After years of being dismissed as an impostor, white chocolate is getting a chance in the spotlight.
Big European chocolatiers, detecting growing demand, are sending more white chocolate to the U.S. Meanwhile, smaller artisanal makers who had declared their allegiance to dark chocolate are adding white to their lineups.
Many makers see white chocolate as a more-or-less neutral platform for compatible flavors like strawberry, pistachio, almond and espresso as well as long shots, like lemon pepper and balsamic vinegar.
White Chocolate's Appeal
See how a white chocolate bar is made at Askinosie Chocolate.
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Nate Luke for the Wall Street Journal
White chocolate appeals to Americans because it tastes sweeter and richer than milk or dark chocolate, which can be bitter. "There's more fat," says Federico Giorgio Marrano, export manager for Perugina, a unit of Nestlé SA NESN.VX +0.93% . "It's more indulgent and creamy."
In 2011, the company launched Baci White, its popular hazelnut-filled truffles enrobed in white chocolate, partly in response to data indicating steadily increasing demand, he says.
In measures of popularity, white chocolate pales in comparison with the dark stuff. Plain white chocolate bars, not including truffles or other candy, make up only about 5% of all chocolate bars sold in the U.S., according to Euromonitor International, a market research firm. Sales of white-chocolate products in the U.S. amount to less than $30 million, or less than 1% the size of the nearly $20 billion milk- and dark-chocolate segment, according to data from Nielsen and the National Confectioners Association.
White chocolate is made from the cocoa butter separated out when cocoa beans are roasted, mashed into a paste and put through a press. White chocolate doesn't use the beans' dark solids, resulting in a mild flavor when combined with milk and sugar.
In some cases, white chocolate's cocoa butter content is 10 times as great as dark chocolate. The white chocolate bar at Askinosie Chocolate, an artisanal maker based in Springfield, Mo., has cocoa butter content of 34%, compared with 3% for dark chocolate and 9% for milk chocolate, says Lawren Askinosie, director of sales and marketing, who runs the company with her father, Shawn Askinosie, who founded the company seven years ago.
For this reason, some chocolatiers and trade groups maintain that white chocolate isn't really chocolate. "White chocolate doesn't fit the fine chocolate category because it only uses a portion of the cocoa bean's chocolaty goodness," Mary Jo Stojak, president of the Fine Chocolate Industry Association, said via email. "It's missing the chocolate solids."
According to Food and Drug Administration standards dating back to 2002, white chocolate must have at least 20% cocoa butter, 14% milk solids and not more than 55% sugar if it is to be labeled "chocolate." Other than cocoa butter, true white chocolate doesn't include other types of vegetable fats, which lack the richness of cocoa butter, companies say.
Behind white chocolate's appeal is consumers' increasing willingness to stray from the classics and sample artisanal makers' surprising flavor combinations, says Karen Neugebauer, master chocolatier and owner of Forte Chocolates in Mount Vernon, Wash.
She concocted a coffee-bean-flavored white chocolate bar in 2007 and realized she had stumbled upon a marketing niche, she says. Now half of Forte's offerings are white chocolate, with bars flavored with rosemary sea salt, lemon pepper, espresso and balsamic vinegar—all strong sellers. This year she launched white chocolate truffles flavored with peppermint and vanilla.
Some savory flavors haven't made the cut, including truffle oil, garlic and wasabi. They may taste good when the white chocolate is in liquid form but are overpowering when the chocolate solidifies, Ms. Neugebauer says. "Choosing the right blend of white chocolate and the right form and strength of the ingredient to pair it with can be quite difficult."
Many people are surprised to see that white chocolate is actually cream-colored. Most artisanal companies no longer "deodorize" their butter, a process that removes color and flavor, Ms. Askinosie says.
Askinosie began offering a white chocolate bar in 2008 made from leftover cocoa butter from its dark-chocolate production. "White chocolate used to be a no-no," she says. Now the chocolate maker sells four white chocolate bars, including a limited-edition pumpkin-spice bar launched for the holidays.
The company presses its own cocoa beans on a 100-year-old machine called a melangeur. White-chocolate bars are time-consuming to make, which is reflected in the cost—$10.50 for a white chocolate bar versus $8 for Askinosie's dark chocolate. Sales have quadrupled over the previous year, Ms. Askinosie says.
Europeans have customarily given white chocolate to children because it doesn't contain caffeine and its flavor is mild compared with bitter dark chocolate, says Perugina's Mr. Giorgio Marrano.
White chocolate was first developed in the 1930s and many of Perugina's customers are returning to a taste and a product they recall from childhood, he says. Last year during the winter holidays, Perugina says the white-chocolate Baci truffles outsold the dark-chocolate truffles.
Companies say white chocolate is a natural canvas for showcasing flavor combinations, whereas dark chocolate can be overpowering.
Lindt USA, a subsidiary of Lindt & Sprüngli AG of Switzerland, one of the world's largest chocolate makers, has added white chocolate in new flavors of vanilla, strawberry and crème in the past two years, in response to consumer demand for chocolate flavors that mimic ice cream, says Thomas Linemayr, Lindt USA's chief executive. In the past, "white chocolate was a bit left out," he says.
Lindt has sold a plain white chocolate bar in the U.S. for about two decades. Sales of its white-chocolate products have doubled in the past five years, and the company says it plans to launch several more white-chocolate products in 2014.
Mr. Linemayr often tries to "convert" acquaintances to white chocolate. "The reaction that I get is, 'I didn't know it was that good,' " he says.
Write to Alina Dizik at alina.dizik@wsj.com
See how a white chocolate bar is made at Askinosie Chocolate.
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