Table of Contents
1. What is White Chocolate?
Although its name can confuse us, in reality, White Chocolate, despite its name, is not technically a variety of chocolate at all.
It does not contain cocoa solids but is made with cocoa butter (which gives it its characteristic white or off-white colour), milk and sugar.
Also, it can contain some sweeteners and flavourings, such as, for example, the case of vanilla.
- Due to its characteristic colour, it is common to use it in sweet desserts in which you want to highlight its whitish appearance.
- Depending on the chosen recipe, it will be necessary to use chopped or chopped white chocolate or white chocolate chips.
- However, unlike other varieties of slightly more nutritious and healthy chocolate, as might be the case of black chocolate.
- White chocolate is not an option suitable for regular consumption, mainly due to its high content of fat and calories, and does not contain the main nutritional qualities of dark chocolate.
2. Starting at the Beginning: Why Isn’t White Chocolate Truly Chocolate?
For many years, experts ruled out white chocolate, a sweet made with cocoa butter, dairy solids, and sugar. But it does not contain any of the cocoa solids that give darker chocolate both its characteristic and recognizable colour and flavour.
- A cocoa bean made up of similar parts of cocoa butter and cocoa beans.
- Cocoa butter is what gives chocolate its delicious and creamy mouthfeel. In contrast, cocoa beans contain most of their smell and taste.
- However, we should consider white chocolate as a sweet fat. Why? Very simple: it is only a dough or melt that does not contain cocoa solids or cocoa powder.
- For this reason, for the chocolate to honestly labelled as such, it must contain at least 10 per cent cocoa (seeds plus cocoa fat, inherent in the bean) but without taking cocoa butter into account.
- On the other hand, for white chocolate to be truly white, it must have a cocoa butter content of at least 20 per cent.
- Specifically, it must be composed of at least 20% cocoa butter, 14% milk solids, 3.5% milk fat, and about 55% sugar (or other sweeteners).
- As we can see, it does not contain reliable cocoa components, which is not healthy.
3. Why Is It Not Suitable or Healthy?
We must bear in mind that cocoa butter, completely alone and without adding any other ingredients, does not tend to taste very good.
Hence, chocolate companies add milk, sugar (in large quantities) and vanilla, to make it something delicious that is worth eating.
Unfortunately, this means that white chocolate is only sugar and in large quantities as well. That is, white chocolate contains between 55 to 60 per cent sugar.
If we compare it with milk chocolate (50 per cent sugar) and even with dark chocolate (25 per cent sugar), it is evident that both are somewhat recommended options.
4. Which is the Best? – White Chocolate or Dark Chocolate
Let’s take an example. A serving of white chocolate equals approximately 28 grams. Thus, a serving of white chocolate has 17 grams of sugar. If we compare it with milk chocolate, it provides 14.4 grams of sugar (or 2.6 grams less). And dark chocolate, with a minimum of 70 per cent cocoa, provides nothing more than 6 7 grams of sugar.
- On the other hand, since it is not technically chocolate, it does not contain cocoa paste.
- Because of this, it does not provide the benefits that cocoa does, including a higher content of antioxidants and other healthy compounds, which we do find in dark chocolate.
- We must also pay attention to the type of fat used to make it. Good quality chocolate uses cocoa butter as its source of fat; the cheaper versions use palm oil or fats.
- If you want to consume white chocolate, the ideal is to review its ingredients and the nutrition information label carefully.
- To make sure that it is of the highest quality possible and does not contain trans fats.
- Even if it is good quality chocolate, the ideal is to moderate its consumption, and that it is only occasional.
