I make things with white, milk and dark chocolate. But I also buy white, milk and dark chocolate. But what’s the difference between milk chocolate and dark chocolate? And what is white chocolate?
Recently, a box of chocolates made its way into our apartment.
This particular box was a wrapped assortment of Leonidas Fresh Belgian Chocolates, inside of which was a wrapped plain assortment of white, milk and dark chocolates. Leonidas are a Belgian chocolate company started in 1913 by a Greek-Cypriot confectioner (Leonidas Kestekides). The company has been passed down through the generations with 350 shops in Belgium alone and 2,500 stores in 50 countries around the world.
WHITE CHOCOLATE
Two things about white chocolate. The first is that white chocolate reminds me of my childhood. The second is that white chocolate isn’t chocolate.
Whereas milk and dark chocolate are produced from various proportions of the non-fat part of the cocoa bean, white chocolate contains no cocoa solids whatsoever. Instead, white chocolate is made from cocoa butter, a pale yellow edible vegetable fat which has a cocoa aroma and flavour. Because cocoa butter doesn’t taste good on its own, milk, sugar and sometimes vanilla are added to deliver a sweet and creamy product. If it’s more white and less ivory in colour, beware of supplemental vegetable oils and fats or perhaps artificial colour additives having been thrown into the mix.
As a kid, I didn’t know that it wasn’t actually chocolate. And I didn’t care. It was sweet and delicious and fun. To this day, I have memories of chocolate hunts during family gatherings, on a search for Easter eggs, or to find little chocolate figurines of Sinterklaas. And it was always the white chocolate over which we fought, because it was the sweetest and lightest in colour.
My taste has changed, of course, and using white chocolate to make other chocolate products is a little more challenging than using milk and dark chocolate given that its main ingredients are fats which melt at different temperatures. There is a subsequent risk of the chocolate becoming lumpy.
MILK CHOCOLATE
Like a lot of people, I became a teenager. My perspective on life changed. And so did my perspective on chocolate.
Milk chocolate afforded me a more sophisticated alternative to white chocolate. It was still sweet and creamy, but I felt more like an adult when I bought it.
Milk chocolate does what it says on the tin. It is a solid chocolate made with milk (in the form of either milk powder, liquid milk or condensed milk) and unlike white chocolate, milk chocolate is made with cocoa solids.
There are various governmental requirements throughout the world as to the proportion of ingredients which are to be used but generally at least 10% should be chocolate liquor, at least 12% should be milk solids, and at least 25% should be cocoa solids (although there are exceptions for lower cocoa solid content where it can be traded as “family milk chocolate”). Cocoa butter, vanilla, milk fats and lecithin are also often used.
It was the Germans who developed a milk chocolate drink in the mid 1800s and the Swiss who engineered the first milk chocolate solid towards the end of the same century using condensed milk.
For me, milk chocolate is hanging out with friends at the park after long cycles and going away for camping weekends with the ‘Chiro’ youth group. Now milk chocolate is a fun ingredient in my armoury when I’m making creamy milk chocolates in the apartment.
DARK CHOCOLATE
My evolution in taste with chocolate became complete with dark chocolate in my early twenties.
I got to a place where chocolate didn’t have to be so sweet or playful and offered pleasure and comfort. For me, dark chocolate was classy. It gave me an opportunity to take myself more seriously. And it made me feel like I was really treating myself.
The difference between milk chocolate and dark chocolate is that dark chocolate does not have any milk solids added. Dark chocolate will generally have a higher percentage of cocoa solids and can range from 30% to 80% in cocoa solid make-up. Because of this, it is fuller in real chocolate taste and results in a drier, more chalky texture. Perhaps the most pronounced difference in taste is the deeper bitterness of dark chocolate which tickles the palette in aftertaste.
Much too has been made of the health benefits of dark chocolate. It is argued that dark chocolate is nutritious in fibre and minerals; that it is a powerful source of antioxidants; and that it may improve blood flow and lower blood pressure. Surely, this is an added bonus to the wonderful taste that it delivers.
IS WHITE, MILK OR DARK CHOCOLATE YOUR FAVOURITE?
Obviously, these are just my subjective opinions on the different types of chocolate. These days, it depends on my mood as to which chocolate I want to try and my choice is shaped by memories of eating chocolate throughout my life and the emotions they trigger.
Which is your favourite chocolate? Do you prefer white, milk or dark? And have you enjoyed a similar evolution in taste?
