Milk chocolate: history and invention

In 1828, a Dutch chemist found a way to make the fine powder known as cocoa. Soon candy makers began to find ways to make candy from cocoa.

Milk chocolate was invented by Daniel Peter of Switzerland in 1876. The ground cocoa nib was processed with sugar and milk solids and the result was a product that today is the mainstay of the chocolate industry.

Making milk chocolate took a lot of work and was very expensive. It also took a lot of time, but it was worth every minute. Daniel Peter managed to succeed by using condensed milk.

The invention of milk chocolate was links to two aspects of the milk industry in Switzerland
*A surplus of milk in the country
*The development of methods for preservation of milk by the Nestlé Co.

Daniel Peters drew his inspiration for producing milk chocolate from Henry Nestlé own success in combining milk, wheat flour and sugar for infant cereal. Daniel Peter came up with the idea of using Nestlé’s milk powder in a new kind of chocolate. The mixture of cocoa powder (a Dutch invention from Van Houten) and creamy farm milk, a Swiss specialty, revolutionized the world of chocolate.

Cadbury’s Dairy Milk Chocolate was developed in the early 1900s and similar products by many other manufacturers followed. Milton Hershey found a way to mass produce milk chocolate, or make large amounts of it, in his factory in Hershey Pennsylvania.

Peter’s development of milk chocolate: he used its sweetened condensed milk to produce early versions of his milk chocolate.

Nevertheless, Peter’s chocolate products, manufactured by his own company, Societe Generale Suisse de Chocolat, were marketed under the Nestlé brand name and distributed from just after the turn of the twentieth century until 1929, when Nestlé acquired Pater’s company.
Milk chocolate: history and invention

History of milk chocolate

While visiting Jamaica from 1687 to 1689, Hans Sloan, a physician and botanist, who found the chocolate drink by the locals to be ‘nauseous’.

In 1727, Nicholas Sanders, an Englishman first blended chocolate with milk to produce the hot chocolate and served the drink for Sloane. Sir Hans Sloane was the first surgeon to King George II.

This was not modern milk by simply milk mixed with chocolate liquor.  Sanders had not perfected the process so many years later. John Cadbury borrowed his idea and attempted to perfect it.

Milk Chocolate Bar

Meanwhile, Hans Sloane developed a recipe that mastered the art of adding cocoa to milk. John Cadbury later teamed up with Sloane to create deliciously creamy hot chocolate that nearly all consumers could afford.

Cadbury acquired the rights and the label for ‘Sir Hans Sloane’s Milk Chocolate prepared after the original recipe.’

The directions were simple: ‘Put one ounce of chocolate to a pint of boiling milk, add sugar’. This product pre-dated the Cocoa Essence revolution, having been launching in 1849 and lasted a surprisingly long time until 1885.

In 1860s and 1870s, two Swiss men, Henri Nestlé and Daniel Peter produced the first milk chocolate bars.
History of milk chocolate 

Invention of milk chocolate

Until the early 1800s the only product was a very fatty chocolate drink prepared from whole cocoa bean, sugar and spices.

In 1828, Van Houten of Holland invented the cocoa press which received a part of the cocoa fat from the bean, resulting in a powder with about 23 percent fat. The invention of the cocoa press helped make chocolate production even easier.

In 1867, Nestle discovered a process to powder milk evaporation. In 1875, chocolatier Daniel Peter joined forces with his neighbor Henry Nestlé created milk chocolate.

In the process, the ground cocoa nib was processed with sugar and milk solids and the result was a product that today is the mainstay of the chocolate industry.

In 1879, the first milk chocolate bar was produced. The invention of milk chocolate had a major impact on the increase in consumption of cocoa products.

Cadbury had been experimenting since around 1889 in making milk chocolate at Bourneville. The company launching a milk chocolate bar in 1897 and since that time, the popularity of milk chocolate has increased astronomically.
Invention of milk chocolate