White chocolate in the context of "Baking chocolate"

Chocolate is a food made from roasted and ground cocoa beans that can be a liquid, solid, or paste, either by itself or to flavor other foods. Cocoa beans are the processed seeds of the cacao tree (Theobroma cacao). They are usually fermented to develop the flavor, then dried, cleaned, and roasted. The shell is removed to reveal nibs, which are ground to chocolate liquor: unadulterated chocolate in rough form. The liquor can be processed to separate its two components, cocoa solids and cocoa butter, or shaped and sold as unsweetened baking chocolate. By adding sugar, sweetened chocolates are produced, which can be sold simply as dark chocolate, or, with the addition of milk, can be made into milk chocolate. Making milk chocolate with cocoa butter and without cocoa solids produces white chocolate.

Chocolate is one of the most popular food types and flavors in the world, and many foodstuffs involving chocolate exist, particularly desserts, including ice creams, cakes, mousse, and cookies. Many candies are filled with or coated with sweetened chocolate. Chocolate bars, either made of solid chocolate or other ingredients coated in chocolate, are eaten as snacks. Gifts of chocolate molded into different shapes (such as eggs, hearts, and coins) are traditional on certain Western holidays, including Christmas, Easter, Valentine's Day, and Hanukkah. Chocolate is also used in cold and hot beverages, such as chocolate milk, hot chocolate and chocolate liqueur.

Dark chocolate, also known as plain chocolate and black chocolate, is a form of chocolate made from cocoa solids, cocoa butter and sugar. It has a higher cocoa percentage than white chocolate and milk chocolate. Dark chocolate is valued for its health benefits, and for its reputation as a sophisticated choice of chocolate. Like milk and white chocolate, dark chocolate is used to make chocolate bars and to coat confectionery.

Dark chocolate gained much of its reputation in the late 20th century, as French chocolatiers worked to establish dark chocolate as preferred over milk chocolate in the French national palate. As this preference was exported to countries such as the United States, associated values of terroir, bean-to-bar chocolate making and gourmet chocolate followed. Because of the high cocoa percentage, dark chocolate can contain particularly high amounts of heavy metals such as lead and cadmium.

Milk chocolate is a form of solid chocolate containing cocoa, sugar and milk. It is the most consumed type of chocolate, and is used in a wide diversity of bars and other confectionery products. Milk chocolate contains smaller amounts of cocoa solids than dark chocolates do, and (as with white chocolate) contains milk solids. While its taste (akin to chocolate milk) has been key to its popularity, milk chocolate was historically promoted as a healthy food, particularly for children.

Major milk chocolate producers include Ferrero, Hershey, Mondelez, Mars and Nestlé; collectively these supply over half of the world's chocolate. Four-fifths of all milk chocolate is sold in the United States and Europe, and increasing amounts are consumed in both China and Latin America.