The myth of the white chocolate bean

Dear M.A.:

What�s the deal with white chocolate? Chocolate gets its brown color from the cocoa bean. Are there white cocoa beans?

-- Garret from San Diego but living in Mexico

Ya know how places in P.B. and Clairemont and the Golden Triangle call themselves "La Jolla Wing Nuts" or "La Jolla Fashion Barn" or "The Best Little Investment House in La Jolla"? They're not in La Jolla, but the name sells. Well, white chocolate is the Clairemont of confections. No chocolate in it, but chocoholics are seduced by the word. White chocolate is cocoa butter (yes, the oils extracted from cocoa beans) mixed with sugar and milk solids. Add cocoa solids to white chocolate, and you'd have a Hershey bar. But without them, it doesn't taste like chocolate, and it's just Clairemont.