h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I'm reminded of a little candy store on the pier at Oceanside CA I used to get to occasionally during my teens which made (house specialty) a really fine white chocolate. Alas, the store is there no longer and their successor instead markets something made mainly of granualted suger in a marshmallow base as "white chocolate". I've never been able to see the problem with making good white chocolate, after all, its only "cocoa butter" (cocoa bean oil) and "cream of coco"* (crystallized coconut milk syrup) taken together with your choice of emulsifying agent(s)(lecithin, carnauba wax**). In turn, quality white chocolate provides the base of a host of other fine chocolate confections.

*"cream of coco" is not to be confounded with "creme de cacao", which is an alcoholic liquer with an extremely strong and pungent burnt aroma.
(Just the thing, added by the drop from an eyedropper to give "kona coffee" that undefinable something extra. Also compatible with Scandinavian caramelized whey cheese, used very sparingly. One wouldn't want to drown out the flavor of the caramelized whey with the "creme de cacao".)

**Carnauba wax for a temperature stable preparation.

Ah, hello again! Just curious, would you still be in California, or is that just an adolescent memory? I have to agree though, that does sound like a pretty pathetic stand-in for white chocolate(& marketing it as such is essentially a slap in the face to serious ophiles!) Interesting, I wasn't conciously aware that white chocolate contained crystallized coconut milk syrup(although I'm sure I've come across the fact at some point). And there is a subtle 'coconut-iness' about good white chocolate. But yes I've encountered creme de cacao & chocolate would be a different substance if that's what it contained!

As you must've noticed, dark is my personal preferrance...although I did have-& actually really enjoyed-some Lindt milk this afternoon! With my intense appreciation of I'm Very fortunate to have a Belgian Choclatier who's relocated just a few hundred miles south - http://www.bernardcallebaut.com. Of course marketing a quality product is never a problem, so there are a few local outlets. And a German woman has studied choclate-making & started a business here - http://www.kerstinschocolates.com. So I'm more than a little spoiled, having also stumbled on very good American & European .

I'm in the state of Georgia, USA, right at the moment. The experience has been a revelation for me. I never realized till recently, travelling around the south, that just about everything south of the Ohio river and east of the Mississippi excepting the coastal and other wetlands, has climate conditions equivalent to northern CA, and about as much forest cover. Kind of like Big Sur, only everywhere, with less precipitous terrain.

My permanent home is still southern CA out in the open desert near the Grotto country south of Joshua Tree National Park, about 50 miles east of Palm Springs. I expect be back there around the beginning of summer, hopefully just in time for the summer doldrums.

White chocolate is nice enough by itself, but also is the base for a host of other fine chocolates... and by the by, the drop of creme de cacao with hot kona coffee, on the bottom, before adding the coffee. ... and thanks for the links.

I had in the past come across a website with photos of rural...Tennessee I believe, so I was aware of the forest cover. And from photos I've seen of northern or I suppose north/central California-the Santa Barbara & San Francisco areas-I can see some resemblance. A researcher in Santa Barbara has been good enough to send a number of photos. A few along the Pacific Coast Highway, but also many taken while hiking. So southern California...as I'm sure you gathered from those sites I'm in Canada but western Canada(Alberta just across the border from Montana). Just 1 hour ahead of CA time despite the distance north.

Thanks the creme de cacao tip, being a drinker I'll have to try that next time I get some Kona beans. And you're welcome, passing along the sites was like a reflex - it's always good 'talking' to someone about ! Kind of that 'a picture is worth a thousand words' thing.