White Chocolate - Page 2
White chocolate was first made in Switzerland after the end the First World War. It was used in Europe more as a decoration for darker chocolates more than anything else. Nestle first brought white chocolate to people in the United States in 1984 when they introduced their Alpine White Chocolate Bar, which was a bar of white chocolate combined with almonds. Now days, many of the mass producers of chocolate make some products with white chocolate. For example, you can now purchase white chocolate Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. Hershey Hugs are kisses with a swirl of white chocolate. You can also find white chocolate macadamia nut cookies at most bakeries. For a long time, there were no guidelines in the United States that stipulated what could or could not be called white chocolate. It took the FDA a long time, but finally, in 1984, they released the following guidelines: at least 20% cocoa butter (by weight), at least 14% milk solids, and no more than 55% sweeteners like sugar.
The primary difference, as mentioned above, between white chocolate and dark chocolate is not the process by which it is made or the plant that it comes from, but the ingredients that it is made with. White chocolate and dark chocolate begin life as the same thing, a part of the cocoa plant. It was mentioned earlier that the cocoa plant is native to South America and Central America. However, most cocoa these days is grown in Africa. The cocoa plant produces a fruit roughly the size of a large papaya or a small pineapple (In this sense, cocoa beans are not really beans, which grow underground, but seeds). The cocoa beans are growing inside this fruit. When the fruit and therefore the seeds or beans are ripe, the fruit is harvested and the beans are removed. The beans are then allowed to ferment for about a week, and then the beans are sun-dried and shipped off to a chocolate maker. At this point, all chocolate, white dark, milk, mass-produced or gourmet, are all the same. This is the raw product that everyone begins with. The raw beans are sort of off-white in color. It should be noted that like grapes that make wine or the hops that go into beer, different cocoa beans from different places will have differing flavors. Chocolatiers blend the beans to create chocolate that will have different and unique tastes. The first thing that a chocolate producer must do is roast the beans. After the beans are roasted, the meat, or the ‘nib’ must be removed. This process is called winnowing.
