Chocolate bar

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.
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.
The term bar may refer to a large variety of shapes, including not oblong ones, such as squares. Small (bite-sized) chocolate pieces are however usually referred to as chocolates, regardless of shape. These include neapolitans, bonbons, pralines and truffles.
Cake chocolate is an old commercial designation for solid chocolate.
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. In fact, any finely ground cocoa that is not immediately used to make a drink turns into solid chocolate. The grinding of the cocoa beans was done with a stone metate. Dominican friar Diego Durán mentions in his writings that Aztec soldiers carried small balls of ground cocoa among other military rations. Cocoa was introduced into Europe in the early 16th century, possibly already under its processed (solid) form.
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. 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.
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. Another illustration is given by a contemporary encyclopedia, which mentions "bonbons", "chocolate-covered pistachios" and "white chocolate". 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.
The late 18th century saw the beginning of the mechanization of chocolate manufacturing. Water and wind power was used first, steam-powered machines followed. This not only allowed the production of chocolate on a larger scale, but also the production of chocolate with a finer texture. Among the pioneers were Joseph Storrs Fry, who patented a method of grinding cocoa beans using a Watt steam engine in 1795, and Poincelet, who invented the melanger in 1811, soon adopted by most chocolate manufacturers.
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. 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. During that decade, in England, Fry & Sons introduced chocolate lozenges as a "substitute for food when travelling".
1828 is the year of a major breakthrough: Casparus van Houten 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. It is not known when the first chocolate with added cocoa butter was manufactured. 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.
An American magazine from 1836 notes that (small and sweetened) chocolate bars have become popular in France for their nutritious quality and portability.
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, possibly already using additional cocoa butter. 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. Menier's tablets beared a trademark to protect them from counterfeits. 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.
In the 1840s, British manufacturers adopted eating chocolate to counter the popularity of French imports. In 1842, John Cadbury sold "French Eating Chocolate". He was followed by Joseph Fry who sold Chocolat Délicieux à Manger ("delicious eating chocolate") in 1847. The latter, probably made with additional cocoa butter, is often considered the first modern chocolate bar, although it was not successful. In 1849, both Fry and Cadbury chocolates were displayed publicly at a trade fair in Bingley Hall, Birmingham. Meanwhile, the Walter Baker company introduced sweetened chocolate bars during the California gold rush, popularising chocolate as an everyday food in the United States.
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. 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. 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.
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. 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.
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. 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.
In the United States, immigrants who arrived with candy-making skills drove the development of new chocolate bars. 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. 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.
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 and, in 1852, Caffarel added hazelnuts as a smooth paste to its chocolate, creating gianduja. Adding other, usually cheaper, ingredients to bars was also a way to reduce production costs. Additionally, the overwhelming majority of combination bars use milk chocolate, which further decreases the amount of cocoa in the finished product. Approximately 30,000 varieties of candy bars existed in the United States during the 1920s, most of which were produced locally.
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.
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. 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. While sugar is commonly used as a sweetener for chocolate bars, some chocolate bars use sugar alcohols, such as maltitol as an alternative.
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". Combination bars may contain a wide variety of additional ingredients.
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.
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. 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 5,792.50 kg (12,770.3 lb) and measured 4m by 4m by 0.35m.
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.
On January 31, 2020, the Hershey Company beat the Guinness World Record for largest chocolate nut bar 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. The Take 5 chocolate bar gets its name from the 5 ingredients it contains: Reese's peanut butter, peanuts, pretzels, caramel and chocolate.