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The history of milk chocolate had a bitter start, eventually becoming the world’s most famous chocolate variety and candy today.
The term “milk chocolate” first appeared in 1687 in London. An Irish physician by the name of Hans Sloane invented and introduced a milk-chocolate-like drink after observing a similar concoction consumed in Jamaica. On the island of Jamaica, the drink was consumed with hot water and chocolate. This was a new twist, substituting the water for milk.
It was marketed as a medical tonic.
The new beverage gained popularity quickly throughout Europe and eventually spread to France and the USA by 1834.
In 1839, two pharmacists from Dresden, Eduard Jordan and Friedrich August Timaeus, invented the first solid milk chocolate. They called it “dampfchocolade”, meaning steam chocolate in German.
The chocolate consisted of 60% cocoa, 30% sugar, and 10% donkey milk.
This early version of solid milk chocolate was not very successful as people thought it tasted too bitter, and other major chocolate manufacturers continued focusing on plain chocolate.
A breakthrough of milk chocolate came in 1875. A swiss candle maker, Daniel Peter, turned chocolatier from Vevey, Switzerland—spent eight long years experimenting to come up with the perfect milk chocolate formulation.
His recipe:
The condemned milk was the secret ingredient that made his solid milk chocolate a success, as regular milk caused other milk chocolate to spoil quickly.
Daniel Peter launched his milk chocolate bar under the brand name “Gala Peter” in 1887. Gala means milk in Greek. The chocolate bar was a hit because it tasted better by softening chocolate’s natural bitterness. The brand’s popularity would lead to the formation of the Nestlé Company in 1879 and becoming one of Europe’s largest candy makers.
In 1879, Rodolphe Lindt—a Swiss chocolate maker in Bern, Switzerland—accidentally produced hard, bitter chocolate like all other chocolatiers of the time.
He had left his chocolate-mixing machine running throughout the weekend. He discovered that the extended mixing period had transformed the chocolate’s texture and taste dramatically.
The discovery led to him inventing the conching machine that helped to create a process that involved heating and rolling liquid chocolate mass to refine it, after which more cocoa butter was added. The end result was a significantly smoother texture that would melt in your mouth.
It was so successful that conching remains the standard process for creating milk chocolate worldwide.
In 1898, Cailler opened a large-scale production facility in Broc, Switzerland. It was one of first factories to create milk chocolate at a massive scale. With a milk chocolate tab called “Lait” as its most popular brand.
Carl Russ-Suchard launched Milka brand chocolate in 1901. It was packaged in its distinctively and now-famous lilac-colored wrapper.
The iconic triangular shaped milk chocolate bar, Toblerone, was invented in 1908 by Emil Baumann and Theodor Tobler. It had a unique formulation of milk chocolate combined with white nougat, almonds, and honey.
Switzerland quickly became the center of milk chocolate production. The country had many companies that had an output reaching 15,000 tonnes by 1905. Milk chocolate production from the Swiss sparked a dramatic increase in global cocoa consumption.
Milton Hershey became fascinated with German chocolate-making machinery at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. He was so impressed that he sold his successful caramel company for $1 million in 1900 to focus entirely on chocolate manufacturing.
Hershey’s breakthrough in milk chocolate came with his successful use of fresh milk instead of condensed milk, which Swiss chocolatiers used.
He started selling his milk chocolate bars to the American public for 2 to 10 cents, turning milk chocolate from a luxury good to a candy enjoyed by billions of people today.
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