What Are the Oldest Brands of Chocolate?

Many people think of candy as a recent invention. There is some truth to that claim if one considers that mass-produced chocolate and candy have only really been a part of the manufacturing world since the 1950s. However, sweet treats are not a new concept at all, and we know that ancient peoples in South America enjoyed ground cocoa bean drinks called “chocolat”. They shared these sweets with explorers in the early 1500s, leading to an interest in chocolate as a confectionery item all across Europe.

Many people think about chocolate as a staple of any relaxing day. You might enjoy a chocolate bar or some truffles while you read a book, play BC Poker, or watch your favorite TV show. Chocolate has become part of the fabric of American and European culture largely because early candy companies made it their mission to bring chocolate from South America to the rest of the world.

What Are the Oldest Brands of Chocolate?

Before there were chocolate brands, there were “Chocolate Houses”. These were businesses rather like pubs, where the wealthy were able to consume chocolate-based drinks that were the predecessors of the hot chocolate that we know and love today. 

In 1828, a Dutch chemist named Coenrad van Houten was able t o remove the fatty part of the cocoa butter, which made a powder that could be poured into hot water so people could make hot chocolate drinks at home. This process of separating the powder from the fat also opened up all kinds of new avenues for candy makers to create new chocolate products.

1. J.S. Fry & Sons

Joseph Fry and his family are credited with creating the first solid chocolate bar in 1847 and selling it to the public. They created a unique process using steam engines that ground the cocoa, separated the fats, and created a solid candy bar that could be wrapped in paper and sold by local candy shops to customers. J.S. Fry & Sons changed the candy market forever with this invention, and they made various iterations of their solid chocolate bar. The Chocolate Cream is one of the most famous of these products.

2. Walter Baker and Company Incorporated

Walter Baker and Company Incorporated originated in Dorchester, Massachusetts. This company began producing chocolate products in the 1820s, and largely focused on baking chocolate that could be used to flavor breads, sweets, and drinks. The company sold a cocoa product called “Breakfast Cocoa” that was used to make hot chocolate, but they stressed that this product was intended solely for this function due to it being “less pure”. In a 1928 pamphlet, the company advertised their unsweetened chocolate bars as being the “food of the gods” because they were of the best quality and could be used for many different kinds of baking applications.

3. The Hershey Chocolate Company

Many people would guess that the Hershey Company was one of the first chocolatiers in the world, but that is not actually the case. A world traveler and a man fascinated by curiosities, Hershey stumbled upon the concept of mass-producing chocolate products almost by accident, but committed to the idea with a fervent interest. In 1894, he opened the Hershey Chocolate Company in a corner of the Hershey’s caramel factory and began working out how to make a superior solid chocolate bar. By the early 1900s, the Hershey Chocolate Company sold over 110 different kinds of chocolate treats.

4. The Mars Company

Hershey was rich and motivated by curiosity to create chocolate products, but Frank Mars entered the chocolate market out of desperation. Investing his last $400 into a sweets business that didn’t look like it would be a success, Mars set out to make a candy bar that could compete with the other companies that had already entered the chocolate bar market. By 1922, he had created the successful Mar-O-Bar Co., which would eventually be credited with the invention of the unique, malted treat that is still known as the Milky Way Bar.

The Evolution of Chocolate

When the earliest chocolate bar companies came on the scene, they transformed chocolate products from being little more than hot drinks or ingredients that could be used in baking to standalone sweets that were rich, creamy, and delicious.

Chocolate became incredibly popular, and chocolate makers worked hard to find solutions to allow them to sell chocolate throughout the year, even during the summer months when it was traditionally impossible to sell chocolates because they would melt before anyone could enjoy them.

Revolutionary ways of wrapping candy bars to prevent them from melting, refrigeration in candy stores, and many other inventions were pushed forward due to the demands of the chocolate industry. Air conditioning, climate-controlled environments, and clever materials that were created with chocolate in mind are all the direct result of the ingenuity of companies that wanted to be able to make money off of their chocolate products all year long.

As with so many other revolutionary products, chocolate spawned secondary revolutionary ideas and inventions that might otherwise never have been invented. Many of the modern conveniences that we take for granted were actually discovered or invented due to specific food products that became popular decades ago. 

Chocolate Has Been Around For Far Longer Than Most People Realize

Most people assume that chocolate is a relatively new candy product. Even modern forms of chocolate products are typically just reimagined versions of products that have been around for hundreds of years. If you enjoy hot chocolate, you are actually drinking a sweet treat that has been around since the 1500s. If you love a good chocolate bar, you are benefiting from an invention that is well over a hundred years old.

Chocolate is one of the most popular treats in the world today, but it would have been far less available and far less recognizable without early inventions that allowed it to be made into all kinds of different delicious candies and treats.