White chocolate is chocolate made from cocoa butter, sugar, and milk solids. It is ivory in color and lacks the dark appearance of most other types of chocolate because it does not contain the non-fat components of cocoa (cocoa solids). Due to this omission, as well as its sweetness and the occasional use of additives, some consumers do not consider white chocolate to be real chocolate.

Of the three traditional types of chocolate (the others being milk and dark), white chocolate is the least popular. Its taste and texture are divisive: admirers praise its texture as creamy, while detractors criticize its flavor as cloying and bland. White chocolate is sold in a variety of forms, including bars, chips, and coatings for nuts. It is common for manufacturers to pair white chocolate with other flavors, such as matcha or berries. White chocolate has a shorter shelf life than milk and dark chocolate, and easily picks up odors from the environment.

White chocolate is made industrially in a five-step process. First, the ingredients are mixed to form a paste. Next, the paste is refined, reducing the particle size to a powder. It is then agitated for several hours (a process known as conching), after which further processing standardizes its viscosity and taste. Finally, the chocolate is tempered by heating, cooling, and then reheating, which improves the product's appearance, stability, and snap.

White chocolate was first sold commercially in tablet form in 1936 by the Swiss company Nestlé and was long considered a children's food in Europe. It was not until the 1980s that white chocolate became popular in the United States. During the 21st century, attitudes towards white chocolate changed: markets for "premium" white chocolate grew, it became acceptable for adults in the UK to eat it, and it was legally defined in the US for the first time. A variant, blond chocolate, was created by slowly cooking white chocolate over several days.

The origin of white chocolate is unclear. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the term was first used in a December 1917 issue of Scientific American magazine, in which it was described as a product made entirely of cocoa butter and sugar, eaten by the Swiss Army. The dictionary also mentions a rumor, printed in the International Confectioner magazine the previous December, of a white-colored chocolate being made in Switzerland. In 1936, the Swiss company Nestlé launched a tablet called Nestlé Galak (known as Milkybar in the United Kingdom). According to author Eagranie Yuh there is a "general consensus" that this constitutes the first commercial white chocolate product. One account of Galak's creation indicates that demand for milk powder had decreased in the years following World War I, creating a glut; making white chocolate was a way manufacturers could use up this excess. According to Nestlé, before 1936 they had been manufacturing a coating for a vitamin product in partnership with the pharmaceutical group Roche. They created white chocolate by accident when they added cocoa butter to the coating's formula.

On its introduction in the UK, white chocolate was sold under the names "white chocolate", "white milk chocolate" and "milk chocolate block". Describing this new product as "chocolate" was immediately challenged as it lacked cocoa solids and in at least one county, companies agreed to avoid the word "chocolate". Production of Milkybar was suspended in the UK in 1940 due to ingredient shortages caused by World War II and did not resume until 1956. White chocolate in Europe was closely associated with children, as adults believed it was more appropriate than chocolates with caffeine and strong flavors. In 1961, Nestlé created "The Milkybar Kid" mascot, a blond boy sporting glasses and a cowboy outfit. Over the following decades, a series of adverts featuring the character has become among the longest-running on television.

In 1965, the chocolate maker Elgorriaga [es] produced the first white chocolate in Spain. Other large manufacturers in the country soon followed, one of them producing an almond-white chocolate sweet. During the following decades in Spain, the chocolate was predominantly sold via grocery stores; it was used sparingly by artisans to provide contrast with milk and dark chocolate products. By the 1980s, the global white chocolate market was largely confined to a niche premium market in Europe. The Belgians were considered specialists, most famous for large white chocolate pralines flavored with orange peel. By the end of the 20th century in Continental Europe, white chocolate was no longer primarily associated with children, as manufacturers had begun marketing it as a luxury good.

Upon its introduction to Japan in 1968 by Rokkatei Confectionery [ja], white chocolate was unpopular and restricted to Hokkaido. The situation remained unchanged until the 1970s, when Japanese National Railways launched the Discover Japan [ja] campaign. Young backpackers travelled to Hokkaido and tasted the new chocolate for the first time, spreading its popularity across Japan. That decade, Japanese chocolate companies invented a holiday called White Day. Celebrated one month after Valentine's Day, it involved men giving white chocolate to women who had given them dark chocolate a month prior. Around the late 1980s, Nestlé, then the world market leader in white chocolate, pushed to create a mass market for white chocolate in Japan.