Willie’s Cacao El Blanco

We don’t often write about white chocolate here, primarily because it’s mainly sugar and generally has no real flavour to speak of. Willie’s Cacao El Blanco is a little bit different though.

I’m sure you know about Willie Harcourt-Cooze. The Devon-based chocolate maker who shot to fame after the Channel 4 fly-on-the wall series Willie’s Wonky Chocolate Factory started out by making 100% cacao cylinders as a cooking ingredient. In the five years since the series was made, Willie has steadily expanded his range, and now he’s making flavoured bars, caramels, and this white chocolate.

For the uninitiated, white chocolate is generally made from four ingredients; sugar, cocoa butter, milk powder and vanilla. It’s often so packed with sugar, that it’s difficult to eat more than a single square, and when you do it has little or no flavour. Any flavour there is comes from the vanilla.

Willie has taken a different approach with his white chocolate. He’s using single origin Venezuelan cocoa butter, and sugar is at the bottom of the ingredients list, rather than the top. He’s also taken the vanilla (something that is generally used to cover up bad flavours) out entirely so you can actually taste some of the flavour of the Venezuelan beans.

Now don’t get me wrong, this is still very much a white chocolate. But it’s one that you can happily eat without making yourself sick. Just break off a small piece and let it melt on you tongue. It’s sweet of course, but you can actually taste something other than sugar and vanilla. It’s fresh, light and creamy.

The notes on the back of the 50g box say this chocolate is perfect for desserts and decorating cakes. I’m sure that’s true, but it’s even better just to eat it on its own. It’s easily the nicest white chocolate I’ve ever had.

Whether you’re a white chocolate lover who wants to switch to something a little less sweet, or a sceptic who usually avoids white chocolate at all costs, this is a bar you should try for yourself.

Sure, it’s just a white chocolate, but it’s a white chocolate made by someone with a passion for real chocolate and natural flavours. Highly recommended.

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