chocolate bar

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.{{Cite web|url=http://www.inspection.gc.ca/food/requirements-and-guidance/labelling/industry/confectionery-chocolate-and-snack-food-products/eng/1392136343660/1392136466186?chap=3|title = Common name - Labelling requirements for confectionery, chocolate and snack food products|date = 11 February 2014}}

The term bar may refer to a large variety of shapes, including not oblong ones, such as squares.{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xVefKsK9MtYC | title=Lovemarks: the future beyond brands | publisher=PowerHouse Books | author=Roberts, Kevin | year=2005 | pages=196 | isbn=9781576875346 | quote=“Break” is a square chocolate bar with a loyal following in Greece.}} Small (bite-sized) chocolate pieces are however usually referred to as chocolates, regardless of shape.{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=94Ke9b2a-FAC | title=Chocolate: A Global History | publisher=Reaktion Books | author=Moss, Sarah | year=2009 | pages=68 | isbn=9781861897039 | quote=Like so many other developments in the creation of familiar forms of chocolate, the development of bite-sized filled chocolates arranged in a box... }} These include neapolitans, bonbons, pralines and truffles.

Cake chocolate is an old commercial designation for solid chocolate.{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EqIQbwHYn-AC | title=Rowntree and the Marketing Revolution, 1862-1969 | publisher=Cambridge University Press | author=Fitzgerald, Robert | year=1995 | pages=97 | isbn=978-0-521-43512-3 | quote=important products like moulded, block or, in trade terms, 'cake' chocolate}}{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_aCzgOOaXNMC | title=Internationnal Exhibition of 1862: Official Illustrated Catalogue | publisher=Spottiswood and Company | year=1862 | pages=69 | quote=Pure chocolate [made solely from the cocoa nibs], combined with sugar to produce cake chocolates and confectionery chocolates.}}

File:Nobleman offering cocoa paste.jpg

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.{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EqfvgerVsuEC | title=The Aztecs: New Perspectives | publisher=ABC-CLIO | author=Van Tuerenhout, Dirk R. | year=2005 | pages=112 | isbn=9781576079218 | quote=It is of interest that even though the rich and famous would drink their chocolate—the most traditional way of consuming chocolate—soldiers would be issued chocolate in solid format. Military rations would include chocolate made into wafers or pellets.}} In fact, any finely ground cocoa that is not immediately used to make a drink turns into solid chocolate.{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hKVbCgAAQBAJ | title=America's First Cuisines | publisher=University of Texas Press | author=Coe, Sophie D. | authorlink=Sophie Coe | year=2015 | orig-date=1994 | pages=56 | isbn=9781477309711 | quote=Most sixteenth-, seventeenth-, and eighteenth-century cacao was for drinking, but its consumption in solid form was not unheard of. To make a drink out of processed cacao beans they must be ground, and then, unless they are immediately made into a drink, the mass congeals. [...] There is no way of exactly dating the birth of the chocolate confection...}} The grinding of the cocoa beans was done with a stone metate.{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EDFrEAAAQBAJ | title=Chocolate: A Cultural Encyclopedia | publisher=ABC-CLIO | author=Collins, Ross F. | year=2022 | pages=302 | isbn=9781440876080 | quote=While the metate served many kitchen uses, it became a central focus for chocolate making in pre-Columbian Central America. From there, versions moved to Europe and North America to serve the same function.}} Dominican friar Diego Durán mentions in his writings that Aztec soldiers carried small balls of ground cocoa among other military rations.{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=193tKPdM-ykC | title=The History of the Indies of New Spain | publisher=University of Oklahoma Press | author=Durán, Diego | page=350 | year=1994 | isbn=9780806126494 | quote=The soldiers carried a quantity of provisions, such as toasted kernels as well as maize flour, bean flour, toasted tortillas, sun-baked tamales and others that had a kind of mold, great loads of chiles, and cacao that had been ground and formed into small balls.}} Cocoa was introduced into Europe in the early 16th century, possibly already under its processed (solid) form.{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sseSDwAAQBAJ | title=Power, Political Economy, and Historical Landscapes of the Modern World | publisher=State University of New York Press | author=DeCorse, Christopher R. | year=2019 | pages=107 | isbn=9781438473437 | quote=Cacao first arrived in Spain in the 1520s, then the Spanish Netherlands in 1606 (Norton 2008). Braudel (1992) traces the first arrival of cacao to Europe in the form of loaves and tablets—already processed, but solid.}}

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.{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=R8uPumT5MhsC | title=What's to Eat?: Entrées in Canadian Food History | publisher=McGill-Queen's Press | author=Cooke, Nathalie | year=2009 | pages=83 | isbn=9780773577176 |quote=What constituted chocolate at the time? According to various inventories from Louisbourg, solid chocolate was sold as balls or sticks of varying weights. Chocolate came either "prepared," meaning that it had already been ground down into a paste of cocoa solids and fats, mixed with sugar and aromatics (usually cinnamon and vanilla, and sometimes anise, orange flower water, or ambergris – flavourings preferred by the French), then allowed to harden, or "unprepared," consisting of a hardened paste of plain chocolate. In the latter instance, spices and sweeteners would be added after the grated chocolate ball or stick was mixed with hot liquid.}}{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rZstCwAAQBAJ | title=Chocolate Science and Technology | publisher=John Wiley & Sons | author=Afoakwa, Emmanuel Ohene | year=2016 | pages=4 | isbn=9781118913789 | quote=At this point, chocolate was still consumed in liquid form and was mainly sold as pressed blocks of a grainy mass to be dissolved in water or milk...}} 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. It is known, however, that the consumption of solid chocolate by the wealthy increased by the end of the 18th century.{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bIIeBQAAQBAJ | title=The Oxford Companion to Food | publisher=OUP Oxford | author=Davidson, Alan | year=2014 | pages=183 | isbn=978-0-19-104072-6 |quote=Already by the end of the 18th century there had been a perceptible increase in the amount of chocolate being eaten, in slabs and pastilles...}}

File:Mexican Chocolate.jpg

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.{{cite book |last1=Grivetti |first1=Louis |last2=Shapiro |first2=Howard-Yana |date=2009 |title=Chocolate: History, Culture and Heritage |location=Hoboken, New Jersey |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |page=746 |isbn=978-0-470-12165-8 |author-link2=Howard-Yana Shapiro}} Another illustration is given by a contemporary encyclopedia, which mentions "bonbons", "chocolate-covered pistachios" and "white chocolate".{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PxiROR0RgD4C | title=Journal encyclopédique ou universel: tome III | publisher=Pierre Rousseau | year=1785 | pages=169 | quote=On en fera [chocolat] généralement toutes sortes de bonbons, diablotins & pistaches au chocolat, comme aussi au beurre de cacao ou chocolat blanc}} 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.

File:Vue intérieure de la fabrique de chocolats de la compagnie coloniale, à Paris.jpg

The late 18th century saw the beginning of the mechanization of chocolate manufacturing. Water and wind power was used first, steam-powered machines followed.{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RhcuEAAAQBAJ | title=The History of Sweets | publisher=Pen and Sword History | author=Chrystal, Paul | year=2021 | pages=104 | quote=In 1776, Doret patented a hydraulic chocolate grinding machine which reduced it to a paste and in 1795, Joseph Fry industrialised chocolate production in England when he started using a James Watt steam engine to grind his beans.}} This not only allowed the production of chocolate on a larger scale, but also the production of chocolate with a finer texture.{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hw8cDgAAQBAJ | title=Making Chocolate: From Bean to Bar to S'more: A Cookbook | publisher=Clarkson Potter/Ten Speed | author=Masonis, Todd | year=2017 | pages=16 | isbn=9780451495365 | quote=Then the nineteenth century brought coal, the steam engine, and technology that could smash cacao into an incredibly smooth paste for the first time, and it could be done on a large enough scale to make it cheap and accessible to more people.}} Among the pioneers were Joseph Storrs Fry, who patented a method of grinding cocoa beans using a Watt steam engine in 1795,{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CQbHEAAAQBAJ | title=Chocolate A Cultural Encyclopedia | publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing | author=Collins, Ross F. | year=2022 | isbn=979-8-216-06051-2 | quote=Second, the company's efforts from the beginning to improve the manufacturing process earned it credit as the first chocolate manufacturer to industrialize with its Watt steam-engine-powered operation in 1795.}}{{cite book |last1=Woodcroft |first1=Bennet |title=Alphabetical Index of Patentees of Inventions From March 2, 1617 (14 James I.) to October 1, 1852 (16 Victoriæ) |date=1854 |publisher=Queen's Printing Office |location=London |page=203 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rJ2fvayRdVgC |access-date=18 January 2025 |quote=Fry, Joseph Stoors[sic], 2048, 7th May 1795, Roasting cocoa nuts}} and Poincelet, who invented the melanger in 1811, soon adopted by most chocolate manufacturers.{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lYnyAAAAMAAJ | title=Histoire du chocolat | author=Vallenilla, Nikita Harwich | year=1992 | pages=129 | publisher=Desjonquères | isbn=978-2-904227-68-4 | quote=En 1811, sous l'impulsion de la Société pour l'Encouragement de l'Industrie Nationale, l'ingénieur Poincelet met au point un prototype de « mélangeur », dont le principe est bientôt adopté dans toute l'Europe. | trans-quote=In 1811, under the impetus of the Société pour l'Encouragement de l'Industrie Nationale, the engineer Poincelet developed a prototype of a "mélangeur", the principle of which was soon adopted throughout Europe.}}

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.{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EAsUAQAAIAAJ | title=L'industrie chocolatiere suisse: etude economique precedee d'un apercu general sur le cacao et le chocolat | publisher=Imprimerie de la Concorde | author=Schiess, Eduard | year=1915 | location=Lausanne | pages=128 |quote=Le tout formait une série de 16 qualités avec 16 emballages différents |trans-quote=The whole formed a series of 16 qualities with 16 different packaging}}{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WGNRDwAAQBAJ | title=The Art of the Chocolatier From Classic Confections to Sensational Showpieces | publisher=John Wiley & Sons | author=Notter, Ewald | year=2011 | pages=7 | isbn=9780470398845 |quote=It was not until 1819 that the first sophisticated chocolate factory was established in Corsier, Switzerland, by François-Louis Cailler.}}{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2k9DEAAAQBAJ | title=Du cacao au chocolat: L'épopée d'une gourmandise | publisher=Éditions Quæ | author=Barel, Michel | year=2021 | pages=102 | isbn=9782759233793 |quote=Le premier est François-Louis Cailler, l'inventeur de la tablette de chocolat telle que nous la connaissons aujourd'hui. En 1826, Philippe Suchard ouvre une chocolaterie à Serrière, près de Neuchâtel, en Suisse. Il met au point une machine à meules pour mélanger le sucre et le cacao. C'est un immense progrès.|trans-quote=The first is François-Louis Cailler, the inventor of the chocolate tablet as we know it today. In 1826, Philippe Suchard opened a chocolate factory in Serrière, near Neuchâtel, Switzerland. He develops a millstone machine to mix sugar and cocoa. This is a huge progress.}} Shortly after, in 1826, another Swiss chocolatier, Philippe Suchard, founded the Suchard factory where he used and developed the melanger. The same year, Pierre Paul Caffarel founded the Caffarel factory in Italy, using a new grinding machine, also allowing him to increase production.{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=O6QYBwAAQBAJ | title=Chocolate and Sustainable Cocoa Farming | publisher=Cambridge Scholars Publishing | author1=McMahon, Peter | author2=Keane, Philip | year=2023 | page=51 | isbn=978-1-4438-0472-1 | quote=...by Pierre Paul Caffarel who used a machine made by a Genoese engineer, Bozelli, to mix cocoa paste, sugar and vanilla and produce solid chocolate on a commercial scale from 1826, although it is unclear whether this was consumed as confectionery or used to make chocolate drink.}} During that decade, in England, Fry & Sons introduced chocolate lozenges as a "substitute for food when travelling".{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7DzjN3MJs5wC | title=Chocolate as Medicine: A Quest Over the Centuries | publisher=RSC Publishing | author=Wilson, Philip K. | year=2012 | pages=97 | isbn=978-1-84973-411-0 | quote=At least as early as 1826, edible chocolate became available in England in the form of lozenges that were deemed "a pleasant and nutritious substitute for food while traveling or when unusual fasting is caused by an irregular period of mealtimes".}}

1828 is the year of a major breakthrough: Casparus van Houten{{cite web|url=http://home.zonnet.nl/daniellerenkema/25ste-pagina.html|title=Onderzoekers in actie: Peter van Dam De geschiedenis van de firma Van Houten Cacao|access-date=25 May 2008|language=Dutch|archive-date=27 September 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927000124/http://home.zonnet.nl/daniellerenkema/25ste-pagina.html|url-status=dead}} 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.{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PJxwAwAAQBAJ | title=Tout sur le chocolat | publisher=Odile Jacob | author=Khodorowsky, Katherine | year=2009 | pages=47 | isbn=978-2-7381-9390-2 | quote=Le moule en fer-blanc étamé, mis au point par la maison Létang fondée en 1832, permet de faire des « chocolats ouvragés », comme des œufs de Pâques, en rajoutant du beurre de chocolat dans la recette, grâce à l'invention de Van Houten. | trans-quote=The tinned tin mold, developed by the Létang company founded in 1832, allows the making of "worked chocolates", such as Easter eggs, by adding chocolate butter to the recipe, thanks to Van Houten's invention.}} It is not known when the first chocolate with added cocoa butter was manufactured.{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3P4LB5k2idYC | title=Chocolate: The Food of the Gods | publisher=Chronicle Books | author=Coady, Chantal | year=1993 | pages=57 | isbn=978-0-8118-0451-6 | quote=Many people claimed to have been the first to have had the idea of recombining the cocoa butter with the cocoa mass to invent today's chocolate bar. Perhaps, spurred on by Van Houten's new technology, several cocoa manufacturers hit on the idea simultaneously.}} 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.{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=A-8PGtx3uI4C | title=The Temptation of Chocolate | publisher=Editions Racine | author=Mercier, Jacques | year=2008 | pages=97 | isbn=978-2-87386-533-7 | quote=Jean-Baptiste Létang, a Breton, founded the first workshop for producing chocolate moulds in Paris in 1832.}}{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nqADKK5yTSsC | title=Chocolate Wars: The 150-Year Rivalry Between the World's Greatest Chocolate Makers | publisher=PublicAffairs | author=Cadbury, Deborah | year=2011 | chapter=Chapter 2 | isbn=978-1-61039-051-4 | quote=Fry’s new product, however, did not appeal to anyone with a really sweet tooth. It was bitter, coarse, and heavy and probably only of interest to the dedicated few who also possessed a strong jaw. Initially sales were slow [...] By the nineteenth century, they [French confiseurs] were winning a reputation for their exquisite handcrafted sweets made from chocolate: delicious mousses, cakes, crèmes, dragées, and chocolate-coated nuts. [...] and it proved so successful that Menier’s output quadrupled in ten years, reaching 2,500 tonnes in the mid-1860s, a quarter of the country’s total output.}}

An American magazine from 1836 notes that (small and sweetened) chocolate bars have become popular in France for their nutritious quality and portability.{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LlsWAQAAIAAJ | title=The Horticultural Register and Gardener's Magazine: Volume II | publisher=Joseph Breck | author=Fessenden, Thomas Green | authorlink=Thomas Green Fessenden | year=1836 | location=Boston | pages=50 | quote=The [cocoa] nuts when roasted and ground, are moulded into chocolate cakes, a highly nutritious, wholesome, and delicious food. In France, small cakes of chocolate, sweetened with sugar, and of various fanciful forms, are prepared for eating. They are a portable food, of a nutritious quality, and delicious taste, and in great demand.}}

File:Chocolat-Menier. Les contrefaçons nombreuses du Chocolat-Menier nous engagent à présenter ci-contre un dessin des deux faces d'une tablette, affiche, non identifié.jpg

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,{{cite news | url=https://www.ouest-france.fr/pays-de-la-loire/la-fleche-72200/menier-une-dynastie-pour-le-chocolat-3091047 | title=Menier, une dynastie pour le chocolat | work=Ouest-France | date=29 December 2014 | access-date=22 May 2022 | author=Petit, Élisabeth |quote=Les premières formes de tablettes, enveloppées de papier blanc, voient le jour. En 1836, Menier lance une tablette à six divisions semi-cylindriques. Le succès est au rendez-vous. |trans-quote=The first chocolate tablets, wrapped in white paper, are created. In 1836, Menier launched a tablet with six semi-cylindrical divisions. Success is on the way.}} possibly already using additional cocoa butter.{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=O6QYBwAAQBAJ | title=Chocolate and Sustainable Cocoa Farming | publisher=Cambridge Scholars Publishing | author1=McMahon, Peter | author2=Keane, Philip | year=2023 | page=53 | isbn=978-1-4438-0472-1 | quote=In 1847 Fry's produced the first commercial edible chocolate bar in Britain by mixing cocoa butter, cocoa liquor and sugar to give a paste that could be pressed into a mould and set to give a solid block. [...] Emile Menier, the son of the founder, developed a solid chocolate bar in 1836. He obtained a plentiful supply of cocoa butter from Coenraad van Houten in Holland, perhaps being among the first to open up a demand for the butter that was considered a by-product by van Houten.}} 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.{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SHQPAAAAQAAJ | title=Maison centrale de droguerie: prix courant général 1845 | author=Menier et Cie | publisher=Schneider et Lagrand | year=1845 | pages=15–17}} Menier's tablets beared a trademark to protect them from counterfeits.{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MTsEEQAAQBAJ | title=The Intellectual Property of Food and Hospitality: From Sybaris' Banquets to NASA's Deep Space Food Challenge | publisher=Wolters Kluwer | author=de Carvalho, Nuno Pires | chapter=§ 2.16 | year=2024| isbn=978-94-035-1147-4 }} By the 1860s, production reached 2,500 tonnes, a quarter of the country’s total output, much of it exported. French assortments dominated the confectionery market until the appearance of milk chocolate in the 1890s.{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EqIQbwHYn-AC | title=Rowntree and the Marketing Revolution, 1862-1969 | publisher=Cambridge University Press | author=Fitzgerald, Robert | year=1995 | pages=67 | isbn=978-0-521-43512-3 | quote=The cocoa, chocolate and confectionery market in the 1890s was still dominated by Van Houten's alkalised essence, Swiss milk chocolate and French sweets.}}

File:Menier and Fry's (1864).png

In the 1840s, British manufacturers adopted eating chocolate to counter the popularity of French imports.{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RBcuEAAAQBAJ | title=The History of Sweets | publisher=Pen & Sword Books | author=Chrystal, Paul | chapter=Royal chocolate and Chocolate Houses | year=2021 | isbn=978-1-5267-7886-4 | quote=This was to exploit the cachet associated with French-sounding food and to counter the popularity of French imports.}} In 1842, John Cadbury sold "French Eating Chocolate".{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4uyHHyMoGhMC | title=Imperialism and the Anti-Imperialist Mind | publisher=Transaction Publishers | author=Feuer, Lewis Samuel | year=1989 | pages=45 | isbn=978-1-4128-2599-3 | quote=By 1842, his price list offered fifteen kinds of eating or drinking chocolate and about ten forms of cocoa; among the former were "Churchman's Chocolate" and "French Eating Chocolate."}} He was followed by Joseph Fry who sold Chocolat Délicieux à Manger ("delicious eating chocolate") in 1847.{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pZ-1AQAAQBAJ | title=The Oxford Companion to Food | author=Davidson, Alan | chapter=Chocolate in the 19th and 20th centuries |year=2006 | publisher=OUP Oxford | isbn=978-0-19-101825-1 | quote=and by 1847 Fry's were marketing 'Chocolat Délicieux à Manger'}} The latter, probably made with additional cocoa butter, is often considered the first modern chocolate bar,{{cite book|last=Mintz|first=Sidney|title=The Oxford Companion to Sugar and Sweets|date=2015|publisher=Oxford University Press|page=157}}{{Cite news |date=2023-12-11 |title=How chocolate became the winter beverage of choice |language=en-GB |work=BBC News |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-london-67405059 |access-date=2023-12-11}} although it was not successful. In 1849, both Fry and Cadbury chocolates were displayed publicly at a trade fair in Bingley Hall, Birmingham.{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FDR4OtAQCdQC | title=Chocolate Principles to Live By | publisher=Conari Press | author=Cheung, Theresa | year=2005 | pages=159 | isbn=9781609251758 | quote=In 1849 the first truly commercial eating chocolate appeared at a trade fair in Birmingham, England. The bars were made by a company called Fry, which added sugar and chocolate liquor to the cocoa [sic] butter. Fry was followed by Cadbury.}}{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JvhQKA2rHt8C | title=The International Cocoa Trade | publisher=John Wiley & Sons | author=Dand, Robin | year=1997 | pages=11 | isbn=9780471190554 | quote=Within a few years others followed the lead; by 1849 Cadbury was also selling eating chocolate.}} Meanwhile, the Walter Baker company introduced sweetened chocolate bars during the California gold rush, popularising chocolate as an everyday food in the United States.{{cite journal | url=https://archive.org/details/sim_modern-packaging_1950-03_23_7/mode/2up | title=Baker's Breakfast Cocoa | journal=Modern Packaging | year=1950 | volume=23 | issue=7 | pages=91 | quote=Walter Baker was probably the first to market chocolate candy confections in foil—if not the very first in this country to use metallic foil for any packaging purpose—records showing that he was selling Spiced Cocoa Sticks in tin foil in 1840. The currently popular Walter Baker Caracas bar was introduced in 1849, wrapped then in tin foil, much as it is today in greatly improved, colorfully printed aluminum foil.}}{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KEvEEAAAQBAJ | title=Chocolate A Cultural Encyclopedia | publisher=ABC-Clio | author=Collins, Ross F. | year=2022 | page=164 | isbn=978-1-4408-7608-0 | quote=In 1849, it jumped on the California Gold Rush, not to find the precious metal itself, but to find gold through the business of selling chocolate in San Francisco.}}

File:Fry's Chocolate and Cocoa.jpg

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, which led to the Fry's Chocolate Cream bar in 1866.{{cite web|url=http://www.candyhistory.net/candy-origin/candy-bars-history/|title=The History of Candy Bars|publisher=Candy History |access-date=August 20, 2015}} 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.{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-1WGAgAAQBAJ | title=Cocoa and Chocolate, 1765-1914 | publisher=Taylor & Francis | author=Clarence-Smith, William Gervase | year=2003 | pages=53–54 | chapter=Slow mechanisation, 1850s-1870s | isbn=978-1-134-60778-5 | quote=However, Fry's experimented with eating chocolate, copying French assortments and producing 'chocolate creams' [...] Sales of eating chocolate rose from about ten tonnes in 1852 to over 1,100 tonnes in 1880 }} 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.

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.Design, SUMO. "History of York." Rowntree & Co: Chocolate Manufacturers:. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Sept. 2016.

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.{{cite book | title=Chocolate: History, Culture, and Heritage | publisher=John Wiley & Sons | author=Grivetti, Louis E. | year=2009 | pages=619 | isbn=978-0-470-12165-8 | quote=By 1923, it was recorded that the "crunchy chocolates which sold in quantity only five to ten years ago have gone...}} 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.{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=R1bCBwAAQBAJ | title=The Oxford Companion to Sugar and Sweets | publisher=Oxford University Press | year=2015 | pages=146 | isbn=978-0-19-931361-7 |quote=The next great Swiss innovation, also dating from 1879, was Rodolphe Lindt's invention of "conching" [...] Tempering, too, invented around this time, greatly advanced the culture of chocolate.}}

File:Uncle Sam, the Connaisseur. Peter's Chocolate.jpg

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.Cocoa", Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online Academic Edition. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2013. Web. 9 May. 2013. 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.{{cite journal |first=Robert |last=Fitzgerald |date=2005 |title=Products, Firms and Consumption: Cadbury and the Development of Marketing, 1900–1939 |journal=Business History |volume=47 |issue=4 |pages=511–531 |doi=10.1080/00076790500132977 |s2cid=154421535 }}

In the United States, immigrants who arrived with candy-making skills drove the development of new chocolate bars.{{cite book|last=Goddard|first=Leslie|title=Chicago's Sweet Candy History|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yekGvpKoLWwC&pg=PA9|year=2012|publisher=Arcadia Publishing|isbn=978-0-7385-9382-1|pages=9–}} 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.

Chocolate bar sales grew rapidly in the early-20th century.{{cite book|last1=Fahey, Miller|first1=David M., John S.|title=Alcohol and Drugs in North America: A Historical Encyclopedia|date=2013|publisher=ABC-CLIO|page=164|isbn=9781598844795|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UXHYAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA164|access-date=August 20, 2015}} 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.{{cite book|last=Smith|first=Andrew F.|title=Eating History: 30 Turning Points in the Making of American Cuisine|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IH6KFJ4Om0oC&pg=PA128|year=2011|publisher=Columbia University Press|isbn=978-0-231-14093-5|pages=128–}}

File:Mars-Almond-split.jpg

The first chocolate bars were plain chocolate, but often flavoured with spices, such as cinnamon and vanilla. Producers soon began combining chocolate with other ingredients such as nuts, fruit, caramel, nougat, and wafers. In 1830, Kohler added hazelnuts to chocolate bars{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=di-3DwAAQBAJ | title=Le Larousse du chocolat | publisher=Editions Larousse | author=Hermé, Pierre | year=2019 |page=44 | isbn=9782035981820 |quote=Les noisettes furent les premiers fruits à être ajoutés dans le chocolat solide, une innovation suisse due à Kohler en 1830. |trans-quote=Hazelnuts were the first fruits to be added to solid chocolate, a Swiss innovation due to Kohler in 1830.}} and, in 1852, Caffarel added hazelnuts as a smooth paste to its chocolate, creating gianduja.{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0v6lAwAAQBAJ | title=Les vertus santé du chocolat | publisher=EDP Sciences | author=Robert, Hervé | year=2014 | pages=18 | isbn=9782759812950 |quote=Le Gianduja est créé en 1852 par Isidore Caffarel, il est fait à base de noisettes finement broyées |trans-quote=Gianduja was created in 1852 by Isidore Caffarel, it is made from finely ground hazelnuts}} Adding other, usually cheaper, ingredients to bars was also a way to reduce production costs.{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jbi6BwAAQBAJ | title=The Oxford Companion to Sugar and Sweets | publisher=Oxford University Press | author=Goldstein, Darra | year=2015 | isbn=978-0-19-931339-6 |quote=This emphasis on caloric heft led to the introduction of whipped nougat and marshmallow, which made bars appear larger and therefore more filling. All these additions also made the bars cheaper, since the quantity of expensive chocolate was minimized.}} Additionally, the overwhelming majority of combination bars use milk chocolate, which further decreases the amount of cocoa in the finished product.{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QhPbDwAAQBAJ | title=Chocolate Fads, Folklore & Fantasies: 1,000+ Chunks of Chocolate Information | publisher=Routledge | author=Hoffmann, Frank | year=2020 |chapter= Chapter IV: Chocolate Fantaisies | isbn=9781317953005 |quote=“The entire over-the-counter candy bar industry is 95 percent milk chocolate. People are weaned on it. Dark chocolate is a connoisseur's chocolate—more tasty, richer. As a result, a person who wants that will never buy milk.” —Joe Foscaldo, Marketing Manager for Phillips Candy House (quoted in Boston Globe)}} Approximately 30,000 varieties of candy bars existed in the United States during the 1920s, most of which were produced locally.{{cite book | last=Batchelor | first=B. | title=American Pop: Popular Culture Decade by Decade | publisher=ABC-CLIO | series=Non-Series | year=2008 | isbn=978-0-313-36411-2 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9bBzCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA311 | access-date=October 29, 2017 | page=311}}

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,{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qjgxEAAAQBAJ | title=Rowntree's – The Early History | publisher=Pen and Sword Books | author=Chrystal, Paul | year=2021 |chapter=The Cocoa and Chocolate Competition at the Start of the Twentieth Century | isbn=9781526778901 |quote=In 1904, Daniel Peter and Charles-Amédée Kohler became partners and founded the company Société Générale Suisse de Chocolats Peter et Kohler Réunis. Cailler began to produce their own Branches. The original Branche was first mentioned in Kohler's recipe books in 1896.}} 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.{{cite web | url=https://www.bdlp.org/fiche/17641 | website=Base de données lexicographiques panfrancophone | language=French | title=Branche (de chocolat): Citation 24 Heures (1998) | publisher=Agence universitaire de la Francophonie | access-date=5 May 2022 |quote=Emballée de rouge, de bleu ou de vert, la branche de chocolat au lait fait partie de l'identité helvétique. Créée en 1907 par Cailler dans son usine de Broc pour écouler les déchets et brisures de confiserie qui étaient refondus et roulés à la main en boudins [...] Emballée dans une feuille d'aluminium, elle fut appelée «branche». Cette appellation trop générale ne fut pas protégée. Elle devint peu à peu le nom générique de tout bâtonnet de chocolat, qu'il soit sorti de Broc ou fabriqué par les marques concurrentes qui toutes se mirent à copier l'original. |trans-quote=Wrapped in red, blue or green, the milk chocolate bar is part of the Swiss identity. Created in 1907 by Cailler in its factory in Broc to dispose of broken confectionery that was remelted and rolled by hand into sticks [...] Wrapped in aluminum foil, it was called a "branch". This too general appellation was not protected. It gradually became the generic name for any chocolate stick, whether it came out of Broc or manufactured by competing brands, all of which began to copy the original.}}
• 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.{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rDgxEAAAQBAJ | title=Rowntrees: The Early History | publisher=Pen & Sword Books | author=Chrystal, Paul | year=2021 | pages=62 | isbn=9781526778925 | quote=Prudently, Theodor Tobler and his then company, Tobler AG, applied for a patent in 1909 in Bern to cover the manufacture and shape of the bar, and Toblerone thus became the first patented milk chocolate bar.}}
• 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.{{Cite book|title=Candy: A Century of Panic and Pleasure|last=Kawash|first=Samira|publisher=Faber and Faber|year=2013|isbn=9780374711108|pages=152–153, 156–157, 163}} The combination of peanuts with chocolate became very popular in North America, while the hazelnut remained the most popular pairing in Europe.{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=S6qFa3WYRVgC | title=Candy Making For Dummies | publisher=John Wiley & Sons | author=Jones, David | year=2011 | chapter=Not So Tough to Crack: Picking Nuts | isbn=978-1-118-05461-1 | quote=Hazelnuts have long been a favorite nut in Europe, where the hazelnut, or filbert, is the equivalent of the peanut in America.}}
• 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.
• 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. 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.
• 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.{{cite web|url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/2013/10/20/when-candy-was-dandy/|title=When Candy Was Dandy|date=October 20, 2013|author=Jill Elaine Hughes|work=Chicago Tribune}} 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.{{cite book|last=Smith|first=Andrew F.|title=Fast Food and Junk Food: An Encyclopedia of What We Love to Eat|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7-WcKK01H1cC&pg=PA131|date=December 31, 2011|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-0-313-39393-8|pages=131–}}
• 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.{{cite web|last1=Irvine|first1=Dean|title=How did Kit Kat become king of candy in Japan?|url=http://eatocracy.cnn.com/2012/02/02/how-did-kit-kat-became-king-of-candy-in-japan/?hpt=hp_bn8|website=Eatocracy at CNN|publisher=CNN|access-date=10 February 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160208054752/http://eatocracy.cnn.com/2012/02/02/how-did-kit-kat-became-king-of-candy-in-japan/?hpt=hp_bn8|archive-date=8 February 2016|date=2 February 2012|url-status=dead}}

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| footer = Main chocolate ingredients: cocoa liquor, cocoa butter, sugar, and dried milk.}}

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.{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nvEjDgAAQBAJ | title=Beckett's Industrial Chocolate Manufacture and Use | publisher=John Wiley & Sons | author=Beckett, Steve T. | year=2017 | pages=497| isbn=978-1-118-92358-0 }} 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.{{cite book |doi=10.1016/B978-0-9830791-2-5.50018-9 |chapter=Milk Fat and Cocoa Butter |title=Cocoa Butter and Related Compounds |year=2012 |last1=Metin |first1=Serpil |last2=Hartel |first2=Richard W. |pages=365–392 |isbn=978-0-9830791-2-5 }} While sugar is commonly used as a sweetener for chocolate bars, some chocolate bars use sugar alcohols, such as maltitol as an alternative.{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SbarDwAAQBAJ | title=Science of Chocolate | publisher=Royal Society of Chemistry | author=Beckett, Stephen T. | year=2018 | chapter=8.3.3 Sucrose Free and Reduced Sugar | isbn=978-1-78801-663-6 | quote=Low sugar milk, dark and white chocolates are commercially available with maltitol replacing all the sucrose.}}

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".{{cite web| url=http://www.inspection.gc.ca/food/labelling/food-labelling-for-industry/confectionery-chocolate-and-snack-food-products/eng/1392136343660/1392136466186?chap=0#s4c3| title=Labelling Requirements for Confectionery, Chocolate and Snack Food Products| date=15 January 2019| publisher=Canadian Food Inspection Agency| access-date=11 July 2019| quote=Compound coatings, which are products having the appearance but not the composition of chocolate, are often used as an outside layer or coating for biscuits, candy and frozen confections or as chips within baked goods. There should be no indication that compound coatings are "chocolate". However, "chocolate flavoured", "chocolate-like", and "chocolaty" have been accepted as appropriate descriptions of such coatings and chips.| archive-date=30 November 2018| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181130224533/http://www.inspection.gc.ca/food/labelling/food-labelling-for-industry/confectionery-chocolate-and-snack-food-products/eng/1392136343660/1392136466186?chap=0#s4c3| url-status=dead}} Combination bars may contain a wide variety of additional ingredients.

{{main|Chocolate#Production}}

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.

File:Chocolate bar from the times of King Stanisław August Poniatowski.jpg

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.{{cite web |url = http://www.lazienki-krolewskie.pl/pl/katalog/obiekty/lkr-113 |title = Dwa cukierki - czekoladki |trans-title=Two sweets - chocolates |publisher = The Royal Łazienki Museum |language = pl |access-date = 10 November 2016 |number = ŁKr 113 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20161111060838/http://www.lazienki-krolewskie.pl/pl/katalog/obiekty/lkr-113 |archive-date = 2016-11-11 |url-status = dead }} 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.

The world's largest chocolate bar was produced as a stunt by Thorntons plc (UK) on 7 October 2011. It weighed {{convert|5,792.50|kg|abbr=on}} and measured 4m by 4m by 0.35m.{{cite web|publisher=Guinness World Records |title=Largest chocolate bar by weight |url=http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/1/largest-chocolate-bar- |access-date=22 October 2013}}

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.{{cite web|publisher=Food & Wine |title=The Largest Snickers Bar in the World Weighs Over Two Metric Tons |url=https://www.foodandwine.com/news/largest-snickers-ever-weighs-over-two-metric-tons |access-date=21 February 2020}}

On January 31, 2020, the Hershey Company beat the Guinness World Record for largest chocolate nut bar{{cite web|publisher=Guinness World Records |title=Largest chocolate nut bar |url=https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/495398-largest-chocolate-nut-bar/ |access-date=21 February 2020}} 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.{{cite web|publisher=Food & Wine |title=Reese's Breaks Snickers' World Record for Largest Nut Bar |url=https://www.foodandwine.com/news/reeses-take-5-guinness-world-record-candy-bar |access-date=21 February 2020}} The Take 5 chocolate bar gets its name from the 5 ingredients it contains: Reese's peanut butter, peanuts, pretzels, caramel and chocolate.

{{Portal|Food}}

• Energy bar
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{{Notelist}}

{{Reflist}}

{{Refbegin}}

• Almond, Steve (2004) Candyfreak, Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, {{ISBN|1-56512-421-9}}
• Broekel, Ray (1982) The Great American Candy Bar Book, Houghton Mifflin Co., {{ISBN|0-395-32502-1}}
• 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, {{ISBN|1-58234-307-1}}

{{Refend}}

{{Commons category|Chocolate bars}}

• {{Commons-inline}}
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20080625154143/http://www.underconsideration.com/speakup/archives/a_century_of_candy_bars.pdf "History of Candy Bar Wrappers", Grager, Dave (2004)]

{{Chocolate}}

Category:British inventions

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