It’s National White Chocolate Day! Though I’ve mentioned many times that I’m not a huge fan of white chocolate, I do accept that it has its good points – where would tuxedo strawberries be without it? It also contains no theobromine, so it’s acceptable to eat by those with medical or religious restrictions.

White chocolate actually didn’t hit the candy scene until the 1950’s when it was introduced to the US by Mars, who originally saw it made in Europe in 1954. It was then popularized by Nestlé in their Alpine White Chocolate bar, which contained white chocolate and chopped almonds. In Britain it’s distributed by the Cadbury company.

White chocolate is made up of sugar, cocoa butter, and milk solids, and actually contains no chocolate at all. It’s able to stay solid at room temperature and melts in the mouth like milk chocolate, which makes it popular in candy bars and other treats as a chocolate alternative.

The U.S. only very recently (2004) placed restrictions on the make up of white chocolate: it must be at least 20% cocoa butter (by weight), at least 14% total milk solids, at least 3.5% milk fat, and less than 55% sugar or other sweeteners.

Because of its lack of any actual chocolate a lot of people worldwide still don’t consider white chocolate to be chocolate at all. What do you think?

Celebrate today’s “holiday” by whipping up a white chocolate treat of your own!

~ White Chocolate Chip Macadamia Cranberry Cookies
~ White Chocolate Peppermint Bark
~ White Chocolate Raspberry Tarts
~ Lavender Hot Chocolate
~ Chocolate Raspberry Martini

[image: flickr]

Post from: Chocolate Bytes

It was bound to happen (again!): Hershey’s announced last Friday that, effective immediately, it’s raising U.S. prices on its wholesale products by about 13%. They cited the higher cost of ingredients like cocoa, milk, corn sweetener, sugar and peanuts.

The mega-chocolate maker said its 2008 profit will be at the low end of its forecast range and they have cut sales growth projections for 2009, sending its shares down more than 4%.

This further cements my decision that if I’m spending the money on chocolate it’s going to a quality brand, which Hershey just hasn’t been for a while.

Do you think this will hurt or help Hershey’s?

[image: flickr]

Post from: Chocolate Bytes