White Chocolate help, please!

November 2, 2006 10:18 PM

I'd like to give a gift to a white chocolate fanatic but I am white-chocolate ignorant. Any afficianados out there? note: white chocolate is not a euphemism.

He had some European white chocolate he adored but can't remember the name or where it was from. He thinks Lindt and Ghiradelli are okay, but not great.

That's as much as I know.

posted by small_ruminant to food & drink (26 comments total)

aside: what is white chocolate a euphemism for?
posted by matkline at 10:27 PM on November 2, 2006

El Rey (South American)? Callebaut (Belgium)? Valrhona (France)? I like the first two, but Ghiradelli is more than enough for most baking and way easier/cheaper to find.

me
posted by kcm at 10:31 PM on November 2, 2006

no idea, but a couple of other people I asked seemed to think it was one.
posted by small_ruminant at 10:32 PM on November 2, 2006

that last comment was for matkline.

Thanks, kcm. He'll be eating it out of hand, though, so basic cooking chocolate won't do. Are El Rey and Callebaut good for eating plain?

Maybe a sampler package is the way to go.
posted by small_ruminant at 10:34 PM on November 2, 2006

Merckens is the other one I couldn't remember. They're all good, but a sampler is an awesome idea since they're all differently good for eating plain. You can find some of these at Whole Foods (El Rey and Scharffen Berger, for sure), depending on your local WF's buyer. I'd go there and ask for a wine pairing with a selection of chocolate and some ideas.
posted by kcm at 10:37 PM on November 2, 2006

you could always try Godiva
posted by matkline at 10:37 PM on November 2, 2006

for those who asked, white chocolate is "nicer" term for a whigger.
posted by Justinian at 10:57 PM on November 2, 2006

for all the elderly wondering about the potential euphemism...

that said, go with wagner pralines. the website isn't exactly an award-winner but their products are out of this world. (literally, actually. they're german.)
posted by krautland at 10:59 PM on November 2, 2006

Last time I was in Brussels we came across a Godiva chocolate store with a woman dipping strawberries into white chocolate and selling them (for a king's ransom of course). You might try this. White chocolate is (I think) the sweetest type so it tastes best when offset by something like fruit.
posted by rongorongo at 2:27 AM on November 3, 2006

For decent white chocolate in standard off-the-shelf bars, I recommend Nestle Milkybar. After years of making only a sickeningly horrible white chocolate, Cadbury also eventually came out with Cadbury Dream. Neither of these seem to be available in the USA, but I'm sure you'll be able to find a way to order them online.
(I fill my bags with them when coming over here :-) I've noticed they don't survive aircraft travel very well though - they can emerge kind of flaky just on the outer surface, but that's a price gladly paid for smuggling decent confectionary into the USA :-)
posted by -harlequin- at 3:14 AM on November 3, 2006

I suggest buying a fancy, decorative bar of white soap, wrapping it nicely in tissue paper, and saying that it's white chocolate. Hilarity will ensue.
posted by Faint of Butt at 3:59 AM on November 3, 2006

Vosges does a white chocolate. I can't vouch for it (I *hate* white chocolate) but their other chocolates and their caramels are of the very best quality. (i've also had the olive/chocolate combination before, more than once. once it was nasty; once it was trying to hard to be interesting; and once it was surprisingly tasty).
posted by crush-onastick at 5:49 AM on November 3, 2006

oops. too fast on the trigger: i should say, i've had the olive/chocolate combination before, but not from Vosges, because I don't eat white chocolate.
posted by crush-onastick at 5:50 AM on November 3, 2006

You might also be interested to know that white chocolate is not "chocolate" at all (it needs to have at least 20% cocoa solids to earn this title in the US or Europe). Wikipedia has more.
posted by rongorongo at 6:13 AM on November 3, 2006

I know Lindt is strictly mid-grade, but they make a white chocolate coconut bar that is greater than the sum of its parts. I don't even like white chocolate, but I was at World Market buying funky candy bars for s'mores and picked one up. It's fine for s'mores, but really it is meant for nibbling. The coconut texture is just barely there, granular and not stringy, and it's just fantastic. In case you wanted to pad out some actual fine white chocolate with a bit of snacky stuff, you can't go wrong there unless he just hates coconut.
posted by Lyn Never at 6:19 AM on November 3, 2006

Some of the best American-made chocolate I've ever had came from Fran's Chocolates in Seattle. She sells single-origin (guess that's what everyone is into today) white chocolate bars.

If your friend likes European-style chocolates, Piron in Evanston, Illinois (they ship), and chains Leonidas and Teuscher all have wonderful white chocolates. (Full disclosure: Whenever I've had white chocolate from any of these places, it was always in combination with other things, not just plain.)
posted by Sully6 at 7:53 AM on November 3, 2006

I wonder if the Callebaut referred to above is Bernard Callebaut?
He is a Belgian but became smitten in the mid-90's by the wide open skies and can-do 'tude of Calgary Alberta, where he continues to ply his trade as high-end chocolatier.
As to its quality I do not know but presume it to be good. I'm a white chocolate lover myself, but am content with Kinder white chocolate.
posted by Flashman at 9:57 AM on November 3, 2006

In 1996 the Belgian chocolate producer Callebaut and the French chocolate company Cacao Barry joined forces, creating a new company called Barry Callebaut.

That is, this one. Here's more explanation. Same chocolate, in a way.
posted by kcm at 10:17 AM on November 3, 2006

Green and Blacks.
posted by sarahw at 11:05 AM on November 3, 2006

Thank you for all your suggestions!

And for the explanation of white chocolate as slang.

I think I'll go with the sampler idea, so more suggestions would be very welcome.
posted by small_ruminant at 12:35 PM on November 3, 2006

I'm surprised he doesn't like Lindt more; the professional pastry chefs I know say it's the best. From my own fooling around, I'd agree; it's extremely smooth and creamy, and I find it to have a much more complex, nutty flavor than other white chocolates I've tried.

AFAIK it's only available in bulk to professional chefs, but the consumer bars are the same stuff, if a bit more expensive per pound.

I'd rank Callebaut a (distant) second, but it -- as with most white chocolates -- seems just too sugary for me.

Chocolate is, of course, a matter of taste; when Cook's Illustrated tasted dark chocolates, for example, they found that many brands (and especially Valhrona) got scores at both ends of the spectrum, but not in between. In the end the "winning" brand (Callebaut) wasn't the favorite of a single taster, but instead the aggregate favorite.

So I guess what I'm saying is that there's no accounting for taste... but for my palate, I'll stick with the Lindt.
posted by jacobian at 3:14 PM on November 3, 2006

At least as far as the US product is concerned, Green and Black's is gross. I and several other people I've spoken with have found the bars dried-out and containing off-flavors.
posted by rxrfrx at 7:33 PM on November 3, 2006

Well that's not good. I had lovely creamy bar yesterday--I live in New Zealand, and having just checked it seems to be in the European wrapper. I can't imagine the recipe is any different though. Do you experience the same problem with the actual chocolate chocolate?
posted by sarahw at 11:41 PM on November 7, 2006

Oh, this was a regular (dark) chocolate bar I had. I've never had their white chocolate.
posted by rxrfrx at 5:45 AM on November 8, 2006

It was just a general comment concerning the potential freshness of their products in the Northeast US.
posted by rxrfrx at 5:45 AM on November 8, 2006

It just makes me so sad that chocolate could ever be maltreated. It's a cruel cruel world.
posted by sarahw at 3:34 PM on November 8, 2006