White chocolate

White chocolate is a confectionery typically made of sugar, milk, and cocoa butter, but no cocoa solids. It is pale ivory in color, and lacks many of the compounds found in milk, dark, and other chocolates. It is solid at room temperature (25 C) because the melting point of cocoa butter, the only white cocoa bean component, is 35 C.

Like the other two main types of chocolate (dark and milk), white chocolate is used for chocolate bars or as a coating in confectionery.

Predecessors
Recipes for "white chocolate" were published in 1869, 1871, and 1872, but these differed from the current understanding of white chocolate. For example, Henry Blakely's 1871 recipe calls for "white sugar, rice flour, arrowroot powder, vanilla, cocoa butter, and gum arabic" boiled in water, which likely would produce a chewy confection.

Modern version
White chocolate is essentially milk chocolate devoid of cocoa solids. Its base recipe, milk chocolate, was developed in 1875 by Swiss chocolatier Daniel Peter.

In the December 1916 International Confectioner, T. B. McRoberts addressed a rumor that Swiss chocolatiers had invented a "snow white" chocolate to reflect the snow-capped mountains of the Swiss Alps. McRoberts denounces the need and health value of a white chocolate:"I never saw snow-white chocolate, but I would rather see than eat it. The only possible way to produce such a thing would be to bleach the cocoa elements entirely with some 'bleaching agent,' as for instance clorine gas [sic]. This is produced by the action of sulphuric acid on chloride of sodium (common salt). It is the 'poison gas' of the trenches which the warring armies jet at each other in order to smother their foes ... It would possibly take more than twenty days to bleach cocoa to 'snow white,' and I hardly think its flavor would be improved by the process, if indeed any flavor at all remained, which is very doubtful. The Swiss have introduced many novelties in chocolate as I have noted, but I hardly think that they would waste time and effort on so foolish a thing as 'snow white chocolate'; a thing for which there can be no good reason existing. Why paint the lily?" In 1936, Swiss company Nestlé introduced the first modern white chocolate tablet: Milkybar (or Galak), launched in Europe. Nestlé was a major player in the Swiss chocolate industry and owner of the Peter-Cailler-Kohler factory. Nestlé is generally credited for the first white chocolate bar, although earlier forms of white chocolate had probably been made before 1936. Making white chocolate was a way to use milk powder and cocoa butter, which were then produced in excess.

White chocolate was first introduced to the United States in 1946 by Frederick E. Hebert of Hebert Candies in Shrewsbury, Massachusetts, near Worcester, after he had tasted "white coat" candies while traveling in Europe. From about 1948 until the 1990s, Nestlé also produced a white chocolate bar with almond pieces, Alpine White, for markets in the United States and Canada. Other chocolate manufacturers developed their own formulas, such as that developed by Kuno Baedeker for the Merckens Chocolate Company in 1945. As white chocolate became mainstream, white versions of popular chocolate bars appeared, for instance Toblerone in 1973 and Hershey's Kisses in 1993.

As of 2022, white chocolate accounted for about 10 percent of the overall chocolate market.

Composition
White chocolate does not contain cocoa solids, the primary non-fat constituent of conventional chocolate liquor — chocolate in its raw, unsweetened form. These are, however, replaced by milk solids. During manufacturing, the dark-colored solids of the cocoa bean are separated from its fatty content, as with milk chocolate and dark chocolate, but, unlike with other forms of chocolate, no cocoa mass is added back; cocoa butter is the only cocoa ingredient in white chocolate. White chocolate contains only trace amounts of the stimulants theobromine and caffeine which are present in the cocoa mass but not the butter. Flavorings such as vanilla may be added to white chocolate confectionery.

White chocolate is the type of chocolate containing the highest percentage of milk solids, typically around or over 30 percent, while milk chocolate has only around 25 percent.

Blonde chocolate
Blonde chocolate is made by slowly heating white chocolate, which gives it a golden color and triggers Maillard reactions, which create a range of flavor compounds, contributing to its caramel-like flavor.

Regulations
Regulations govern what may be marketed as white chocolate: Since 2000 in the European Union, white chocolate must be (by weight) at least 20% cocoa butter, 14% total milk solids, and 3.5% milk fat. As of May 2021, the European Food Safety Authority proposed banning the food coloring agent, E171 (titanium dioxide), used as a common whitener in some white chocolate products.

Since 2004 in the United States, the Code of Federal Regulations defined that white chocolate should contain "not less than 20 percent by weight of cacao fat", "not less than 3.5 percent by weight of milkfat and not less than 14 percent by weight of total milk solids", and "not more than 55 percent by weight of a nutritive carbohydrate sweetener." Acceptable dairy elements when manufacturing white chocolate in the United States include evaporated milk, skim milk, buttermilk, and malted milk. White chocolate products may not contain artificial coloring agents.

Vegan versions
Vegan versions of white chocolate chips, bars, and truffles are available from several brands, such as Galaxy and Plamil. Some commercial vegan white chocolate substitutes may contain palm oil, which can be an ethical concern for some consumers.