Is white chocolate really chocolate?

Chocolate is supposed to look a certain way. Dark, brown and shiny. White chocolate looks different. It tastes different. And it’s a matter of discussion, mostly arguments, between dark chocolate enthusiasts and white chocolate lovers. People who like dark chocolate do not consider white chocolate as chocolate. So is it?

As humans, we began our journey thousands of years ago in Africa. Over the years, we spread across the world and we all became what we are today. So different. Yet unique and absolutely amazing in our own ways.

A cacao tree that originated somewhere in the basins of Amazon in South America, today has spread across our earth in the form of chocolate. Each unique in its own way. Some combined with milk to create the milk chocolate we all have come to love, some mixed with curry to create mole, while others combined with fruits and nuts to create a truffle while a few remained dark with just a little sugar added to it.

True white chocolate is created using just 3 elements – cocoa butter, milk and sugar. Vanilla is often a fourth ingredient in white chocolate. It has made itself a name for being ‘too sweet’ and quite often thought of as being inferior to its darker cousins. But it is not the case always. White chocolate often have almost the same or lesser amount of sugar compared to dark chocolates. It seems shocking to some. Our Gold bar fits this bill perfectly. What matters is the goodness and the flavour of a chocolate.

The world calls milk chocolate ‘chocolate’ even though milk is added it to it. Cocoa powder qualifies as chocolate even though it has no cocoa butter in it. A praline with chocolate coated qualifies as chocolate.

The soul of a chocolate is cocoa butter. Without cocoa butter, there is no chocolate – be it dark, milk, white or just about any other. Cocoa butter is what gives the chocolate a beautiful shine. It is what makes the chocolate melt in your mouth and it is what makes chocolate ‘chocolate’. And it is what forms the base of white chocolate too.

Food agencies specify what chocolate can be and cannot be. Puritans fight over it. People fight over names and miss out on the beautiful things that the chocolate can be. Eventually it does not matter what it’s called. Just like each one of us, white chocolate is unique and amazing. Yet it is misjudged because it is different. We do not wish to miss out the swan in the pursuit of calling it an ‘ugly’ duckling.