in a lesser degree - higher % of cocoa content (while it's just pure cocoa butter) doesn't mean that it's superior to a lower cocoa content chocolate that actually contains some of the beneficial components - vitamins, entioxidants etc.
For example halwa is " is any of various dense, sweet, tahini [sesame paste] based confections of Arabic origin;
Nut-butter-based: This type of halva is crumbly and usually made from tahini (sesame paste) or other nut butters, such as sunflower seed butter. The primary ingredients are nut butter and sugar."
I think it can be used as a similar example - halwa has high percentage of nut paste content, while sunflower oil has 100% sunflower seed-originated content, while if you try to create a halwa-like thing out if it, it's just really far from it, having a totally different taste because of the much more limited components. But that does not mean that someone wouldn't enjoy it, like people with white chocolate :)
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Most people I know dislike white chocolate or at least claim they do. Some even state that it's not chocolate and that they find the name vexing. Personally, I like white chocolate and have no issues with its name. It may not be accurate by some definitions, but it's the common industry name and calling it anything else would now be confusing.
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