Charles-Amédée Kohler (born Charles-Gottlieb Kohler; 15 June 1790 – 15 September 1874) was a Swiss

chocolatier A chocolatier is a person or company who makes confectionery from chocolate. Chocolatiers are distinct from chocolate makers, who create chocolate from cacao beans and other ingredients. Education and training Traditionally, chocolatiers, e ...

and entrepreneur who founded Chocolat Kohler. He notably invented

hazelnut The hazelnut is the fruit of the hazel tree and therefore includes any of the nuts deriving from species of the genus ''Corylus'', especially the nuts of the species ''Corylus avellana''. They are also known as cobnuts or filberts according t ...

chocolate, in his factory opened in 1830 in

Lausanne , neighboring_municipalities= Bottens, Bretigny-sur-Morrens, Chavannes-près-Renens, Cheseaux-sur-Lausanne, Crissier, Cugy, Écublens, Épalinges, Évian-les-Bains (FR-74), Froideville, Jouxtens-Mézery, Le Mont-sur-Lausanne, Lugrin (FR-74), ...

. After his death the Kohler company continued in the Swiss chocolate industry. It merged in 1904 with the Peter and in 1911 with the Cailler chocolate brands; before being finally purchased by

Nestlé Nestlé S.A. (; ; ) is a Switzerland, Swiss multinational food and drink processing conglomerate corporation headquartered in Vevey, Vaud, Switzerland. It is the largest publicly held food company in the world, measured by revenue and other me ...

in 1929.

Biography

Kohler was born on 15 June 1790 in

, to Gottlieb (later known by the

gallicized Francization (in American English, Canadian English, and Oxford English) or Francisation (in other British English), Frenchification, or Gallicization is the expansion of French language use—either through willful adoption or coercion—by more ...

version of his name, Amédée) Kohler, a merchant of

colonial goods In economics, colonial goods are goods imported from European colonies, in particular coffee, tea, spices, rice, sugar, cocoa and chocolate, and tobacco. At a time when food and agriculture represented a relatively large proportion of overall econo ...

and

wine Wine is an alcoholic drink typically made from fermented grapes. Yeast consumes the sugar in the grapes and converts it to ethanol and carbon dioxide, releasing heat in the process. Different varieties of grapes and strains of yeasts are m ...

from

Büren an der Aare Büren an der Aare (usually abbreviated with Büren a.A., means ''Büren on the Aare'') is a historic town and a municipality in the Seeland administrative district in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. History Büren an der Aare is first ment ...

, and Anne Ernst. While still young he joined his father's business that operated in the city since 1793, and in 1817 formed a partnership with his brother, Frédéric, and father to form the

wholesale Wholesaling or distributing is the sale of goods or merchandise to retailers; to industrial, commercial, institutional or other professional business users; or to other wholesalers (wholesale businesses) and related subordinated services. In ...

firm ''Amédée Kohler et Fils'' (Amédée Kohler & Sons). In 1830 he bought a mill in downtown Lausanne and established a chocolate factory, where he eventually created the recipe for chocolate mixed with

. After his father's death in 1833, Kohler became fully dedicated to the chocolate making business, and Frédéric left the firm the following year. In 1849 he acquired a sawmill in Sauvabelin, a neighbourhood in the suburbs of Lausanne, which he converted into a factory and to where he transferred the production. In 1865, Kohler retired from the company and passed the administration to his sons Charles-Amédée and Adolphe. He died in Lausanne on 15 September 1874.

Notes

References

External links

Finedarkchocolate.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kohler Swiss chocolatiers 1790 births 1874 deaths 19th-century Swiss inventors People from Lausanne Swiss industrialists Swiss company founders 19th-century Swiss businesspeople