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The history of chocolate in Britain
Chocolate came to Britain as an expensive drink in the 1650s. Within 250 years it was an everyday treat, made largely by Quaker families who built model villages for their workers. Here is how it happened, and the darker side of the story.
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Chocolate in Britain began as a drink for those who could afford it and became an everyday treat. Its British story is bound up with a small group of Quaker families, and with a trade whose costs were not always paid by the people who ate it.
A drink in the coffee houses
Chocolate arrived in England from France around 1657, at about the same time as tea and coffee, and at first some worried about its effects on health. Cocoa came from plantations in Jamaica, which the British had taken from Spain in 1655. English chocolate was a commercial product, made more simply than the perfumed chocolate of Italy, and it was served in coffee houses to anyone who could pay. By the end of the 17th century it was a required part of British Navy rations.
Machines and mills
In 1729 a British apothecary, Walter Churchman, patented a water engine for milling cocoa, which Joseph Storrs Fry II of J. S. Fry and Sons bought in 1789. In 1828 the Dutch chemist Coenraad van Houten patented a press that removed cocoa butter and made cocoa powder, which later opened the way to cheap chocolate for everyone: see how is chocolate made?
The Quaker makers
During the Industrial Revolution, Quakers set up three of Britain's great chocolate firms: J. S. Fry and Sons in Bristol, Cadbury in Birmingham and Rowntree's in York. Quakers did not drink alcohol, and they saw chocolate as a good alternative. Their firms built model villages, such as Bournville, to improve their workers' living conditions: see the Cadbury family and the Quakers
In 1847, Fry's is credited with introducing eating chocolate in Britain, and rivalry between Cadbury and Fry's went on to create the chocolate box and the chocolate Easter egg. Cadbury and Fry's merged in 1919: see Joseph Fry and the first chocolate bar and John Cadbury and the first Cadbury shop
Chocolate for everyone
Prices fell sharply in the 1890s and 1900s as cocoa growing moved from the Americas to Africa and Asia. Between 1880 and 1902, chocolate consumption in England quadrupled, and in the early 1900s eating chocolate overtook drinking chocolate. Milk chocolate, first made in Switzerland in 1875, reached a wide public after 1900: see Henri Nestlé, Daniel Peter and the first milk chocolate
The darker side
Some of the cocoa was grown in cruel conditions. After pressure from journalists and campaigners, Cadbury looked into labour on Portuguese cocoa plantations in Africa, and a 1908 report by its agent Joseph Burtt described the system there as de facto slavery. In 1909 Fry's, Cadbury and Rowntree's boycotted the plantations, which generally improved conditions, but forced and child labour in cocoa growing is still an issue today: see child labour and the cocoa trade
Citable formats
For journalists, researchers, AI assistants and content creators. Pick the format you need:
Free to cite, quote, and reuse with attribution to sweeties.net.
Questions and answers
When did chocolate come to Britain?
Chocolate arrived in England from France around 1657, at about the same time as tea and coffee. It was a drink, served in coffee houses to anyone who could pay, and by the end of the 17th century it was part of British Navy rations.
Why were so many British chocolate makers Quakers?
Quakers set up J. S. Fry and Sons, Cadbury and Rowntree's during the Industrial Revolution. They did not drink alcohol and saw chocolate as a good alternative, and they built model villages such as Bournville for their workers.
Who made the first chocolate bar in Britain?
Fry's of Bristol is credited with introducing eating chocolate in Britain in 1847. Before that, chocolate was mostly drunk.
Sources
- History of chocolate, Wikipedia
- Chocolate, Wikipedia
- J. S. Fry and Sons, Wikipedia
Keep reading
- The people behind the sweetsJoseph Fry and the first chocolate barJoseph Fry, a Bristol Quaker, began making chocolate around 1759. In 1847 his family firm made what is often called the first chocolate bar.
- The people behind the sweetsJohn Cadbury and the first Cadbury shopJohn Cadbury, a Quaker, opened a shop at 93 Bull Street, Birmingham, in 1824, selling tea, coffee and drinking chocolate. Cadbury grew from there.
- The people behind the sweetsJoseph Rowntree, the Quaker chocolate makerJoseph Rowntree built a small York cocoa works into a chocolate giant, gave his staff pensions and doctors, and set up trusts that still exist today.
- The people behind the sweetsThe Cadbury family and the QuakersBritain's three great chocolate makers, Cadbury, Fry and Rowntree, were all founded by Quakers, and their faith shaped how they treated their workers.
- How it is madeHow is chocolate made?Cocoa beans are fermented, dried, roasted and shelled; the nibs are ground to liquor, mixed with sugar and often milk, then conched smooth and tempered.
- Sweet scandals and controversiesChild labour and the cocoa tradeMost of the world's cocoa comes from Ivory Coast and Ghana, where research found 1.48 million children in hazardous work on cocoa farms. Here is what is known.