Candy Bar History

Although it wold be impossible to present an exact history, at which the candy industry developed, sixty five percent of American candy bars have been around longer than sixty years. In 1854 the first packaged box of Whit man's chocolate debuts, thus being the advent of boxed chocolates as we know them today. In 1868 Richard Cadbury introduced the first Valentine's Day box of chocolate

In 1847, Joseph Fry discovered a way to mix some melted cacao butter back into defatted or "Dutched" cocoa powder, along with sugar to create a paste that could be pressed into a mold. The resulting bar was such a hit that people soon began to think of eating chocolate as much as drinking it, the inventor of chocolate for eating is unknown.

John Cadbury added a similar product to his range in 1849, and by today's standards these original chocolate bars would not be considered very palatable. The early eating bars of chocolate were made of bittersweet chocolate, Milk chocolate was introduced in 1875 when Henry Nestle, a maker of evaporated milk and Daniel Peter also a chocolate maker, got together and invented milk chocolate. In 1879 Rodolphe Lindt thought to add cocoa butter back to the chocolate, adding the additional cocoa butter helped the chocolate set up into a bar that "snaps" when broken as well as melting on the tongue.

It was at the 1893 Worlds Fair that Milton Hershey, a successful carmel candy businessman, first became fascinated with the art of chocolate making. While at the fair he had purchased some German machinery and began producing chocolate coatings on carmels, aware of the growing demand for chocolate itself, he soon started the Hershey Chocolate Company. In 1900 he sold his carmel company for $1 million and devotes his attention to making chocolate. The same year he introduces the original Hershey's milk chocolate bar. Today we know the variety that the Hershey company produces such as; milk chocolate bars with almonds , dark chocolate bars, big block and king size bars, Hershey's cookies'n'cream bars and in 2004 they introduces Limited Edition bars ans etc.. With the death of Milton Hershey in 1945, the company, town and institutions that bear his name were well positioned to continue to grow.

Other Americans began mixing in other ingredients to make up new candy bars throughout the end of the 1890's and early 1900's. But it was World War I that really brought attention to the candy bar. The U.S. Army Quartermaster Corps commissioned various American chocolate manufactures to provide 20 to 40 pound blocks of chocolate to be shipped to quartermaster bases. The block's were chopped up into smaller pieces and distributed to doughboy's in Europe.