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A chocolate bar is a confection containing chocolate, which may also contain layerings or mixtures that include nuts, fruit, caramel, nougat, and wafers. A flat, easily breakable, chocolate bar is also called a tablet. In some varieties of English and food labeling standards, the term chocolate bar is reserved for bars of solid chocolate, with candy bar used for products with additional ingredients.
The manufacture of a chocolate bar from raw cocoa ingredients requires many steps, from grinding and refining, to conching and tempering. All these processes have been independently developed by chocolate manufacturers from different countries. There is therefore no precise moment when the first chocolate bar came into existence. Solid chocolate was already consumed in the 18th century. The 19th century saw the emergence of the modern chocolate industry; most manufacturing techniques used today were invented during this period.
Dark, milk and white are the main three types of chocolate. Ingredients not derived from cocoa have been added to bars since the beginning of the chocolate industry, often to reduce production costs. A wide variety of chocolate bar brands are sold today.
TerminologyEdit
In many varieties of English, chocolate bar refers to any confectionery bar that contains chocolate. In some dialects of American English, only bars of solid chocolate are described as chocolate bars, with the phrase candy bar used as a broader term encompassing bars of solid chocolate, bars combining chocolate with other ingredients, and bars containing no chocolate at all. In Canada, while the term chocolate bar is commonly used for bars combining chocolate with other ingredients, only bars of solid chocolate can be labelled as a chocolate bar.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
The term bar may refer to a large variety of shapes, including not oblong ones, such as squares.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Small (bite-sized) chocolate pieces are however usually referred to as chocolates, regardless of shape.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> These include neapolitans, bonbons, pralines and truffles.
Cake chocolate is an old commercial designation for solid chocolate.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
HistoryEdit
Early historyEdit
Solid chocolate was probably already consumed in pre-Columbian America, in particular by the Aztecs, despite the beverage being the traditional form of consumption of cocoa in Mesoamerica.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> In fact, any finely ground cocoa that is not immediately used to make a drink turns into solid chocolate.<ref name=Coe>Template:Cite book</ref> The grinding of the cocoa beans was done with a stone metate.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Dominican friar Diego Durán mentions in his writings that Aztec soldiers carried small balls of ground cocoa among other military rations.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Cocoa was introduced into Europe in the early 16th century, possibly already under its processed (solid) form.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Until the 18th century, chocolate was essentially consumed as a drink. Transport of cocoa beans was slow and difficult, therefore making the product very expensive in Europe. Chocolate was usually sold as a solidified ground but still grainy cocoa paste (in the form of blocks, sticks or balls) to be dissolved in water or milk, either plain or already sweetened and flavoured.<ref name=Cooke>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> It is unclear when bars or tablets of chocolate (meant to be eaten straight as a candy rather than grated into a drink) were made for the first time.<ref name=Coe/> It is known, however, that the consumption of solid chocolate by the wealthy increased by the end of the 18th century.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
The production of chocolate specifically meant to be eaten in bars may predate the French Revolution. The Marquis de Sade wrote to his wife in a letter dated May 16, 1779, complaining about the quality of a care package he had received while in prison. Among the requests that he made for future deliveries were for cookies that "must smell of chocolate, as if one were biting into a chocolate bar." This phrasing is highly suggestive of chocolate bars being eaten by themselves and not just grated into chocolate-based drinks.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Another illustration is given by a contemporary encyclopedia, which mentions "bonbons", "chocolate-covered pistachios" and "white chocolate".<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Such products would predate the invention of the cocoa press and the "Dutch cocoa" by Coenraad Johannes van Houten and other innovations which made chocolate suitable for mass-production.
Up to and including the 19th century, confectionery of all sorts was typically sold in small pieces to be bagged and bought by weight. The introduction of chocolate as something that could be eaten as is, rather than used to make beverages or desserts, resulted in the earliest bar forms, or tablets. At some point, chocolates came to mean any chocolate-covered sweets, whether nuts, creams (fondant), caramel candies, or others. The chocolate bar evolved from all of these in the late-19th century as a way of packaging and selling candy more conveniently for both buyer and seller; however, the buyer had to pay for the packaging. It was considerably cheaper to buy candy loose, or in bulk.
First mass-produced chocolate barsEdit
The late 18th century saw the beginning of the mechanization of chocolate manufacturing. Water and wind power was used first, steam-powered machines followed.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> This not only allowed the production of chocolate on a larger scale, but also the production of chocolate with a finer texture.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Among the pioneers were Joseph Storrs Fry, who patented a method of grinding cocoa beans using a Watt steam engine in 1795,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> and Poincelet, who invented the melanger in 1811, soon adopted by most chocolate manufacturers.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
In the early 19th century, several chocolate manufacturers are credited for technical improvements or novelties. François-Louis Cailler, who founded the Cailler factory in 1819 in Switzerland, sold assortments of chocolate tablets.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref name=Barel>Template:Cite book</ref> Shortly after, in 1826, another Swiss chocolatier, Philippe Suchard, founded the Suchard factory where he used and developed the melanger.<ref name=Barel/> The same year, Pierre Paul Caffarel founded the Caffarel factory in Italy, using a new grinding machine, also allowing him to increase production.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> During that decade, in England, Fry & Sons introduced chocolate lozenges as a "substitute for food when travelling".<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
1828 is the year of a major breakthrough: Casparus van Houten<ref name="one">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> patented an effective method for pressing the fat from roasted cocoa beans. The centre of the bean, known as the "nib", contains an average of 54 percent cocoa butter. Van Houten's machine – the hydraulic cocoa press – reduced the cocoa butter content by nearly half. This not only allowed the creation of defatted cocoa powder (to be used for chocolate drinks), but also the creation of pure cocoa butter on a large scale. The additional cocoa butter (mixed with cocoa liquor and sugar) would allow the production of chocolate with a higher fluidity, therefore with a higher moldability into more complex shapes.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> It is not known when the first chocolate with added cocoa butter was manufactured.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> However, in 1832, the first workshop for producing chocolate moulds opened in Paris, testifying to the increasing use of chocolate in confectionery, especially in France.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref name=Cadbury>Template:Cite book</ref>
An American magazine from 1836 notes that (small and sweetened) chocolate bars have become popular in France for their nutritious quality and portability.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
In the 1830s, French pharmacist Antoine Brutus Menier, who first used chocolate as a coating for pills, developed a chocolate factory in Noisiel. In 1836, a yellow-wrapped chocolate tablet with six semi-cylindrical divisions is launched,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> possibly already using additional cocoa butter.<ref name=McMahon>Template:Cite book</ref> By the 1840s the production of a wide variety of chocolate bars and bonbons is attested. Semi-finished products like finely ground cocoa liquor and cocoa butter were also sold by Menier.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Menier's tablets beared a trademark to protect them from counterfeits.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> By the 1860s, production reached 2,500 tonnes, a quarter of the country’s total output, much of it exported.<ref name=Cadbury/> French assortments dominated the confectionery market until the appearance of milk chocolate in the 1890s.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
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In the 1840s, British manufacturers adopted eating chocolate to counter the popularity of French imports.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> In 1842, John Cadbury sold "French Eating Chocolate".<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> He was followed by Joseph Fry who sold Chocolat Délicieux à Manger ("delicious eating chocolate") in 1847.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The latter, probably made with additional cocoa butter,<ref name=McMahon/> is often considered the first modern chocolate bar,<ref name="Chocolates">Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> although it was not successful.<ref name=Cadbury/> In 1849, both Fry and Cadbury chocolates were displayed publicly at a trade fair in Bingley Hall, Birmingham.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Meanwhile, the Walter Baker company introduced sweetened chocolate bars during the California gold rush, popularising chocolate as an everyday food in the United States.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Fry's chocolate factory in Bristol, J. S. Fry & Sons, began the mass-production of various chocolate candies, notably Fry's Cream Sticks released in 1853,<ref name="Chocolates"/> which led to the Fry's Chocolate Cream bar in 1866.<ref name=fry>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The production of eating chocolate rose from about 10 tonnes in 1852 to over 1,100 tonnes in 1880; a Van Houten press was acquired and installed in 1868, two years after its competitor, Cadbury, installed his.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Other products included the first chocolate Easter egg in the UK in 1873, and Fry's Turkish Delight (or Fry's Turkish bar) in 1914.<ref name=fry/>
In addition to Cadbury and Fry, Rowntree's and Terry's were major British chocolate companies, as chocolate manufacturing expanded in England throughout the rest of the century.<ref>Design, SUMO. "History of York." Rowntree & Co: Chocolate Manufacturers:. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Sept. 2016.</ref>
Modern chocolate barsEdit
Rodolphe Lindt, a Swiss confectioner, discovered the conching process in 1879. Conching evenly blends cocoa butter with cocoa solids and sugar, therefore making the chocolate perfectly smooth. At first a trade secret, it became a standard process in the chocolate industry by the 1920s.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The last stage of chocolate manufacturing, tempering, was also developed at around this time. Tempering allows the production of chocolate that is perfectly hard at room temperature and that have an attractive shiny appearance.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
A few years earlier, in 1875, milk chocolate makes its appearance. It was developed by another Swiss confectioner, Daniel Peter. He was able to make milk chocolate with the help of his neighbour Henri Nestlé, who was specialized in dehydrated milk products.<ref>Cocoa", Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online Academic Edition. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2013. Web. 9 May. 2013.</ref> Daniel Peter launched his successful Gala Peter brand in 1887. Cailler and Suchard followed in the late 19th century, and other factories opened in Switzerland at that time.
In 1897, following the lead of Swiss companies, Cadbury introduced its own line of milk chocolate bars in the UK. Cadbury Dairy Milk, first produced in 1905, became the company's best selling bar.<ref name=Fitzgerald2005>Template:Cite journal</ref>
In the United States, immigrants who arrived with candy-making skills drove the development of new chocolate bars.<ref name="Goddard2012">Template:Cite book</ref> Milton S. Hershey, a Pennsylvania caramel maker, saw a German-manufactured chocolate-making machine at the 1893 Chicago World's Fair. He immediately ordered one for his Lancaster factory and produced the first American-made milk chocolate bar.<ref name="Smith2011" />
Chocolate bar sales grew rapidly in the early-20th century.<ref name=chocolate>Template:Cite book</ref> During World War I, the U.S. Army commissioned a number of American chocolate makers to produce 40 pound blocks of chocolate. These were shipped to Army quartermaster bases and distributed to the troops stationed throughout Europe. When the soldiers returned home, their demand for chocolate contributed to the increasing popularity of the chocolate bar.<ref name="Smith2011">Template:Cite book</ref>
Combination barsEdit
The first chocolate bars were plain chocolate, but often flavoured with spices, such as cinnamon and vanilla.<ref name=Cooke/> Producers soon began combining chocolate with other ingredients such as nuts, fruit, caramel, nougat, and wafers. In 1830, Kohler added hazelnuts to chocolate bars<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> and, in 1852, Caffarel added hazelnuts as a smooth paste to its chocolate, creating gianduja.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Adding other, usually cheaper, ingredients to bars was also a way to reduce production costs.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Additionally, the overwhelming majority of combination bars use milk chocolate, which further decreases the amount of cocoa in the finished product.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Approximately 30,000 varieties of candy bars existed in the United States during the 1920s, most of which were produced locally.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
A wide selection of similar chocolate snacks or nutritional supplements are produced with added sources of protein and vitamins, including energy bars, protein bars and granola bars.
- The Fry's Chocolate Cream, produced by J. S. Fry & Sons since 1866, consisted of a plain fondant centre enrobed in plain chocolate. It is the first mass-produced chocolate bar and predates the invention of milk chocolate.
- The Branche, created by Kohler and produced by Cailler since 1904,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> is a cylindrical and branch-looking milk chocolate and hazelnut bar with a praline filling, partly made with recycled broken confectionery. As a consequence of its wide success, "branche" has become a generic term (in French) for any stick-like chocolate bar.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
|CitationClass=web }}</ref>
- The Toblerone, produced by Tobler since 1908, is a combination of milk chocolate and torrone, a white nougat made of honey, almonds and egg whites. Its manufacture and distinctive triangular shape was patented at the Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
- The Goo Goo Cluster, produced by the Standard Candy Company of Nashville, Tennessee, in 1912, was the first combination bar in the United States. It was made of caramel, marshmallow, and peanuts, covered with milk chocolate.<ref name="fastfood" /><ref name=":0">Template:Cite book</ref> The combination of peanuts with chocolate became very popular in North America, while the hazelnut remained the most popular pairing in Europe.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
- The Clark Bar, a crispy core with caramel and peanut butter covered with milk chocolate, was the first nationally marketed combination bar in the United States.<ref name="Smith2011" />
- The Oh Henry! bar was created by George Williamson of Williamson Candy Co. and named after an electrician who visited his store and flirted with the female candy makers. Williamson launched an advertising campaign that included newspaper ads, streetcar signs, and billboards. The Oh Henry! bar became one of the top-selling brands in the United States in the 1920s.<ref name="Goddard2012" /> In 1926, the company published a book, 60 New Ways to Serve a Famous Candy, that included recipes for salads, side dishes, and sweet breads, in addition to desserts.<ref name="fastfood" />
- The Baby Ruth was developed by Otto Schnering, owner of the Curtiss Candy Co., by modifying their original candy bar, Kandy Kake, to compete with the Oh Henry! bar. Schnering claimed that the Baby Ruth was named in honor of President Grover Cleveland's daughter, who died at age 12, but some historians suggest that Schnering chose the name to take advantage of the popularity of Babe Ruth without having to pay royalties.<ref name="Chicago">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
|CitationClass=web }}</ref> Schnering decided to sell his bar for half the price of its competitor, hiring legendary Chicago ad man, Eddy S. Brandt, to market the Baby Ruth under the slogan "Everything you want for a nickel." The catchy slogan, along with other innovative marketing tactics, like sponsoring circuses and dropping Baby Ruth bars over cities from airplanes, made Baby Ruth the most popular candy bar in the U.S by 1925.<ref name="fastfood">Template:Cite book</ref>
- The Mars bar was introduced by Mars, Incorporated in 1932 in Slough, England, by Forrest Mars, Sr. It consists of caramel and nougat coated with milk chocolate.
- The Kit Kat bar, created by Rowntree's in 1935, is a milk chocolate-covered wafer bar. The bar consists of two or four fingers that can be snapped from the bar separately. Kit Kat bars are reputed for being made in many different flavours.<ref name="CNN Eatocracy">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
|CitationClass=web }}</ref>
IngredientsEdit
Template:Multiple image A solid chocolate bar is typically made with some or all of the following ingredients: cocoa liquor, cocoa butter, sugar, and milk. The relative presence or absence of these define the subclasses of chocolate bar made of dark chocolate, milk chocolate, and white chocolate.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> In addition to these main ingredients a solid chocolate bar may contain flavorings such as vanilla and emulsifiers such as soy lecithin to alter its consistency. Some chocolate bars contain added milk fat, to make the chocolate softer, since milk fat is a softer fat than cocoa butter.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> While sugar is commonly used as a sweetener for chocolate bars, some chocolate bars use sugar alcohols, such as maltitol as an alternative.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Compound chocolate, which uses vegetable oils in place of cocoa butter, may be used as a less expensive alternative to true chocolate, though such a product may not be able to be labelled as "chocolate".<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Combination bars may contain a wide variety of additional ingredients.
ProductionEdit
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Popular cultureEdit
Literature and filmEdit
The Wonka Bar was introduced as a fictional chocolate bar that served as a key story point in the 1964 novel Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl. Wonka Bars appear in both film adaptations of the novel, Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971) and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005). Wonka Bars were subsequently manufactured and sold in the real world, formerly by the Willy Wonka Candy Company, a division of Nestlé.
RecordsEdit
Oldest extantEdit
Some of the oldest preserved chocolate bars are two pieces of white and dark chocolate made between 1764 and 1795 for the king of Poland, Stanislaus Augustus Poniatowski, as a gift for his courtiers.<ref name="lazienki">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Each bar, possibly made by the royal confectioner in Warsaw, bears the King's monogram, SAR, and is on display in his summer residence, Palace on the Water, in Warsaw.<ref name="lazienki" />
World's largestEdit
The world's largest chocolate bar was produced as a stunt by Thorntons plc (UK) on 7 October 2011. It weighed Template:Convert and measured 4m by 4m by 0.35m.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
On January 16, 2020, Mars Inc. received the Guinness World Record for largest chocolate nut bar. They produced a 12-foot by 27.5-inch by 27.5-inch Snickers that weighed 4,728 lbs which is the equivalent of 41,000 single-size Snickers.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
On January 31, 2020, the Hershey Company beat the Guinness World Record for largest chocolate nut bar<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> surpassing Mars Inc.'s Gigantic Snickers bar with a gigantic Reese's Take 5 Bar measuring 9 by 5.5 by 2 feet and weighing 5,943 lbs.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The Take 5 chocolate bar gets its name from the 5 ingredients it contains: Reese's peanut butter, peanuts, pretzels, caramel and chocolate.
See alsoEdit
- Energy bar
- Granola bar
- List of chocolate bar brands
- List of chocolate-covered foods
- United States military chocolate
NotesEdit
ReferencesEdit
Further readingEdit
- Almond, Steve (2004) Candyfreak, Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, Template:ISBN
- Broekel, Ray (1982) The Great American Candy Bar Book, Houghton Mifflin Co., Template:ISBN
- Cadbury, Deborah (2011) Chocolate Wars: The 150-Year Rivalry Between the World's Greatest Chocolate Makers, PublicAffairs
- Richardson, Tim (2002) Sweets: A History of Candy, Bloomsbury, Template:ISBN