How did Switzerland become known for chocolate?
The Swiss had no cocoa producing colonies, nor any major seaports. How then did they become one of the world’s largest producers of chocolate?
The story of Swiss chocolate combines the ingredients of raw entrepreneurialism, cunning experimentation and detailed perfectionism. It is a tale that brings together a network of inventive chocolatiers who each made a small contribution to fine-tuning one of the world’s most popular treats. 200 years later, their legacy is still secured in the names of common household confectionary brands.
Originating in Central America, chocolate was consumed ritually and as a form of medicinal tonic for the majority of its history. Columbus first carried the cocoa bean to Spain in the early 16th century, where it quickly became a popular and fashionable drink that was initially mixed with sugar, vanilla and honey to counteract its bitter taste. Although the Spanish originally held a monopoly on the distribution of chocolate, it was eventually traded into Italian and Austrian courts in the early 1600s from where it continued to spread thanks to a succession of royal marriages. As a major transit point for goods passing through Europe, Switzerland began processing chocolate in the early 1800s, with the first factories appearing in the canton of Ticino that borders Italy and eventually in Vevey, a small town on the north of Lake Geneva; the town that later became the residence of Charlie Chaplin until his death in 1977.
The Silicon Valley of Chocolate
Every so often in human history, the right minds come together in the right place and the right time to spark an innovative revolution. The first revolutionary in our story is François-Louis Cailler, founder of the oldest Swiss chocolate brand still in existence and inventor of a mechanised process to press chocolate. In 1826 Phillippe Suchard refined the chocolate making process by inventing a commercial mixing machine for sugar and cocoa mass. A few years later, Charles-Amadeé Kohler combined chocolate with hazelnuts; still the most popular mix-in for chocolate today. Although both of these advancements drastically improved the flavour profile of chocolate, it still remained undesirably gritty and crumbly in texture.
Though Switzerland has never produced a single cocoa bean, its abundant, rich and creamy Alpine milk was responsible for transforming chocolate into the silky confection we know today. The backstory to this genius combination follows a sequence of events that would be ripe for the script of a Hollywood TV show. Louis Cailler, our original inventor of mass-produced chocolate, had a daughter who married a local Vevey candlemaker named Daniel Peter. Following the decline of his candle business, and after learning the ropes of chocolate making from his in-laws, Peter decided to establish his own chocolate factory in town. Looking for opportunities to innovate the product he consulted his neighbour (queue the drumroll), the German immigrant and burgeoning food entrepreneur Henri Nestlé. At the time, Nestlé had his eyes set on developing instant baby formula and agreed to supply Peter with some of the powdered milk that he was experimenting with, to blend with the chocolate. While a tasty (and more affordable) idea in principle, Peter faced difficulties in mixing the milk into the cocoa mass; its high water concentration caused the mixture to separate and eventually form mildew. Following seven years of experimentation, Peter eventually discovered a solution in the form of condensed milk produced by Nestlé. The first bar of milk chocolate was born and in 1879, Peter and Nestlé joined forces to form the Nestlé Company — now the largest food company in the world. (Source: Swissinfo.ch)
To perfect the new Swiss invention, chocolatier Rudolph Lindt, who had formerly trained at Kohler’s factory (the hazelnut guy), started his own factory in the same year. Lindt’s contribution to our saga was the invention of the conching machine, a surface scraping mixer that evenly distributes cocoa butter within chocolate and promotes flavour development (see below). “Without [the conche], we’d still be chewing chocolate instead of enjoying it melting on our tongue.” (Swissinfo.ch) Lindt sold his factory and invention to a chap named Sprüngli, forming Lindt & Sprüngli which is now the largest producer of premium chocolate in the world.
Swiss Chocolate Today
Today, Swiss chocolate is a US$ 1.9bn industry governed by CHOCOSUISSE, the association of Swiss chocolate manufactures that also oversees strict and binding quality standards among its members. At 10.5 kg per head in 2017, Switzerland has also become the highest per-capita consumer of chocolate in the world; around 32% of the 190 tonnes of chocolate produced in the country were consumed domestically (Source: Chocosuisse). Despite the strength of its chocolate brands, however, chocolate makes up less than 1% of the country’s exports and there are only two Swiss companies found among the world’s top-10 confectionary manufacturers. In addition, growth in the global chocolate market is stalling as a result of increasingly health-conscious consumers and steep rises in the price of cocoa beans.
Despite this trend, we expect that you might still have a bar or two of Swiss chocolate stashed away in the kitchen cupboard or desk drawer. With the cravings this article has potentially inspired, now would be the appropriate time to close and encourage you to indulge!
Bonus: What is White Chocolate?
For those of you who have ever wondered whether white chocolate contains any cocoa, the answer is yes. White chocolate is generally made with around 20% cocoa butter, a pale yellow vegetable fat extracted from cocoa beans. The butter, which is mixed with sugar and milk solids, has a high enough melting point to keep white chocolate solid at room temperature and gives it a similar consistency to a standard milk chocolate bar. The history of white chocolate is less clear (and perhaps also a little less exciting) than milk chocolate, however, it is generally agreed that Nestlé’s Galak was the first mass-produced white chocolate bar to hit the market in 1936. White chocolate emerged out of a need to innovate in the increasingly competitive chocolate market and likely also provided a means for chocolatiers to cheaply utilise excess cocoa butter.
