Who doesn’t have a soft spot for chocolate? In spite of the fact that there are always exceptions to any rule, the number of those pertaining to chocolate is quite small. Chocolate is one of the sweets that both children and adults all around the globe like eating the most. But people have different ideas about which region in the globe produces the greatest chocolate. Chocolate bars and sweets of the highest popularity and quality are made in equal measure by businesses in both Europe and the United States. And there are as many individuals as there are points of view: some people like Swiss and Belgian brands, while others choose American ones. Today we are going to speak about several brands of chocolate bars that are made in the United States.
Chocolate produced in the United States is of high quality. Ghirardelli Chocolate Company, which can be found in San Francisco, is the oldest manufacturer in the United States. It is well-known for its whole production cycle, since both the cultivation of cocoa beans and the manufacture of chocolate take place here. Hersheypark, a chocolate theme park, is considered to be the yummiest location on earth, and it is located in the town of Hershey in the state of Pennsylvania.
In this article, we take a deeper look at 12 different chocolate brands that are produced in the United States. We discuss each brand’s short history, its attributes, as well as its visual identity, which is an important part of any brand’s appeal and awareness.
But before we get into it, let’s spend a moment discussing the development of chocolate in the United States. The Aztec and Mayan peoples of Central America are mostly credited for introducing chocolate to the rest of the globe. As early as the fourth century B.C., the Olmec communities used the chocolate drink as a heavenly elixir in a variety of rites. They ingested it as a drink. Paradoxically, the growth of the chocolate business in America didn’t begin until the late 18th century, when it was already well established in Europe. Therefore, the discovery of chocolate in the United States occurred even farther behind that of Europeans.
Chocolate was first introduced to the United States in 1765 by John Hannon, who was permitted to represent England as an ambassador to the United States. Dr. James Baker established the first chocolate factory in the United States of America, which was located in Massachusetts. The United States also produces and consumes a far higher quantity of chocolate than the majority of other nations throughout the globe.
The United States of America is currently responsible for the production of a significant portion of the world’s chocolate. There are a significant number of chocolate manufacturers in the United States, and a greater proportion of the almonds that are farmed in this nation are utilised as an ingredient in chocolate.
There are now more than a hundred chocolate manufacturers operating in the United States.
The Fishermen’s Wharf is the one that has been around the longest and is still running, while Hershey’s is the one that has the most customers. During World War I, the facility served as a supplier of chocolate to the United States Army. Chocolate produced by The Hershey Company is still included in the regular issue rations of the United States military.
But instead of starting with Hershey’s today, let’s take a look at Hershey’s most formidable rival, the multinational corporation Nestle, which has dozens of different chocolate brands under its umbrella.
Nestlé
It is difficult to find someone in this day and age who is not acquainted with Nestle and who has not sampled their chocolate. Well, the Quickie rabbit, which represents one of the most well-known chocolate products produced by Nestlé, is well-known to youngsters all over the globe.
In 1867, Henri Nestlé established the corporation that would later bear his surname as the company’s namesake. Because “small nest” is what the term “nestle” means in one of the Swiss dialects, Nestlé opted to adopt its family coat of arms as the corporate emblem. The coat of arms features a nest with a mother bird and her young.
Although not everyone is aware of this fact, the original corporate insignia included a nest with three young birds. At the end of the 20th century, the third one was eliminated because the company’s marketing gurus cited the statistic that most nations had a maximum of two children in each family as the reason for the decision. This is such a humorous anecdote, but more significantly, it demonstrates how highly the organisation places a premium on the importance of family.
It is inconceivable to think of today’s food market operating without the presence of the Nestle brand. Sugar, milk powder, cocoa butter, and cocoa mass are required components of authentic Nestle chocolate bars. Other components may include cocoa powder. Nestlé’s bitter chocolate does not include milk powder. The white chocolate produced by Nestlé does not include any cocoa that has been grated. All of the items that this firm sells include cocoa butter. This is a distinguishing characteristic that ensures the product’s high quality.
The Hershey Company
The Hershey Company is unquestionably the most significant rival that Nestle has on the American market. In 1894, American Milton Hershey established the Hershey Chocolate Company, which would go on to become one of the most successful chocolate producers in the world.
The man who started the business had prior experience in the culinary arts as a pastry chef, and he began his professional life by opening a confectionery shop in Philadelphia. However, things did not go as planned, and after six years in business, the confectionery shop ultimately had to shut its doors. After this setback, Milton endured many more, including the following: he tried several times to launch his own company in a variety of American states, but he was unsuccessful in every location.
However, all of his trips and ordeals were not for nothing in the end. While visiting Denver, Milton Hershey was able to pick the brain of a local confectioner and pick up some tips on how to make the ideal caramel. Therefore, after yet another failed effort at the business in New York, Hershey relocated to Pennsylvania, where he established the Lancaster Caramel Company in 1886. This company would go on to become the progenitor of the illustrious Hershey Company. The Hershey Chocolate Company, which specialised in milk chocolate, was founded by Lancaster Caramel in the year 1894.
Today The Hershey Company manufactures a number of well-known brands of chocolate, but Hershey’s and Reese’s are by far the most well-known. It doesn’t matter where you are in the globe, you’ve probably seen the chic emblem that adorns Hershey’s chocolate bars. The thick, constricted style of the letters seems to be just as intense and delicious as the chocolate that is concealed inside the cover, and the colour palette of the badge, which is comprised of brown and white, gives you a sense of the flavour even before you open it.
Cadbury
Cadbury is one of the most well-known chocolate brands in the world, and for the last two centuries, the company has been turning out delectable chocolate bars. The firm provides us with a vast assortment of chocolates, including the illustrious Dairy Milk, the crunchy Perk, multicoloured jewels, and delicious caramel bars, among many others.
The chocolate brand known as Cadbury has its beginnings in the year 1824. In that year, an Englishman named John Cadbury, who had just turned 22, established a modest shop in the fashionable quarter of Birmingham, where he started selling hot beverages. He was the first person to do so.
The truth of the matter was that John was a participant in a very religious organisation.
Religiously conservative family And, as was the case with other Protestants living during that time period, he was a vehement opponent of drinking. John Cadbury was certain that people’s dependence on alcohol might be reduced if a palatable and risk-free alternative was provided to them. John opened a shop and immediately started selling tea and coffee. Additionally, he offered cocoa and liquid chocolate as more unusual beverages. That was the beginning of everything.
Since its introduction one hundred years ago, the classic formula for Cadbury milk chocolate has been unchanged: “half a pound of chocolate to half a cup of fresh cow’s milk.”
Richard Cadbury got inspiration for the very first design of a chocolate label from his children, and the iconic ornate Cadbury emblem is his own hallmark.
At the present day, the business is a component of Mondelez International, the biggest food conglomerate in the world. Now, the Cadbury brand has developed many different sorts of chocolate items, including chocolate candies, chocolate bars, chocolate bars, jelly beans, ice cream, and other treats.
Lindt
In the year 1845, the city of Zurich gave birth to this upscale chocolate brand. The history of Lindt is quite fascinating. When David Sprüngli-Schwarz and his son Rudolf founded a sweets business in Zurich, it was the beginning of everything. A couple of years later, the shop built a tiny chocolate factory, which at the time produced chocolate that was bitter and difficult to chew and had a structure with pores. But back then, there weren’t any other kinds of sweets, so consumers demanded the factory’s offerings, and the business grew as a result.
Before the merger of Sprüngli-Schwarz and Rudolf Lindt’s enterprise, there was no discernible improvement in the chocolate’s quality. Lindt was mostly known for his work as an innovator rather than a businessman. In the year 1879, he was the one who came up with the idea of making chocolate that could practically melt in your mouth. It is said that one day, Lindt forgot to turn off the machine that mixed the ingredients for chocolate over the weekend, and on Monday, he discovered that the output was a completely new type of chocolate mass that had been created by the machine. This is the origin of the legend of the creation of a new type of chocolate. Conching was the name given to the procedure, and it is the method that is now utilised to create all of the world’s chocolate. However, not until 1901 did it come to the attention of the broader public.
Even while milk and dark chocolate produced by Lindt are considered to be among the greatest in the world, white chocolate is the brand for which the company is best known today. The refined, delicate flavour of Lindt goods is accentuated by the gorgeous gold logo, which is written in italics and is supplemented with a heraldic crest. This reflects the brand’s commitment to quality.
Dove
Dove chocolate is a great example of flavour that is unadulterated, delicate, and perfect. Dove is well-known for having a soft and enveloping feel, similar to that of silk, which has earned it the comparison.
The genesis of the brand started in 1939 in Chicago, in a little candy shop that was owned by Leo Stephanos, an immigrant from Greece who had settled in the United States. It was he who conceived up the idea for a new ice cream that, before being consumed, was to be dipped in liquid chocolate. This was done in order to ensure that the founder’s kid would not purchase ice cream from mobile vans, since this was something his father was certain of.
Following Leo’s passing away in 1977, the whole production was handed over to his son. Thankfully, he did not give up on the task that his father had devoted his life to, but rather he maintained it and even elevated it to a higher level. In 1984, he debuted Dove milk chocolate at a trade fair, and it was only after this occasion that the product became popular in the United States and eventually the rest of the globe.
Mars Corporation acquired ownership of the Dove brand in 1986 after having previously been the owner of the product’s namesake.
The company now sells a diverse selection of goods, such as bars, ice cream, sweets, cakes, instant hot chocolate, and more. These goods come in a variety of chocolate varieties, including dark and milk chocolate with fruits, nuts, and truffles. It is important to note that the bitter chocolate produced by the business in question is crafted utilising a one-of-a-kind manufacturing process that has been granted a patent. This method enables the natural flavour of the cacao bean as well as the nutrients it contains to be maintained.
Because of the broad, smooth lines of the styled font and the glossy brown tone of the letters, the brand logo is able to transmit the flavour of the chocolate in an accurate and flawless manner.
Tootsie Roll
Tootsie Roll is a well-known American firm that manufactures chocolate tootsies covered in a hard coating and sells them under the brand name Tootsie Roll. Tootsie was the name of Leo Hirschfeld’s daughter Claire, and he chose the name of the company in her honour since it was also the name of her favourite pet. The company was established in the late 19th century.
Leo Hirschfeld, the son of an Austrian confectioner, emigrated to the United States in the late 1880s. Almost immediately after arriving in the new country, Leo Hirschfeld started his own company, focusing on the skills that he had learned from his father. In the early 1990s, Hirschfeld founded a modest business in the neighbourhood of Brooklyn, New York. The confectioner was responsible for hand-making all of the sweets and packaging them himself. The very first chocolate sweets ever made in the nation quickly proved an instant hit with all of the children living in the area.
Growing consumer interest in Hirschfeld’s confections necessitated an expansion of the company’s operations; yet, Leo lacked the financial resources necessary to fund this growth. Therefore, the creator of the firm came to the conclusion that it would be beneficial to combine with the New York confectionery producer Stern & Stalberg. However, it was difficult to classify this as a merger. Instead, Hirschfeld decided to sell his brand along with the patent for the Tootsie Roll candy roll. The name of the business was changed to Tootsie Roll Industries Inc. and then Sweets Company of America in subsequent years.
Tootsie Roll tootsies were included in the rations issued by the United States Army during World War II. These candies were seen as a source of fast energy because, unlike chocolate, they were able to tolerate high temperatures.
In terms of the visual identity of the business, it is somewhat straightforward while yet being daring and sleek. This reflects the gentle flavour of the product and demonstrates that the firm is a reputable one.
Godiva
Godiva is a well-known chocolate brand that was established in Belgium in 1926. Godiva is said to have originated in Belgium and was then acquired by the Campbell Soup Company at some point during the 1960s. Forty years later, the brand was purchased once again, this time by the Turkish producer Ülker. Others maintain that the Drapes family was responsible for the establishment of Godiva in the United States.
Regardless of the circumstances, the first praline sweets were introduced by the firm in 1926, and the flavour of premium chocolate has rarely evolved since that time.
Godiva was once a family-run enterprise that included a number of brothers and sisters. The youngest of the brothers, Joseph, was the one who proposed adopting the ancient Anglo-Saxon tale of Lady Godiva. This kind and kind young girl, whose name means “given by God,” pleaded with her husband, Lord Leofric, on a regular basis to lower the oppressive levies that were levied upon his citizens. The Middle Ages were characterised by their lack of sophistication when it came to social norms. One time, an Earl who was fed up with his wife’s incessant rebukes said that he would abolish all taxes if Godiva rode a horse through the city of Coventry while nude. You probably have guessed that the woman prevailed in the dispute.
Therefore, the lovely lady with the long hair shown in John Collier’s picture Lady Godiva came to be known as a metaphor for deliciously refined chocolate. Even to this day, the empire maintains its impeccable sense of style. Everything, right down to the tiniest jelly beans, is presented in elegant and alluring packaging, and the gold and elegant emblem that bears the likeness of the person who served as the primary inspiration for the brand is still an essential component of their logo.
Ghirardelli
An Italian tobacconist by trade, Domenico Ghirardelli was the man behind one of the most well-known chocolate brands in the United States. He had training in the chocolate trade when he was younger, and at the age of 20, he started selling coffee and chocolate in Uruguay. His training took place in the chocolate trade. At the age of 30, Ghirardelli creates his own firm in that location in 1847. Five years later, in 1852, he starts producing chocolate in the United States, specifically in San Francisco.
Domingo Ghirardelli arrived in the United States in 1849, at the height of the Gold Rush and an era when wealth was relatively easy to come by. He began selling caramel to the local miners in Stockton, California, after opening a little shop there. Soon after, he was able to build a second shop as well as a hotel in San Francisco as a result of his commercial success. After a fire in 1851 completely destroyed the structure that housed the hotel, Ghirardelli made the decision to put his money into a confectionery business. This marked the beginning of the chocolate industry’s most successful brand in the United States. Ghirardelli Chocolate Manufacturer is the second-oldest chocolate company in the United States, following in the footsteps of Baker’s Chocolate.
In today’s day and age, you may get Ghirardelli goods not only in specialised shops and grocery stores around the country, but also in convenience stores, kiosks, and petrol stations. The appeal of chocolate has no bounds, and chocolate manufacturers have responded to this demand by coming up with flavour combinations that are so unusual that it’s hard to understand how they might taste good together.
Ghirardelli is the brand name of the company that makes chocolate with a lot of love and passion. This fervour is wonderfully expressed in the corporate logo, which depicts a golden eagle soaring fast over the logo with its wings spread wide to convey power, strength, and self-assurance.
Ferrero
Ferrero is an Italian firm that is well-known for producing a variety of candies, such as Kinder Surprise, Nutella, and Ferrero Rocher. The Ferrero family founded the company and still owns and operates it today. Today, Ferrero Rocher is considered to be one of the finest chocolates that can be found anywhere in the globe.
Since the 1940s, Ferrero has established itself as the preeminent chocolate brand, drawing in millions of customers annually. Pietro Ferrero, a confectioner who was born in 1898 into a family of bakers, is credited with establishing the firm that bears his name. Because there are three different accounts, the history of how the initial production was presented to the public is still a mystery. The first one states that Pietro began the operation of a sweet shop in the year 1942. According to one of the legends, he was given a little candy store in the town of Alba, which was located in Italy. The third interpretation also has some credence since it claims that Pietro acquired the bakery from his father and turned it into a confectionary once he took over the business.
In point of fact, it is not so necessary to understand how anything started, but rather how it has developed and how it will continue to change. The Ferrero firm is one of the global leaders in the manufacturing of chocolate, and its logo, which is sophisticated and exudes self-assurance, is recognised in over 50 countries across the globe. The company name is rendered in all capital letters using a customised sans-serif font. The lines in the logo are sleek and elegant, and the ends of the bars are pointed. In addition, the smooth flavour of the chocolate produced by the company is perfectly reflected by the warm brown colour of the letters.
Milka
Milka is a well-known brand of milk chocolate that was introduced to the market in 1901 by Philippe Suchard. In the year 1826, a Swiss man named Philip Suchard devised an equipment that was effective in the process of combining cocoa powder with sugar. This machine, which consisted of a flat, heated granite plate on which granite rollers went back and forth, marked the beginning of a procedure that is still used today in the making of chocolate. Specifically, this method is known as “conching.”
Philippe Souchard established his first little chocolate business at Serrier, which is located close to Neuchatel. By the middle of the 1880s, chocolate made by Suchard was well-known not just in Switzerland but also across all of Europe.
In the year 1901, Philippe Suchard created the very first piece of milk chocolate, which he marketed under the brand name Milka. The names of the primary components, milk and cacao, inspired the creation of the brand name Milka, which is a combination of the two German terms.
However, there is a further account of the history of chocolate that is considered to be more romantic. It is reported that Suchard had a strong affection for the Croatian singer Milka Ternina, and that he named the new chocolate brand after her.
The initial packaging of Milka chocolate was designed in the trendy art nouveau style when it was first introduced. The purple and white Milka Cow was introduced at the same time as the first bars, but it wasn’t until 1972 that it was adopted as the company’s official emblem. When the Milka print advertisements were originally released, the colour of the cow had already changed on the completed shot; nevertheless, a short while later, it was dyed purple on purpose, and immediately after the cow photo session, it was washed. The colour purple was selected for the brand for one and only reason: none of the firm’s other rivals utilised it.
The original flavour has been passed down through the generations, and the use of genuine alpine milk as an ingredient in the product is one of the reasons it has remained so popular. It is hard to get this chocolate confused with any of its rivals because to the stunning purple cow that is shown on the packaging.
Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups
One of the chocolate brands produced by Hershey, Reese’s, is now the category leader in terms of sales volume in the confectionery industry in the United States. Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups are the company’s most well-known confectionery offering. These chocolate baskets are stuffed with peanut butter for a double dose of deliciousness in each delectable morsel.
Henry Reese established the company that would later become known as Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups in 1928. The company’s goods would literally come to dominate the American market. Reese, who had long dreamt of creating his own production firm, gave birth to the company in the basement of his home. The point is, before to that, Reese worked as a worker at the Milton Hershey chocolate factory. Reese had been making his nutty candies out of Hershey’s premium milk chocolate from the very beginning of his candy business.
The robust economy was a major influence in the H.B. Reese Candy Company’s decision to establish a large factory in Hershey; however, the company’s founder, Harry Reese, did not survive to witness the completion of the building since it was not finished until 1957. Because of his passing a few of months ago, the business had been thrown into full anarchy. After some time, Reese’s children sold the business to Hershey, and in 1963, the two brands, which had been intertwined from the very beginning, finally combined under one official name.
Today, the colourful and strong Reese’s logo can be seen branded on a variety of items. The yellow title case text in a bold stylized cursive script, accented in chocolate and orange, provides a broad variety of chocolate and nut butter pairings on packaging. White chocolate, dark chocolate, nut butter layers of varying thicknesses, and everything in between are all available at Reese’s.
Mars
The storied Mars corporation can trace its origins all the way back to the 1980s of the nineteenth century. Born in 1883 was Franklin Clarence Frank Mars, who would go on to start the Mars chocolate company and become its namesake. As a result of growing up in a home that had few resources, Frank got his first job at a very young age. Already at the age of 19, he began working in the confectionery business. This effort was the factor that ultimately dictated his future course of events.
In 1911, Frank makes the decision to leave his employment in order to start his own company. In partnership with his spouse, he launches a confectionary shop that will be physically situated inside the home of Mars. The counter served as the central hub for all business operations.
The firm’s sales rise and eventually reach such high levels that its creator, Frank Mars, makes the decision to establish his own company at the end of 1911 under the name Mar-O-Bar. Candies with a variety of fillings were first part of the choice offered at the candy store when it first opened.
In 1925, Frank had the idea of wrapping little bits of chocolate in foil, and this led to the creation of the first candy bar produced by the firm, which was called Milky Way. On the other hand, the Mars candy bar was first produced in 1932 at a factory that was established in Chicago by Forrest Mars, who was the son of Frank Mars. The formula for the bar has not been altered in any way since it was introduced on the market for the first time. Neither has there been a significant adjustment to the brand’s logo.
For more contrast, the letters are laid out in a diagonal pattern on a black backdrop and surrounded by a frame made of light gold. The letters are brilliant red and hefty yet gentle.
