Baker's Chocolate is a

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

name for the line of baking chocolates 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 Group, Inc. and the H.J. Heinz Company co-headquartered in Chicago and Pittsburgh. Kraft Heinz is t ...

. Products include a variety of bulk

chocolate Chocolate is a food made from roasted and ground cocoa beans that can be a liquid, solid, or paste, either by itself or to flavoring, flavor other foods. Cocoa beans are the processed seeds of the cacao tree (''Theobroma cacao''); unprocesse ...

s, including white and unsweetened, and sweetened

coconut The coconut tree (''Cocos nucifera'') is a member of the palm tree family (biology), 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, ...

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

History

In 1764, John Hannon (alternatively spelled "Hannan" in some sources) and the American physician Dr. James Baker started importing

cocoa beans The cocoa bean, also known as cocoa () or cacao (), is the dried and fully fermented seed of ''Theobroma cacao'', the cacao tree, from which cocoa solids (a mixture of nonfat substances) and cocoa butter (the fat) can be extracted. Cacao trees ...

and producing

in the Lower Mills section of

Dorchester, Massachusetts Dorchester () is a Neighborhoods in 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, Dorset, E ...

.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. 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. 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 List of regions of the United States, census regions United States Census Bureau. Located on the East Coast of the United States, ...

until 1804 when James Baker's son, Edmund Baker, inherited the family business and increased production with a state-of-the-art mill. Before 1865 the company originally 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. BakersCocoa

After Hannon never returned from a 1779 sailing trip to the West Indies to purchase cocoa beans, his wife Elizabeth Gore Hannon sold the company to James Baker in 1780 and it was renamed to the Baker Chocolate Company. By 1849 (under Walter Baker), the Baker's Chocolate brand had spread to

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

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, ...

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. Subsequent reprints in other newspapers by the company's owner

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

named it " German chocolate cake". Chocolate production steadily increased through the century. The trademark logo of La Belle Chocolatière 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, later known as

. In 1966 production moved from Dorchester, Massachusetts to

Dover, Delaware Dover ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and the List of municipalities in Delaware, second-most populous city of the U.S. state of Delaware. It is also the county seat of Kent County, Delaware, Kent County and the princ ...

. The company was passed onto

Kraft Foods Kraft Foods Group, Inc. was an American food manufacturing and processing conglomerate (company), conglomerate, split from Kraft Foods Inc. on October 1, 2012, and was headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. It became part of Kraft Heinz on July ...

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 Kraft Heinz Foods Company, formerly the H. J. Heinz Company and commonly known as Heinz (), is an American food processing company headquartered at One PPG Place in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The company was founded by Henry J. Heinz in 1869. ...

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 (chemistry), solution made by maceration (food), macerating and percolation, percolating vanilla, vanilla pods in a solution of ethanol and water. It is considered an essential ingredient in many Western desserts, es ...

and

cocoa powder Dry cocoa solids are the components of cocoa beans remaining after cocoa butter, the fatty component of the bean, is extracted from chocolate liquor, roasted cocoa beans that have been ground into a liquid state. Cocoa butter is 46% to 57% of the ...

, have been discontinued with company turnovers. Other products are available to food service professionals in bulk, such as 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