Chocolate
was identified as "white chocolate" before 20th century, but these
were very different from modern white chocolate.
A 1783 reference to white chocolate has an unknown meaning: it is speculated
to use the word white to describe the chocolate as lighter than other chocolate,
to identify it as made from the then existing classification of cacao into the
Theobroma alba white cacao variety, or to refer to an
ancient method of preparing chocolate named "white cacao".
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