Baker's Chocolate is a

brand A brand is a name, term, design, symbol or any other feature that distinguishes one seller's good or service from those of other sellers. Brands are used in business, marketing, and advertising for recognition and, importantly, to create an ...

name for the line of

baking chocolate Baking chocolate, or cooking chocolate, is chocolate intended to be used for baking and in sweet foods that may or may not be sweetened. Dark chocolate, milk chocolate, and white chocolate, are produced and marketed as baking chocolate. Howe ...

s owned by

Kraft Heinz The Kraft Heinz Company (KHC), commonly known as Kraft Heinz, is an American multinational food company formed by the merger of Kraft Foods and Heinz co-headquartered in Chicago and Pittsburgh. Kraft Heinz is the third-largest food and bevera ...

. Products include a variety of bulk

chocolate Chocolate is a food made from roasted and ground cacao seed kernels that is available as a liquid, solid, or paste, either on its own or as a flavoring agent in other foods. Cacao has been consumed in some form since at least the Olmec ci ...

s, including white and unsweetened, and sweetened

coconut The coconut tree (''Cocos nucifera'') is a member of the palm tree family (Arecaceae) and the only living species of the genus ''Cocos''. The term "coconut" (or the archaic "cocoanut") can refer to the whole coconut palm, the seed, or the f ...

flakes. It is one of the largest national brands of chocolate in the United States. The company was originally named

Walter Baker & Company The Baker Chocolate Company was an American company that produced chocolate, headquartered in Dorchester, Boston. It was the first company to produce chocolate in the country. Following the deaths of its founders and officers, the company was sold ...

History

In 1764, John Hannon (or alternatively spelled "Hannan" in some sources) and the American physician Dr. James Baker started importing beans and producing chocolate in the Lower Mills section of

Dorchester, Massachusetts Dorchester (colloquially referred to as Dot) is a Boston neighborhood comprising more than in the City of Boston, Massachusetts, United States. Originally, Dorchester was a separate town, founded by Puritans who emigrated in 1630 from Dorchester ...

.Cf. Committee of the Dorchester Antiquarian and Historical Society
"History of the Town of Dorchester, Massachusetts"
Boston : E. Clapp, Jr., 1859. Cf. p.627. The spelling here is John ''Hannan'', but in later sources, ''Hannon'' is used. After Hannon never returned from a 1779 sailing trip to the West Indies to purchase cocoa beans, his wife sold the company to Baker in 1780, and the company was renamed to the Baker Chocolate Company. His first product was a cake of

for making a sweetened chocolate drink. Distribution was mainly in the

Northeastern United States The Northeastern United States, also referred to as the Northeast, the East Coast, or the American Northeast, is a geographic region of the United States. It is located on the Atlantic coast of North America, with Canada to its north, the Southe ...

until 1804, when James Baker's son, Edmund Baker, inherited the family business and increased production with a state-of-the-art mill. BakersCocoa

The original brand name was "Hannon’s Best Chocolate", which was "manufactured for almost fifteen years" and was sold with a money-back guarantee if the consumer was unsatisfied with the product. The name was changed in 1780 after Hannon's wife, Elizabeth Gore Hannon, sold the company to Baker in 1780, after Hannon never returned from a 1779 sailing trip to the West Indies to purchase cocoa beans. At the time, it was rumored that Hannon intended to leave his wife, and thus deserted her. Original versions of the brand were not prepared for baking, and before 1865, the company purveyed three grades of drinking chocolate, which were "Best Chocolate", "Common Chocolate" and "Inferior Chocolate". The inferior grade was mostly sold to West Indian and American slaves. By 1849, under Walter Baker, the Baker's Chocolate brand had spread to

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

, during the

Gold Rush A gold rush or gold fever is a discovery of gold—sometimes accompanied by other precious metals and rare-earth minerals—that brings an onrush of miners seeking their fortune. Major gold rushes took place in the 19th century in Australia, New ...

era. Production was limited to one kind of chocolate until 1852, when employee Samuel German created "German's Sweet Chocolate" that had a higher sugar content than previous baking chocolates. In 1957 a Dallas, Texas newspaper printed a cake recipe for "German's Chocolate Cake" based on this chocolate, which was reprinted by the company's owner

General Foods General Foods Corporation was a company whose direct predecessor was established in the United States by Charles William Post as the Postum Cereal Company in 1895. The company changed its name to "General Foods" in 1929, after several corporate ...

under the "

German chocolate cake German chocolate cake, originally German's chocolate cake, is a layered chocolate cake filled and topped with a coconut-pecan frosting. Originating in the United States, it owes its name to an English-American chocolate maker named Samuel German ...

", becoming the accepted name. Production steadily increased through the century. The trademark logo of

La Belle Chocolatière ''The Chocolate Girl'' (french: La Belle Chocolatière, german: Das Schokoladenmädchen) is one of the most prominent pastels of Genevan artist Jean-Étienne Liotard, showing a chocolate-serving maid. The girl carries a tray with a porcelain c ...

was adopted in 1883 by the fourth-generation familial owner, Henry L. Pierce, step-nephew of Walter Baker. Pierce began advertising Baker's Chocolate heavily in newspapers to increase sales. In 1896, Baker's Chocolate was advertising in around 8,000 newspapers in the United States. The company also advertised using signage and cards in grocery stores, in novels, in street cars and using billboards. Promotional offers of tableware and logo pins helped attract customers. Around the late 1800s, the company began promoting the notion of using chocolate as an ingredient in desserts and for baking. Following Pierce's death in 1896, the Forbes Syndicate bought the company, which they sold In 1927 to the

Postum Cereal Company Post Consumer Brands (previously Post Cereals and Postum Cereals; also known as simply "Post") is an American breakfast cereal manufacturer headquartered in Lakeville, Minnesota. The company, founded in 1895 by C. W. Post, owns a large portfoli ...

, later known as

. In 1966 production moved from Dorchester, Massachusetts to

Dover, Delaware Dover () is the capital and second-largest city of the U.S. state of Delaware. It is also the county seat of Kent County and the principal city of the Dover, DE, Metropolitan Statistical Area, which encompasses all of Kent County and is part o ...

. The company was passed onto

Kraft Foods The second incarnation of Kraft Foods is an American food manufacturing and processing conglomerate, split from Kraft Foods Inc. in 2012 and headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. It became part of Kraft Heinz in 2015. A merger with Heinz, arran ...

in 1989 when they acquired General Foods. Baker's is now owned by Kraft Heinz, a company formed by the merger between Kraft Foods and

Heinz The H. J. Heinz Company is an American food processing company headquartered at One PPG Place in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the co ...

Products

Baker's continues to expand its line of products, focusing on conveniences for the home baker. Some products, such as

vanilla extract Vanilla extract is a solution made by macerating and percolating vanilla pods in a solution of ethanol and water. It is considered an essential ingredient in many Western desserts, especially baked goods like cakes, cookies, brownies, and cupca ...

and

cocoa powder Cocoa may refer to: Chocolate * Chocolate * '' Theobroma cacao'', the cocoa tree * Cocoa bean, seed of ''Theobroma cacao'' * Chocolate liquor, or cocoa liquor, pure, liquid chocolate extracted from the cocoa bean, including both cocoa butter an ...

, have been discontinued with company turnovers. Other products are available to food service professionals in bulk, considerably different kinds of coconut, cocoa drinks, and bulk chocolate. Baker's most common products: *German's Sweet Chocolate 'Bar' (48% cacao) *Semi-sweet chocolate (56% cacao) *Bittersweet chocolate (66% cacao) *Unsweetened chocolate (100% cacao) *Premium white chocolate (0% cacao) *Dipping chocolate (milk or dark) *Sweetened Angel Flake coconut

References

External links

* {{Mondelez Brand name chocolate

History

Products

References

Further reading

External links