The Old School Chocolate Brand That's Been Around For Hundreds Of Years

You might think Switzerland or Belgium would be the homes of the world's oldest chocolate brands, but the most old school chocolate bar in your supermarket was born right here in the United States. America was actually an early leader in chocolate production, with the country having low prices compared to Europe due to the lower costs for shipping cacao from Central and South America. Whitman's and Ghirardelli were founded in 1842 and 1852 respectively, well before big European names like Nestle and Cadbury. But there is one American chocolate brand that dates all the way back to the 18th century: Baker's chocolate.

Baker's is a common chocolate at grocery stores in the U.S. but it has such a generic sounding name you might not have even realized it was a specific brand. It's not called Baker's because of how you use it, although the company does confusingly make baking chocolates now. It's actually named after a man named Baker, who helped found the precursor to the company in Massachusetts all the way back in 1764. This makes it even older than Xocolata Jolonch, founded in 1770, which often claims to be the oldest chocolate company in the world.

Baker was a general store owner in the Massachusetts town of Dorchester, which is now a neighborhood of Boston. After meeting an unemployed chocolate maker from Ireland named John Hannon, Baker sensed a business opportunity and decided to back him financially. That was the moment the modern Baker's Chocolate was born.

Hannon was in charge of the chocolate making until 1779, when he mysteriously disappeared during a trip to the West Indies. He and Baker had previously had a falling out, leading Baker to open another chocolate mill nearby, but when Hannon died Baker bought out his ownership stake of their company from his widow. In 1780, now under Baker's control, the chocolate was officially named Baker's Chocolate.

At the time, the sweetened chocolate bar had not been invented, and Baker's Chocolate sold traditional drinking chocolate, which was popular at the time. The company expanded and stayed in the family until 1895, when it became a corporation. During that time, its first sweetened bar was introduced in 1849, and in the post-Civil War era Baker's became a major national brand. Henry Pierce, a step-nephew of Baker's grandson, had taken over the company, and he touted Baker's quality by entering competitions, winning silver at the 1867 Paris Exposition, and Gold at the Vienna Expo of 1873.

In 1985 the old school brand was acquired by Kraft. Over the decades the factory has moved several times and the brand is now produced in Quebec. Today, Baker's produces a relatively simple but high-quality line of different baking chocolates, making Baker's name a fun aptonym for a company that originally made drinking chocolate. Next time you bake a chocolate cake, maybe try this chocolate brand that has a history predating the American Revolution.