46 Fun Facts About Hard Chocolate

Conching grinds cocoa and sugar particles down to roughly what size, below what the tongue can detect?

About 20 micrometres: refining and conching reduce cocoa and sugar particles to roughly 20 microns, below the 25-30 micron threshold at which the tongue senses grittiness.

In which year did Rodolphe Lindt of Bern introduce the conche?

Rodolphe Lindt introduced the conche in Bern in 1879, a machine that kneads chocolate for hours to drive off harsh acids and smooth the texture.

Coenraad van Houten is usually credited with the 1828 cocoa press, but who actually patented it?

His father Casparus van Houten took out the 1828 patent for the hydraulic cocoa press; Coenraad's own contribution was alkalising cocoa, the origin of 'Dutch process' cocoa.

Which British firm invented the eating chocolate commonly considered the first chocolate bar, in 1847?

Fry's of Bristol made the first moulded eating chocolate in 1847 by mixing cocoa butter back into cocoa powder and sugar to form a paste that set firm.

Under what name did Daniel Peter sell his pioneering Swiss milk chocolate?

Gala: Peter first made milk chocolate in 1875 but sold it from 1887 as 'Gala Peter', borrowing the Greek word for milk.

Which neighbour and friend in Vevey supplied Daniel Peter with condensed milk?

Henri Nestlé, Peter's neighbour in Vevey, supplied the condensed milk that let Peter's 1875 milk chocolate avoid the spoilage that fresh milk caused.

The word "chocolate" was first recorded in English in which year?

1604: the word's first recorded English use is in Edward Grimeston's 1604 translation of José de Acosta's history of the Indies, describing a drink 'they call Chocolate'.

In which year was the first official shipment of cocoa beans to Europe recorded?

1585: the first recorded commercial shipment of cocoa beans to Europe sailed from Veracruz to Seville in 1585, some 65 years after Cortés's men first saw the drink at Moctezuma's court.

Which traditional cacao variety is a natural hybrid of the other two?

Trinitario arose on Trinidad in the 18th century as a cross between hardy Forastero and fine-flavoured Criollo, after a disaster wiped out much of the island's Criollo.

Cacao trees cannot tolerate temperatures below what?

15 °C (59 °F): cacao is a tropical understory tree that cannot tolerate temperatures below about 15 °C, which confines it to a band within 20 degrees of the equator.

Cocoa futures trade in two cities: London handles West African cocoa; which city handles Southeast Asian cocoa?

New York: cocoa futures trade on ICE Futures U.S. in New York, which has traditionally priced Southeast Asian beans, and on ICE Futures Europe in London for West African cocoa.

Cacao was introduced to the Gold Coast, modern Ghana, by which Ghanaian?

Tetteh Quarshie, a Ghanaian blacksmith, brought cacao beans back from Fernando Po (Bioko) in 1879 and planted them at Mampong, founding what became Ghana's biggest export crop.

At what temperature range does cocoa butter melt, so chocolate stays solid on the shelf but melts in the mouth?

34–38 °C: cocoa butter melts just below body temperature, between roughly 34 and 38 °C, so chocolate holds its shape at room temperature yet melts on the tongue; the same property suits suppositories.

Fat bloom on chocolate is triggered when storage temperature fluctuates or exceeds what?

24 °C (75 °F): fat bloom, the greyish film of migrated cocoa butter, appears when chocolate is stored above about 24 °C or cycled through temperature swings; sugar bloom comes from humidity instead.

Roughly how much milk chocolate can poison a smaller dog, per theobromine toxicology figures?

As little as 50 g of milk chocolate can poison a small dog, while an average-sized dog can succumb from around 400 g, roughly nine small bars; the culprit is theobromine, which dogs metabolise slowly.

Which French pharmacist first coated pills in chocolate before building a chocolate factory at Noisiel?

Antoine Brutus Menier, a Paris pharmacist, started coating medicines in chocolate in 1816 and in 1825 opened the mill at Noisiel that his family grew into France's biggest chocolate maker.

Joseph Storrs Fry patented a method of grinding cocoa beans in 1795 using what power source?

A Watt steam engine: in 1795 Joseph Storrs Fry patented grinding cocoa beans with a James Watt steam engine, making the Bristol works among the first to mechanise chocolate making.

In which city did the widow Giambone start making chocolate eggs in emptied chicken eggshells in 1725?

Turin: in 1725 the widow Giambone began filling emptied chicken eggshells with chocolate, an early ancestor of the hollow moulded Easter eggs made in Britain from the 1870s.

Chocolate truffles were created on Christmas Day 1895 by pastry chef Louis Dufour in which French city?

Chambéry, in Savoy: the story goes that pâtissier Louis Dufour, short of ingredients at Christmas 1895, rolled ganache in cocoa powder, naming the result for the knobbly fungus it resembled.

How many layers of sponge does Demel's version of the Sachertorte have?

One: Demel's Sachertorte is a single layer of sponge with apricot jam only beneath the chocolate glaze, whereas Hotel Sacher's cuts the cake into two layers with jam between.

Confectioner Josef Keller claimed to have invented Black Forest gateau in 1915 at a café in which town?

Bad Godesberg, now part of Bonn: Josef Keller said he created the cake at the Café Agner there in 1915, though the first printed recipe appeared only in 1934.

Toblerone's name fuses Tobler with 'torrone', an Italian word for what confection?

Nougat: Theodor Tobler and Emil Baumann launched Toblerone in Bern in 1908, blending the family name with torrone, the Italian honey-and-almond nougat that inspired the bar's filling.

Toblerone was made only in Bern until Mondelez moved part of production to which city?

Bratislava: Mondelez shifted some Toblerone production from Bern to Bratislava, Slovakia, from 2023, so the bar no longer met Swissness rules and the Matterhorn came off its packaging.

Michele Ferrero named Ferrero Rocher after a grotto at which Roman Catholic shrine?

Lourdes: Michele Ferrero, a devout Catholic, named the 1982 praline after the Rocher de Massabielle, the rocky grotto at Lourdes where the Virgin is said to have appeared in 1858.

On what date did the first jar of Nutella leave the Ferrero factory in Alba?

20 April 1964: the first jar of Nutella rolled off the line at Ferrero's Alba factory in Piedmont, reworking the firm's earlier Giandujot and Supercrema spreads into a hazelnut-cocoa cream.

Which American food group completed its purchase of Belgium's Godiva in 1974?

Campbell Soup bought a third of Godiva in 1966 and the rest in 1974, then sold the chocolatier to Turkey's Yıldız Holding in 2007.

Which two US chocolate companies are older than Ghirardelli, incorporated in 1852?

Baker's and Whitman's: Baker's dates from 1764 in Massachusetts and Whitman's from 1842 in Philadelphia, making Ghirardelli, incorporated in San Francisco in 1852, the third-oldest American chocolate company.

Baker's Chocolate began in 1764 in the Lower Mills section of which Massachusetts town?

Dorchester: Irish immigrant John Hannon and Dr James Baker began milling chocolate in 1764 at Lower Mills on the Neponset River in Dorchester; after Hannon vanished at sea in 1779, Baker took over.

Cadbury's 1879 model village gave its name to which dark chocolate bar first sold in 1908?

Bournville: the dark chocolate bar launched in 1908 took the name of the model village the Cadbury brothers began in 1879 beside their factory south of Birmingham.

Cadbury merged with Schweppes in which year?

1969: Cadbury and Schweppes merged to form Cadbury Schweppes, which split its confectionery and drinks arms in 2008 before Kraft bought Cadbury in 2010.

Nestlé makes Kit Kat everywhere except which country, where a rival holds a 1970 licence?

United States: Hershey has made Kit Kat there under a licence Rowntree's granted in 1970, and the deal survived Nestlé's 1988 takeover of Rowntree's.

Rowntree's trademarked the names Kit Cat and Kit Kat in which year, long before the bar existed?

1911: Rowntree's of York registered Kit Cat and Kit Kat as trademarks in 1911; the name went on a 1920s box of chocolates, and the wafer bar appeared in 1935 as Chocolate Crisp.

H. B. Reese lost his job at Hershey in 1919 when which facility he managed was shut down to save money?

The Round Barn, a Hershey dairy facility Reese managed, was shut in 1919 to cut costs; he went on to found his own candy business and launched the peanut butter cup in 1928.

Hershey's Kisses production was briefly halted in 1942 because of wartime rationing of what?

Aluminum foil: wartime rationing of the foil that wraps each Kiss stopped production from 1942 until 1949, when the line restarted.

How heavy was Hershey's Guinness-record Reese's Take 5 bar of 31 January 2020?

5,943 lbs: the Take 5 bar, 9 feet long and 5.5 feet wide, took the Guinness record for largest chocolate nut bar ahead of Super Bowl LIV, beating a giant Snickers Mars had unveiled two weeks earlier.

Mars paid $5 million to make Snickers and M&M's the 'official snack' of which event?

The 1984 Summer Olympics: Mars paid $5 million for Snickers and M&M's to be the official snack foods of the Los Angeles Games; Snickers itself dates from 1930.

On what date did Forrest Mars receive the US patent for his M&M's process?

3 March 1941: Forrest Mars Sr. received the US patent for his sugar-shell process on that date, having seen soldiers eating hard-coated chocolate pellets during the Spanish Civil War.

Milton Hershey was apprenticed at 14 to which Lancaster, Pennsylvania confectioner?

Joseph Royer: in 1872 the 14-year-old Hershey was apprenticed to Joseph H. Royer's confectionery in Lancaster, where he learned candy making before a Denver caramel maker taught him to use fresh milk.

Nestlé's 1936 bar, the first mass-market white chocolate, was sold in Europe under what name?

Galak: Nestlé launched its white chocolate bar in Europe in 1936 under the Galak name, which became Milkybar in Britain; the bar contains cocoa butter, sugar and milk but no cocoa solids.

Which Spanish chocolate maker, founded in Villajoyosa in 1881, runs a chocolate museum there?

Valor, founded by Valeriano López Lloret in Villajoyosa, Alicante, in 1881, opened a chocolate museum beside its factory in the town and ranks among Spain's biggest chocolate makers.

The ballotin box for Belgian chocolates was designed in 1915 by Louise Agostini, wife of which chocolatier?

Neuhaus had introduced the filled praline three years earlier, in 1912.

Tony's Chocolonely was founded in 2005 by journalist Teun van de Keuken as a protest against what?

Slavery in the cocoa trade: Van de Keuken launched Tony's Chocolonely in 2005 after trying to have himself prosecuted for eating chocolate made with child and slave labour; the name plays on feeling lonely in the fight.

Whittaker's, New Zealand's biggest chocolate brand, was started in 1896 in which city?

Christchurch: James Henry Whittaker began making chocolate there in 1896, selling it from a horse and cart, and moved the business to Wellington in 1913 before settling in Porirua in 1992.

Dubai chocolate was co-created in 2021 by chef Nouel Catis Omamalin, of what nationality?

Filipino: Nouel Catis Omamalin, a chef from the Philippines, developed the pistachio-and-kadayif bar for Sarah Hamouda's Fix Dessert Chocolatier in Dubai, which launched it in 2021.

Terry's phased out which product in 1954 to free up capacity for its more popular orange?

The Apple had actually come first, in 1926, six years before the Orange.

A 460-480 AD Mayan tomb with vessels bearing the cacao glyph and drink residue was found at which Guatemalan site?

Rio Azul: a tomb there, dated 460–480 AD, held lidded pots painted with the Maya cacao glyph whose residue tested positive for theobromine, a chemical marker of cacao.