Organic Hard White Wheat Berries

These are whole unmilled organic hard white wheat berries. Excellent for bread baking.

White wheat is a different type of wheat that has no major genes for bran color (unlike traditional “red” wheat which has one to three bran color genes). An easy way to think of it is as a sort of albino wheat. The bran of white wheat is not only lighter in color but it’s also milder in flavor, making whole white wheat more appealing to many people accustomed to the taste of refined flour.

The term “hard” refers to the higher protein content of this wheat. Higher protein flour is typically preferred for bread baking vs the lower protein “soft” white wheat which is used more for other baked goods.

The term “white flour” has often been used to mean “refined flour,” so “whole white wheat flour” sounds like a contradiction in terms. But it is simply WHOLE flour – including the bran, germ and endosperm – made from WHITE wheat.

White wheat does not contain the strongly-flavored phenolic compounds that are in red wheat. This gives white wheat a milder flavor, and also means that products made with white wheat require less added sweetener to attain the same level of perceived sweetness.

Experts consider red and white wheat to be the same, nutritionally. Most of the nutrition differences among wheat varieties are driven by environmental conditions, such as weather and soil composition. For example, when crops are in a drought, the protein in wheat will be higher and may function differently.