Who doesn’t like chocolate? Of course, there are exceptions to every rule, but in the case of chocolate, they are minimal. Chocolate is one of the favorite treats of children and adults around the world. But opinions vary as to where in the world the best chocolate is made. The most popular and high-quality chocolate bars and candies are produced by both European and American companies. And there are as many people as there are opinions: some prefer Swiss and Belgian brands, and some prefer American brands. We are going to talk about American chocolate bar brands today.
The United States makes delicious chocolate. The country’s oldest factory is located in San Francisco and is called Ghirardelli. It is famous for its complete production cycle: here they both grow cocoa beans and make chocolate. And the town of Hershey in Pennsylvania is home to Hersheypark, a chocolate theme park, the sweetest place on earth.
In this article, we take a closer look at 12 chocolate brands from the United States, their brief history and features, and the visual identity that is integral to the popularity and recognition of any brand.
But first, let’s talk a little bit about the history of American chocolate. The world learned about chocolate thanks to the Aztec and Mayan tribes who lived in Central America. The Olmec settlements consumed the chocolate drink as a divine elixir for various rituals as early as the 4th century B.C. But, paradoxically, the development of the chocolate industry in America itself only came at the end of the 18th century. So Americans got to know chocolate even later than Europeans.
John Hannon, England’s authorized ambassador to the United States, brought chocolate to America in 1765. It was Dr. James Baker who built the first chocolate factory in America, Massachusetts. And today America produces and consumes far more chocolate than many other countries in the world.
The United States now produces a significant share of the world’s chocolate. There are many chocolate factories in America, and more of the almonds grown in this country is used as an additive to chocolate.
Today, there are more than a hundred chocolate factories in America.
The oldest still in operation is The Fishermen’s Wharf, and the most popular is Hershey’s. During World War I, the factory supplied the U.S. Army with chocolate. To this day, standard U.S. military rations include chocolate made by The Hershey Company.
But let’s start today not with Hershey’s, but with its strongest competitor, the international company Nestle, which has dozens of chocolate brands in its portfolio.
Today it is hard to find a person who is unfamiliar with Nestle and hasn’t tried their chocolate. Well, the Quickie bunny, from one of Nestlé’s most popular chocolate brands, is familiar to children all over the world.
The company, named after its founder, Henri Nestlé, was founded in 1867. As the company logo, Nestlé decided to use its family coat of arms with a nest and chicks, as the word nestle means “little nest” in one of the dialects of Switzerland.
Not everyone knows, but originally the company emblem depicted three nestlings. The third one was removed at the end of the XX century, as the marketing experts of the company referred to the fact that in most countries, families have two children each. This is such a funny story, but, importantly, it shows how high the value of family is for the company.
It is impossible to imagine the modern food market without the Nestle brand. True Nestle chocolate bars necessarily include ingredients such as sugar, milk powder, cocoa butter, and cocoa mass. Nestlé’s bitter chocolate does not contain milk powder. You will not see grated cocoa in Nestlé white chocolate. Cocoa butter is in all of the company’s products. This is a distinctive feature that guarantees quality.
Nestle’s main competitor in the American market is undoubtedly The Hershey Company. One of the largest chocolate manufacturers in the world was founded by American Milton Hershey in 1894.
The founder of the company trained as a pastry chef and in the early days of his career, he established a candy store in Philadelphia. However, things did not go well and the candy store closed after six years of its existence. After this failure, Milton had others: he made several attempts to start his own business in different states of America, but he did not succeed anywhere.
But his travels and ordeals were not in vain. While in Denver, Milton Hershey managed to learn from a confectioner the secret of making the perfect caramel. So, after another unsuccessful attempt at the business in New York, Hershey returned to Pennsylvania, where in 1886 he founded the Lancaster Caramel Company, which became the progenitor of the legendary Hershey Company. In 1894, Lancaster Caramel established the Hershey Chocolate Company, a milk chocolate division.
Today The Hershey Company has several popular brands of chocolate, but the most famous are Hershey’s and Reese’s. The stylish logo of Hershey’s chocolate bars is recognized around the world. The heavy narrowed typeface of the lettering looks as intense and tasty as the chocolate under the cover, and the brown and white color palette of the badge makes you feel the taste even before opening it.
Cadbury is one of the world’s leading chocolate brands and has been producing delicious chocolate bars for the past 200 years. The company offers us countless chocolates ranging from the legendary Dairy Milk to crunchy Perk, to colorful gems and sweet caramel bars.
The history of the Cadbury chocolate brand began in 1824. That year an Englishman John Cadbury, who had just turned 22, opened a small store in the fashionable district of Birmingham, where he began selling hot drinks.
The fact was that John was a member of a very religious
Protestant family. And, like all Protestants of that time, was a staunch opponent of drinking. John Cadbury was convinced that people could be weaned from alcohol by offering a tasty and safe alternative. So John began selling tea and coffee in his store and offered cocoa and liquid chocolate as exotic drinks. That’s how it all started.
The traditional recipe for Cadbury milk chocolate: “half a pound of chocolate to half a cup of fresh cow’s milk” has not changed in 100 years.
The first chocolate label design Richard Cadbury drew from his children and the famous ornate Cadbury logo is his personal signature.
At the moment, the company is part of the world’s largest food empire Mondelez International. Now the Cadbury brand released many varieties of chocolate products: candies, bars, bars, jelly beans, ice cream, and other sweets.
This premium chocolate brand was founded in Zurich in 1845. Lindt has a very interesting history. It all started when David Sprüngli-Schwarz and his son Rudolf opened a confectionery store in Zurich. A couple of years later, the store opened a small chocolate factory, which was bitter and hard at the time, with a porous structure. But no other sweets were known then, so the factory products were in demand, and production expanded.
There was no qualitative change in chocolate until Sprüngli-Schwarz merged with Rudolf Lindt’s company. Lindt was more of an inventor than a businessman. It was he who, in 1879, invented chocolate that literally melted in your mouth. The legend of the creation of a new type of chocolate says that one day Lindt forgot to turn off the machine that mixed the ingredients for chocolate over the weekend, and on Monday he discovered that the output was a completely new type of chocolate mass. The process was called Conching and is now used to make all the chocolate in the world. But it was not discovered by the general public until 1901.
Today Lindt is famous for producing the best white chocolate on the planet, but the milk and dark chocolate are incredibly delicious. The elegant subtle taste of Lindt products is emphasized by the exquisite gold logo, written in italics and complemented by a heraldic emblem.
Dove chocolate is an example of pure, delicate, and flawless taste. Dove is famous for its delicate enveloping texture, which is justly compared to silk.
The history of the brand began in Chicago in 1939 in a small sweet store owned by Leo Stephanos, a Greek who immigrated to the United States. It was he who came up with the recipe for a new ice cream that was to be dipped in liquid chocolate before consumption. This was done so that the founder’s son wouldn’t buy ice cream in mobile vans, but what his father was sure of.
In 1977, upon Leo’s death, the entire production was left to his son. Fortunately, he did not abandon his father’s life’s work, but continued it and even took it to the next level. He introduced Dove milk chocolate at a trade show in 1984, and it was after this event that the product became widespread in the U.S. and then worldwide.
In 1986, the Dove brand was bought by the Mars Corporation, which owns the brand until now.
Today, the brand offers a wide range of products, among which are dark and milk chocolate with fruits, nuts and truffles, bars, ice cream, candies, cakes, instant hot chocolate, and more. It is worth noting that the discussed brand’s bitter chocolate is made using a special, patented technology, which allows you to preserve the taste of cacao and its nutrients.
The brand logo perfectly conveys the taste of the chocolate thanks to the thick soft lines of the stylized font and the glossy brown hue of the letters.
Tootsie Roll is a well-known American company that produces hard chocolate tootsies under the same brand name. The brand was founded by Leo Hirschfeld in the late 19th century, and he dedicated the name to his daughter Claire: Tootsie was the name of her favorite pet.
Leo Hirschfeld, son of an Austrian confectioner, immigrated to America in the late 1880s, and rather quickly went into business for himself, namely, what he knew best from his father. In the early 1990s, Hirschfeld opened a small shop in Brooklyn, New York, the confectioner making all the candies by hand and packing them himself. Some of the first chocolate treats in the country became incredibly popular with all the local kids.
The demand for Hirschfeld’s candies was growing, and the business needed to expand, which required additional capital, which Leo did not have. So the company founder decided to merge with New York candy manufacturer Stern & Stalberg. But it was hard to call it a merger. Rather, Hirschfeld simply sold his brand along with the Tootsie Roll patent. The company later became Sweets Company of America, and later Tootsie Roll Industries Inc.
During World War II, Tootsie Roll tootsies were part of the U.S. Army rations and were considered a source of quick energy, and unlike chocolate, they could withstand high temperatures.
As for the brand’s visual identity, it is pretty simple yet bold and smooth, reflecting the soft taste of the product and showing the company as the professional one.
Godiva is a popular Belgian chocolate brand founded in 1926. Official sources say that Godiva was born in Belgium and was later bought by the Campbell Soup Company sometime in the ’60s, and 40 years later it was bought again, now by Turkish manufacturer Ülker. Others argue that the Drapes family founded Godiva in the United States.
Whatever the case, the company’s first praline candies were released in 1926, and the taste of premium chocolate has hardly changed since then.
Godiva began as a family business with several brothers and sisters. Joseph, the youngest of the brothers, suggested using the old Anglo-Saxon legend of Lady Godiva. This generous young lady, with a name that meant “given by God,” constantly asked her husband Lord Leofric to reduce the exorbitant taxes on his subjects. Manners in the Middle Ages were simple, and the Earl, who was tired of constant reproaches from his wife, once said that he would cancel the taxes altogether if Godiva rode a horse through the city of Coventry completely naked. As you can guess, the lady won the argument.
So the long-haired beauty from John Collier’s painting Lady Godiva became a symbol of delightful refined chocolate. The impeccable style of the empire does not change to this day – everything, down to the little jelly beans, is beautifully and temptingly packaged, and the gold elegant emblem with the image of the main inspirer of the brand is still an integral part of their logo.
Domenico Ghirardelli, the founder of one of America’s most famous chocolate brands, is an Italian tobacconist. In his youth, he was trained in the chocolate trade, and then, at the age of 20, he began selling coffee and chocolate in Uruguay. By the age of 30, in 1847, Ghirardelli opens his own business there, and five years later he begins to produce chocolate in America, in San Francisco.
Domingo Ghirardelli came to the United States in 1849, at a time of the Gold Rush and easy money. He opened a small store in Stockton, California, where he sold caramel to miners. Commercial success soon allowed him to open another store and hotel in San Francisco. In 1851 a fire destroyed the hotel building, and Ghirardelli decided to invest in a candy factory. Thus began the chocolate history of the most popular brand in America. After Baker’s Chocolate, Ghirardelli Chocolate Company is the oldest chocolate company in the United States.
Today, Ghirardelli products can be found not only in specialty stores and supermarkets nationwide but also in small kiosks and gas stations. The popularity of chocolate knows no boundaries, and the manufacturer repays the consumer with the same coin – comes up with such flavor combinations that are even hard to imagine.
Ghirardelli is the brand, which produces chocolate with passion and love. This passion is perfectly reflected in the company logo, where the golden eagle flies swiftly above the logo, wings spread wide, expressing power, strength, and confidence.
Italian company Ferrero, which was created and is fully controlled by the Ferrero family, is known for a range of sweets, including Kinder Surprise, Nutella, and Ferrero Rocher. Today Ferrero Rocher is on the list of the best chocolates in the world.
Ferrero is the leading chocolate brand that has been attracting millions of people since the 1940s. The founder of the company was confectioner Pietro Ferrero, who was born in 1898 in a family of bakers. The history of the opening of the first production is still a mystery because there are three versions. According to the first one, Pietro opened a candy store in 1942. According to another version, he inherited a small candy shop in the Italian town of Alba. The third version also has a place, because it says that Pietro from his father inherited the bakery, and he transformed it into a confectionery.
In fact, today it is not so important how it all began, but how it evolved and continues to evolve. Ferrero company is one of the world leaders in chocolate production, with its elegant and confident logo known in more than 50 countries around the world. The brand logo is executed in the uppercase letters of a custom sans-serif typeface with sleek and chick smooth lines and sharpened ends of the bars. And the warm brown shade of the lettering brilliantly reflects the smooth taste of the brand’s chocolate.
Milka is a popular milk chocolate brand founded in 1901 by Philippe Suchard. In 1826 the Swiss Philip Suchard invented an efficient apparatus for making mixtures of cocoa powder with sugar. This machine, which consisted of a flat, heated granite plate on which granite rollers moved back and forth, marked the beginning of a method that is still used in chocolate production today.
Philippe Souchard founded his first small chocolate factory near Neuchâtel, in Serrier. By the mid-1880s, Suchard chocolate was known not only in Switzerland but all over Europe.
In 1901 Philippe Suchard produced his first piece of milk chocolate, called Milka. The name Milka was derived from two German words – Milch (milk) and Kakao (cacao), the names of the main ingredients.
However, there is another, more romantic version of the origin of the chocolate. It is said that Suchard was very fond of the Croatian singer Milka Ternina, after whom he named the new chocolate brand.
The first package of Milka chocolate was made in the then fashionable art nouveau style. The lilac and white Milka Cow appeared along with the first bars but became the official logo much later – in 1972. When the Milka print ads first appeared, the color of the cow has changed already on the finished photo, but a little later it was dyed purple on purpose and after the cow photo shoot, it was washed right away. Purple was chosen solely because none of the brand’s competitors used it.
The tradition of taste has been preserved to this day, one of the secrets of its popularity is the addition of real alpine milk to the product. The fantastic lilac cow on the package makes the chocolate recognizable and it is impossible to confuse it with any of the competitors.
Reese’s is one of Hershey’s chocolate brands and is the most popular in the American confectionery market among similar products. The most famous product of the brand is Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. These are chocolate baskets filled with peanut butter – two delights in one bite.
Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, whose products literally captivated America, was founded by Henry Reese in 1928. The company was born in the basement of Reese, who had long dreamed of opening his production. The thing is that before that Reese worked at the Milton Hershey chocolate factory. Right from the beginning, Reese had been using Hershey’s high-quality milk chocolate in his nutty candies.
The booming economy led the H.B. Reese Candy Company to decide to build a huge factory in Hershey, but founder Harry Reese did not live to see the end of construction, which was not completed until 1957. He had died a few months earlier, which plunged the company into complete chaos. Eventually, Reese’s children sold the company to Hershey, and the two brands, inseparable from the beginning, finally merged officially in 1963.
Today, Reese’s bright and bold logo is emblazoned on various products: the yellow title case lettering in a bold stylized cursive font, outlined in chocolate and orange, offers a wide range of chocolate and nut butter combinations on packages. White chocolate, dark chocolate, a thinner layer of nut butter, thicker – Reese’s has it all.
The history of the legendary Mars company begins in the 1980s of the 19th century. In 1883, Franklin Clarence Frank Mars, who later became the founder of the chocolate empire, was born. The family he grew up in was quite poor, so young Frank starts working quite early. At the age of 19, he was already selling candy. It was this work that predetermined his future fate.
In 1911 Frank decides to quit his job and start his own business. Together with his wife, he opens a confectionery store, which is located directly in the house of Mars. Trade was organized from the counter.
Sales grow and reach such figures that the founders at the end of 1911 Frank Mars decides to register his own company under the name Mar-O-Bar. At the very beginning, the assortment of candy shop consisted of candies with different fillings.
In 1925, Frank had the idea of wrapping small portions of chocolate in foil, and so the company’s first candy bar, Milky Way, was born. The Mars candy bar, on the other hand, saw the light of day in 1932 in a factory opened by Frank’s son, Forrest, in Chicago. Since the first appearance of the bar on the shelves, its recipe has never changed. Neither has the brand logo changed much.
The bright red, heavy yet soft letters are diagonally arranged on a black background and encircled in a light gold frame for better contrast.