Chocolate : Industrial Revolution
For hundreds of years, the chocolate-making process remained relatively unaltered. But by the mid 1700s, the blossoming Industrial Revolution saw the emergence of innovations that changed the future of chocolate.
A steady stream of new inventions and advertising helped set the stage for solid chocolate candy to become the globally favored sweet it is today.
From Prehispanic times until the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, chocolate was largely a handmade product. Time consuming and expensive to produce, chocolate was available only to the wealthy as a beverage.
But new machinery of the industrial age made it possible to create solid chocolate and mass-produce this candy in enormous quantities at a fraction of the original cost. For the first time, most of the general public could afford this tasty treat.
Hardships continued long after slavery’s end. For more than two centuries, enslaved people had labored to produce crops in lands colonized by European nations. Although slavery was abolished in all countries by 1888, the need for labor to meet the demand for products like sugar and cacao continued.
Some activists in the world of chocolate worked to improve conditions. In 1910, William Cadbury (the famous chocolate manufacturer) invited several English and American chocolate companies to join him in refusing to buy cacao from plantations characterized by harsh working conditions until things improved.
That same year, a United States Congressional hearing resulted in a formal U.S. ban on any cocoa shown to be the product of slave labor from these plantations.
Machines made chocolate a mass-produced treat. In the early 1700's, a Frenchman named Doret invented a hydraulic machine to grind cacao seeds into a paste. Not long afterward, another Frenchman by the name of Dubuisson, created the steam-driven chocolate mill.
These mechanical mills relieved people from the labor-intensive process of grinding cacao. It became possible to grind huge amounts of cacao and mass-produce chocolate inexpensively and quickly.
New innovations improved chocolate’s texture and taste. Before the Industrial Revolution, chocolate was a gritty, rather oily paste usually dissolved in water or milk and made into a beverage. But the invention of new machines made it possible to create smoother, creamier chocolate in the form of an edible candy bar.
One of the most important inventions was the cocoa press, created in 1828 by the Dutch chemist Coenraad Van Houten. It squeezed out cocoa butter (leaving the powder we call cocoa) and made cocoa both more consistent and cheaper to produce.
New ingredients also improved chocolate’s texture and taste. In 1815, Van Houten added alkaline salts to powdered chocolate, which helped it to mix better with water and gave it a darker color and milder flavor.
And in 1875, Daniel Peter and Henri Nestlé teamed up to introduce condensed milk to chocolate. Their smooth, creamy “milk chocolate” rapidly became a popular favorite.
Expensive handmade chocolate gave way to affordable mass-produced sweets. For hundreds of years, chocolate remained a pricey luxury for the upper classes. But new technologies made chocolate affordable to a much broader segment of society and opened up opportunities for culinary experimentation.
Chocolate began to appear not only in its candy bar form, but also became much more popular as an ingredient in other confectionery sweets, such as cakes, pastries, and sorbets.
Advertising boosted public consumption of chocolate. While inventions made chocolate easier to produce, advertising made it something people craved.
As chocolate products became cheaper to make and buy, advertisers introduced marketing campaigns aimed at more people, particularly women and children.
Breakfast chocolate became a part of many people’s diets. And nibbling on chocolate bars was encouraged as a way to sustain energy, cure lethargy, and improve a host of other medical conditions.
