Milk chocolate

Milk chocolate is a form of solid chocolate containing cocoa, sugar and milk. It is the most consumed type of chocolate, and is used in a wide diversity of bars and other confectionery products. Milk chocolate contains smaller amounts of cocoa solids than dark chocolates do, and (as with white chocolate) contains milk solids. While its taste (akin to chocolate milk) has been key to its popularity, milk chocolate was historically promoted as a healthy food, particularly for children.

Major milk chocolate producers include Ferrero, Hershey, Mondelez, Mars and Nestlé; collectively these supply over half of the world's chocolate. Four-fifths of all milk chocolate is sold in the United States and Europe, and increasing amounts are consumed in both China and Latin America.

Chocolate was originally sold and consumed as a beverage in pre-Columbian times, and upon its introduction to Western Europe. The word chocolate arrived in the English language about 1600, but initially described dark chocolate. The first use of the term "milk chocolate" was for a beverage brought to London from Jamaica in 1687, but it was not until the Swiss inventor Daniel Peter successfully combined cocoa and condensed milk in 1875 that the milk chocolate bar was invented. Switzerland developed as the centre of milk chocolate production, particularly after the development of the conche by Rodolphe Lindt, and was increasingly exporting to an international market. Milk chocolate became mainstream at the beginning of the twentieth century following the launch of Milka, Cadbury Dairy Milk and the Hershey bar, inducing a dramatic increase in world cocoa consumption.

To provide ethical assurances on cocoa harvesting for consumers, Fair Trade and UTZ Certified chocolate was established in the 21st century.

The word "chocolate" was first used in English in 1604. The first instance of "milk chocolate" appeared soon after, referring to a drink of chocolate combined with milk. In 1687, Hans Sloane, an Irish physician and collector, introduced the beverage to London after seeing the people of Jamaica enjoying the drink. The preparation was promoted for its medicinal properties, and was manufactured by Nicholas Sanders and William White, and was joined by other milk chocolates around the city. From there, milk chocolate spread, first to France, where the pharmacist to Louis XVI, Sulpice Debauve, introduced the drink to the Court, and then further afield, reaching as far as the United States by 1834.

Early attempts to make eating milk chocolate were foiled by the substantial water content of milk which did not willingly mix with cocoa butter (a fat); efforts at combining the two produced chocolates that were an "oily and milky mess". In Dresden in the German Confederation, Jordan & Timaeus were developing a mechanism to produce hard chocolate using steam power. On 23 May 1839, they advertised a solid chocolate containing fresh milk, calling it "steam chocolate" (dampfchocolade). However, that version of milk chocolate did not become successful and when major companies like Fry's of Bristol and Lindt of Zürich started producing eating chocolate in the 1840s, they only made dark chocolate.

In 1875, the Swiss entrepreneur and chocolatier Daniel Peter, based in Vevey and related to the Cailler family, first successfully combined cocoa mass, cocoa butter, and sugar with condensed milk (recently created by his neighbour and friend Henri Nestlé) to produce solidified milk chocolate. However, this was not meant to be eaten, but it was meant to be used for chocolate milk drinks; milk chocolate as we know it today was only created a decade later. In 1887, the first eating milk chocolate brand, Gala Peter, was finally launched. Daniel Peter called his product 'Gala' after the Greek word meaning 'milk'. Milk chocolate also benefited from another recent Swiss invention, Rodolphe Lindt's conche, which allowed the creation of a smoother chocolate.

Not only did milk soften the bitterness of chocolate and refined its taste, but it also lowered its production cost due to a lower cocoa content. As a consequence, Peter's recipe leaked to other nearby manufacturers: Cailler and Kohler. In 1898, Cailler opened its new factory at Broc, where milk chocolate began to be produced on a large scale. Peter also opened a larger factory at Orbe in 1901, before merging with Kohler. The same year, Suchard of Neuchâtel launched the Milka brand; Carl Russ-Suchard had previously developed a first milk bar in 1896. The Swiss chocolate industry also expanded in the late nineteenth century with the establishment of new companies, such as Frey and Tobler. From these developments, Switzerland soon dominated the chocolate market. Production increased dramatically, and by 1905, the country was producing 15,000 tonnes (15,000 long tons; 17,000 short tons) of chocolate, a vast proportion of it exported.