15 Store-Bought White Chocolate Brands, Ranked

Rare is the person who would claim white chocolate as their favorite kind of treat. Some people will even tell you it doesn't really "count" as chocolate because it's made only from cocoa butter and not cocoa solids. Indeed, at one point, the Food and Drug Administration ruled out white chocolate as real chocolate. However, while store-bought white chocolate is admittedly not my favorite kind — I'm a dark girl all the way — I'll be the first to defend it as a delicious candy that absolutely deserves its place in the world of confectionary. While most people in my family would rush to tell you they never seek it out, almost as a point of pride, I proudly do.

Plus, I admire a good chocolate bar. I took some chocolate-making classes when I was younger and, let me tell you, it is not easy, a truth I've found holds with any kind of candy. So, if I can find a good store-bought white chocolate for putting in a salted caramel cookie or otherwise baking with chocolate, I will.

With that in mind, I took it upon myself to taste test more than a dozen kinds of white chocolate to rank the contenders based on flavor and textural considerations, such as creaminess and meltiness. I also cajoled my less-than-enthusiastic family members to do it with me. And guess what? They found they enjoyed quite a few of these more than they originally thought. Without further ado, let's take a look at the final ranking for 15 of the most common white chocolate brands on the market.

First up, our overall loser, which really managed to redefine what "loser" is in terms of taste tests: 7^th Heaven White and Cookies. Never before in our rankings, from chocolate ice cream to Ritter Sport chocolate bars, have we been so appalled. "Seventh Heaven?" the Husband asked. "More like the Seventh Circle of Hell." Considering this is the realm designated for those who have committed violent acts against themselves or others, I think it only fitting that you'd have to eat this store-bought white chocolate bar for eternity. If ever there were an act of masochism, this is it.

It's only fair to recognize that this is a dairy-free chocolate bar. For those who cannot have that rich and creamy cow-based goodness, due to allergy or philosophy, I suppose it's good to have options. Nevertheless, speaking as someone who was dairy-free (DF) for years, I'd stick with a naturally DF dark chocolate bar. This ... is not worth it. Life's just too short. If you're still not convinced, I'll leave you with this quote from the Husband: "It tastes like a bad smell."

I absolutely love a peanut butter cup. From dark to milk to white chocolate, I think they all pair perfectly with the humble peanut, and I can't get enough of them. So, it was sad when this particular store-bought white chocolate option turned out to be such a dud. Justin's White Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups just really are not the thing. The flavor was underwhelming, if not off entirely, and the chocolate was waxy. The peanut butter filling was too crumbly, so you lost a quarter of the cup as soon as you bit into it, and the white chocolate tasted like slightly sweetened nothing.

To be fair to Justin's, they strive to be a healthier brand. Their candy is less sweet, as is their peanut butter, and these would probably make a better post-workout snack than they would a sweet treat when you're craving a hit of sugar. While I can see a day where I might desire that (being the most workout-enthused person in the family), the rest of them thought it tasted almost rotten. They are officially haters for life.

Let me take a wild guess that you've never heard of this store-bought white chocolate bar. Do you know how I know that? Well, because I've never heard of it either, and probably for good reason. The Venchi Bianco White Chocolate Bar was simply disgusting. While it claims to be pure white chocolate, it's super waxy and unappealing. It tasted like a mix between old milk and corn syrup.

The only reason it didn't rank lowest on our list was due to pure mathematics. Justin's and 7th Heaven were, suffice it to say, just that bad. For the purposes of choosing a chocolate bar either to eat as a snack or with which to bake, I would treat all three with equal caution. Don't use this unless you are mixing it into something that contains a lot of other ingredients as well, such as blondies. Actually, this advice goes for all three. Just avoid them if you can.

There is a longstanding joke in my family, which started more than a decade ago when my father received one too many gifts of Ferrero Rocher for Christmas, that this isn't a very good brand. (Take an impolite S-word and replace the end of the brand name, and then you'll get it.) Nevertheless, I do enjoy a good hazelnut truffle from them once in a while, so I had hopes that this bar might perform in a middling sort of way ... or at least be suitable for baking. Alas, that didn't prove to be the case with the Ferrero Rocher White Chocolate with Hazelnut Filling.

This only barely beat out the Venchi Bianco White because it had hazelnuts in it to distract from the underwhelming store-bought white chocolate flavor. Overall, though, the white chocolate was waxy and flavorless, without even the saving grace of some extra sugar or corn syrup to jazz it up. You're left with the impression of some ho-hum hazelnuts embedded in a soy candle.

I have to say, this was perhaps the most surprising result of the entire taste test. I absolutely love Lindor White Chocolate Truffles. Literally, I transform into a Lindor White Chocolate Truffle Monster at the holidays, and three days ago I would have told you that they were the paragon of store-bought white chocolate. Imagine my surprise to discover they were meh at best in comparison to the other options on this list. I'm not being overdramatic when I say this was nothing short of shocking to me.

I'd say the problem was that when you taste fifteen kinds of white chocolate in a row, your taste buds get a little dulled. This is why they have you sniff coffee beans between wine tastings. However, we tried these truffles right at the beginning of the taste test, when we had only sampled a few others, and they immediately felt washed out and flavorless. Their shiny wrappers are still beautiful, so put them on your holiday dessert board, but leave it at that.

Everyone in my family loves cookies and cream. Literally, bring on the cookies and cream everything. Ice cream? Yes. Cake? Yes. Cheesecake? Yes, obviously. But chocolate bars? Well, apparently not, at least when it comes to Lily's Cookies & Crème (because you'll notice a few distinct exceptions to this rule down below). This store-bought white chocolate bar was boring, to say the least, though it did have a nice crunch to it from the chocolate cookies.

The biggest problem was likely the fact that it had no sugar added, which is hardly fair to any product when ranked against a bunch of similar ones that do. However, that's on Lily's for making a chocolate bar that just can't stand up to other brands, not because of the flavor itself but due to the odd aftertaste. Do better, sugar-free makers!

Toblerone is a brand with a solid reputation in our house. Actually, its reputation stretches back generations, and my mother routinely digs through Halloween candy to extract it. (Last year she got quite lucky, as one house was giving away full-sized bars. Sometimes, dreams really do come true.) For that reason, I had high hopes for the Toblerone White Chocolate, with its little pieces of nougat and classic triangle shape.

Alas, this store-bought white chocolate disappointed. It certainly wasn't terrible, but I wouldn't go for it first. The Husband liked the nougat bits but not the white chocolate itself, while I disliked the nougat intensely (even though I don't mind it in the milk bar) but enjoyed the flavor of the surrounding chocolate. Different strokes, I guess.

I am a diehard peppermint fan. Like, I will John McClane off a roof for pretty much peppermint anything, so don't test me. I like it in tea, I like it in gum, I like it in chocolate, and I like it in desserts of all ilk. I love it in meat and mash dishes too. In the summer, when it's growing in the garden, I even chew leaves of it while weeding. All of which is to say, the fact that I liked Lindt Peppermint White Chocolate is really no surprise. More surprising is the fact that the rest of the family liked it almost as much as I did.

This store-bought white chocolate has several things going for it. For one thing, it comes in an absolutely adorable package. Yes, there is a pretty significant holiday bent, but I think it's cute any time of year, or at least during the cold season. I also like that it's small, so you can eat it as a personal treat without feeling like Cookie Monster. And lastly, it just tastes so darn good. The white chocolate is high-quality, and the little crunchy peppermint bits taste quintessentially minty. Put this on your next holiday dessert plate for sure.

Ordinarily, I would advise steering clear of this brand, as it hasn't fared well in many of our taste tests (see: store-bought carrot cakes or store-bought chocolate cakes). You wouldn't catch me dead betting on it on an ordinary day. This time, however, it was pretty darn good. Salty and sweet, almost like praline, we enjoyed its ice cream-like flavor. When we checked the ingredients, we saw "caramel sugar" on the list, of which we'd never heard. Let's just say, more caramel sugar, please.

The Private Selection White Chocolate Blonde with Rich Toasted Notes candy bar was not available on Amazon, so you will have to seek it out at one of the stores that carries Private Selection, a Kroger brand found at many stores (in my case, Fred Meyer). As the name says, it was less white chocolate and more a pale yellow, the slightly caramelized color of toasted marshmallows or blondies. Yum.

Ordinarily, I am not a Tony's fan. I find their products cloyingly sweet and rather boring at the same time. The fillings are usually kind of weird and stale, too. For instance, while I love pretzels in chocolate as a general rule, their version feels like they somehow found a cache of post-nuclear war bagged snacks in a bunker, then crunched them up and put them in a chocolate bar. Thrifty, I guess, but no thanks.

Therefore, the quality of Tony's Chocolonely White Chocolate came as quite a surprise to me. It was just different, tasting more like a product you'd get from a real chocolatier than a store-bought rack. It was smooth, creamy, rich, and buttery — all the things you want from this category.

Reese's anything is, to me, the epitome of store-bought goodness. You'll never find it in a specialty store or upscale market, but the classic peanut butter filling makes it a delicious treat no matter what. I have yet to turn down anything Reese's, from their minis to their Reese's pieces to the Reese's Giant Peanut Butter Easter Egg (that was a good day). So, when I saw Reese's THiNS White Creme Peanut Butter Cups sitting on store shelves, I was delighted.

To be honest, however, I was also a little wary. White chocolate products can be weird, especially when they're being combined with other pre-existing flavors or brands that just want to take advantage of a market niche. Happily, that turned out not to be true with the Reese's THiNS. They were perfectly sweet without being cloying, had a salty bite, and contained the right ratio of peanut butter to chocolate. Plus, they were smooth and held together when you bit into them, unlike Justin's. Overall, they are proof that white chocolate can be combined with other flavors successfully.

Milka's Weiße Schokolade, which translates to white chocolate, is another brand that I had never tried before. When I saw the German on the label, I was immediately excited, since I associate that country with churning out some of the best chocolate on the planet. However, store-bought white chocolate can go wrong in many ways, so I was unsure what to expect.

The whole family was delightfully surprised. This bar had an amazing texture, snapping nicely but immediately melting in your mouth. The resulting cream tasted almost like a chocolate sauce, and I had no trouble imagining it poured on a plate next to a slice of cheesecake. I'm sure, given its delicious flavor, that it would be amazing to bake with as well. If you want to try a new white chocolate bar, then this is a good one, especially since you can get it as a single bar on Amazon, which isn't always the case with international brands.

Cookies and cream flavoring is the absolute paragon of the white chocolate category, and that's really all there is to it. It almost seems unfair to compare this to other types of white chocolate, since there are Oreo cookies crumbled into it, but nobody said your store-bought white chocolate can't contain fillings, right? RIGHT? Right.

Therefore, you won't be surprised to discover that the Hershey's Cookies 'n' Creme Kisses rocked our world. Although I expected the children to be most excited about them, since their adorable blue wrappers just look so cute and childlike, the Husband and I were actually the biggest fans. These are perfectly bite-sized and delicious, and you should put some in your desk drawer right now.

I was wary of the Lindt Classic Recipe White Chocolate, since it is the same brand that makes the Lindor truffle balls, and I found those so disappointing. However, this store-bought white chocolate was nothing short of epic. Had our No. 1 choice not been so over-the-moon, to-die-for good, this would easily have taken home the gold.

It was really excellent for what it is, which is a plain white chocolate bar, suitable for noshing or baking. It was so smooth and creamy, so I'm sure it would be perfect for turning into a pudding, cream pie, or cheesecake as well — and trust me when I say, I intend to find out soon. If you're a fan of plain white chocolate and simply want to eat it as an afternoon snack or a dessert, then this is the bar to choose.

Drum roll, please: The moment we've all been waiting for has finally arrived. Our No. 1 winner is the Hershey's Cookies 'n' Creme XL Candy Bar. While it sounds humble and unassuming, this bar was absolutely to die for. Seriously, when it comes to store-bought white chocolate, you can't do better than this. It is, of course, natural to wonder why it was so much better than the Hershey's kisses that presumably use a very similar recipe. To that, I say: Good question. I have no idea. Somehow, when put into bar form, the Hershey's Cookies 'n' Crème recipe becomes even better.

For our purposes here, trust that if you want white chocolate and don't mind having fillings, then this is the one to buy. It is amazing as a snack, and more than one person described this as heavenly. Indeed, I would happily put this in a cookie that asked for white chocolate chips or chunks, so long as there weren't other conflicting flavors. No matter what your preference, I strongly suggest you run out and buy this today, because life's just too short to miss it.

Ranking store-bought white chocolate bars has to have been one of the greatest pleasures of my life, not least because I wasn't particularly constrained in the ranking methodology. Our basic guidelines were to choose an approach and stick to it, so we opted to rank on the most basic factors you would use when judging a chocolate bar: flavor, creaminess, meltiness, and overall experience. Everyone in the family — the Husband, Small Girl, Small Boy, and myself — weighed in.

When we felt there was a tie, we broke it by discussing which type of white chocolate we were more likely to buy if we had a craving for it. The result is a list that I'll be pulling back out when Christmas rolls around and my hardcore white chocolate cravings kick in.

On a final note, you will notice that there are no candy melts on this list. That's because white chocolate and candy melts are different, so it is always a mistake to substitute candy melts in place of white chocolate. Why? Because candy melts are missing a vital component of white chocolate, namely, the cocoa butter. While candy melts are sweet, smooth, and perfect for the outside of a cake ball or truffle, say, they lack that undefinable richness that comes from the cacao tree. If you are out of white chocolate and can't easily procure more, candy melts might do the trick, but milk or dark chocolate might do it better.