ChocolateHQ

Chocolate technology in patents and records

The history of chocolate making is usually told as a list of firsts: 1828, 1847, 1875, 1879. This page starts from the other end, with documents that could be opened and read, and says plainly which of the famous dates had none.

24 patents read8 famous claims unsourcedPrimary records only

What a patent proves

That somebody claimed an invention, in these words, on this date. It does not prove that the thing worked, was built, was sold, or was the first of its kind. So the table below gives what each patent claims and when it was applied for and granted, and nothing on this page says a machine or a product came into use because of one.

Only British and American patents were read. Sixteen came from scans whose text layer is imperfect, and one has dates that could not be made out.

The patents, in order of application

Chocolate and cocoa patents read in their own text, in order of application
PatentSubjectApplicant or assigneeApplied forGrantedWhat it claims
US 401,311Soluble pressed cocoaHeinrich Stollwerck, Cologne18871889Powdered cocoa made into solid pieces soluble in boiling water.
US 762,705WinnowingSamuel Kitson Green, Leeds19031904One machine for cracking, grading and winnowing cocoa beans.
US 1,006,913Cocoa pressingHenry E. Cooke, Jr., Chicago19101911Expelling the fat from roasted beans in a continuous expeller.
US 1,132,253EnrobingWilliam Fritz, Philadelphia19101915A coating machine pumping chocolate through slotted conduits above and below a conveyor.
US 1,141,683TemperingAlonzo L. Bausman19131915Tempering chocolate as a thin film on a drum against air at a controlled temperature.
US 1,243,244AlkalisingWalter Clement Bladen, Jersey CityNot legibleAbout 1917Alkalising cocoa with ammonia gas in place of dissolved alkali.
US 1,387,377ConchingFryer and McLellan, York19201921Replacing many hours of conching with liquefying and brief extreme agitation.
US 1,563,898ConcheFrederick George Fryer, York19221925A conche with a reciprocating roller and rakes for the ends of the pot.
US 1,862,166Continuous processDale G. Steely19271932Roasting, shelling, alkalising and grinding as one continuous stream.
US 1,898,771TemperingFrederick W. Greer, Cambridge, Massachusetts19311933A water-jacketed tempering device feeding a coating machine.
GB 459,583Aerated chocolateRowntree and Co Ltd19351937A honeycomb structure made by distributing bubbles in fluid chocolate and reducing the pressure.
US 2,082,313Aerated chocolateJohn William Todd19361937The United States counterpart, citing the British application of 1935.
US 2,760,867Heat-resistant chocolateGeneral Foods Corporation19511956Adding a water emulsion of an emulsifier to finished chocolate.
GB 827,172Cocoa butter substituteUnilever19551960A cocoa butter substitute made from a fraction of palm oil.
US 2,904,438Heat-resistant chocolateMars, Incorporated19561959Heat-resistant milk chocolate with a humectant, made under controlled air humidity.
US 2,975,060Cocoa butter substituteLever Brothers Company19591961Products in which part of the cocoa butter is replaced by a palm oil fraction.
US 4,081,559Heat-resistant chocolateCadbury LimitedNot given1978Fat held as separate particles in a sugar glass.
US 4,272,558Aerated chocolateE. T. Oakes LimitedNot given1981Dissolving a soluble gas in chocolate under pressure and releasing it.
US 4,446,166Heat-resistant chocolateBattelle Memorial Institute19811984A water-in-fat emulsion dispersed through the chocolate.
US 4,859,483TemperingSollich GmbH & Co. KG19881989Continuous tempering through cooling stages followed by heating stages.
US 5,149,560Heat-resistant chocolateMars Inc19911992Combining tempered chocolate with a stable water-in-oil emulsion.
US 5,215,771ConchingCallebaut and Bruyland, BelgiumNot given1993Conching continuously, with constant contents.
US 5,523,110Heat-resistant chocolateNestec S.A.Not given1996Mixing a particulate polyol gel into flowable chocolate.
US 5,635,230Shell formingLars AastedNot given1997Pressing a chocolate shell with a member cooled below 0°C.

Where no application year is given, the patent text as read printed only its date of grant. The rows are ordered by application year where known and by grant otherwise.

Famous claims with no primary source found

None of these is said to be false. Each is repeated in histories of chocolate, including elsewhere on this site, on the authority of earlier histories. What follows is what was looked for and not found.

Coenraad van Houten patented the cocoa press in 1828 and invented Dutch-process cocoa
No patent text or archive record was retrieved. The earliest primary texts found on pressing and alkalising are from 1889, 1911 and about 1917, and the last treats alkalising as already well known.
J. S. Fry & Sons made the first moulded eating chocolate bar in 1847
Museum and archive pages returned no usable text. An archive catalogue lists an 1847 item among the firm's papers; it was not read.
Daniel Peter made the first milk chocolate in 1875
No patent by Peter was found, and the company history page could not be opened.
Rodolphe Lindt invented the conche in 1879
No patent found. The company's own history gives the date and describes the usual story as alleged.
The enrober was invented in France in 1903
No such patent found. The earliest enrobing patent read was applied for in the United States in 1910.
The 1935 Rowntree patent is “the Aero patent”
The patent was read. It names no product, and its United States counterpart does not name Rowntree.
Unilever's cocoa butter substitute of the 1950s was sold as Coberine
Both patents were read. Neither uses that or any trade name, and neither is evidence of sale.
Hershey's wartime ration bars rested on a Hershey patent for heat-resistant chocolate
No Hershey heat-resistant patent was found. Those read are from five other companies, the earliest applied for in 1951.

What the patents show when read in order

  • By the early twentieth century the main machines were already being improved, not invented. A patent applied for in 1903 says separate machines for cracking, grading and winnowing had been customary; one of about 1917 treats alkalising as well known; one filed in 1920 says chocolate had until then been conched for many hours. (source 1; source 2; source 3)
  • Continuous processing was claimed long before it is usually dated: roasting to liquor as one stream in an application of 1927, continuous tempering in 1988, continuous conching by 1993. (source 4; source 5; source 6)
  • Replacing cocoa butter was a research aim of the 1950s. A British application of 1955 claims a substitute from a fraction of palm oil, optionally mixed with a Borneo tallow such as illipe butter, and its American counterpart followed. (source 7; source 8)
  • Heat resistance has been patented repeatedly without being settled: six applications from five companies and a research institute between 1951 and 1996, by three different principles. (source 9; source 10; source 11; source 12; source 13; source 14)
  • Aerated chocolate has a clear documentary start: a British application of 11 July 1935 assigned to Rowntree, and an American one a year later citing it. (source 15; source 16)

Not shown: Who was first at anything. An earlier patent, in another country or language, may exist for every one of these; only British and American texts were read.

Not shown: That any claimed process was used. Several were filed by companies that make chocolate, which is suggestive and not evidence.

Companies: what the records say

Regulators' decisions are independent records. A company's history page is the company's account.

  • Kraft and Cadbury: the European Commission was notified on 9 November 2009 of Kraft's proposal to acquire Cadbury by public tender offer, which then lacked the support of Cadbury's board, and decided on 6 January 2010. (source 17)
  • The Commission found serious doubts in three markets, chocolate tablets and pralines in Poland and tablets in Romania, and cleared the deal on Kraft's commitment to sell Cadbury's Wedel business in Poland and its Romanian chocolate business, with the Kandia brand and the Bucharest factory. (source 17)
  • Mars and Wrigley: cleared on 28 July 2008, with Mars taking 80.7% and Berkshire Hathaway a 19.3% minority interest. The decision gives worldwide turnover of 15.544 billion euros for Mars and 3.932 billion for Wrigley. (source 18)
  • Lindt and Sprüngli, by the company's own account: Johann Rudolf Sprüngli bought Rodolphe Lindt's business, brand and recipe in 1899; the company acquired Ghirardelli in January 1998 and Russell Stover in 2014. (source 19)
  • The same Commission decision is a useful source for the trade's own vocabulary: a tablet is a moulded block of more than 59 g that can be broken into pieces, and a countline an individually wrapped bar usually eaten as a snack. (source 17)
  • Hershey, Mondelez, Nestlé and Rowntree, Barry Callebaut, Ferrero and Cargill: no filing or regulator's decision could be opened, and nothing is said about them here.

Not shown: A history of the industry. These are the few transactions for which an official record was read.

Not shown: What happened to the businesses that were sold, or to either group since.

Where cocoa is ground and chocolate is made

  • Grinding has moved towards the countries that grow cocoa. In 2022/23 the world ground 5,058 thousand tonnes of beans, of which 2,377 thousand tonnes were ground in producing countries. (source 20)
  • Côte d'Ivoire ground 793 thousand tonnes, more than any other single country in the table. The Netherlands ground 600 thousand, Germany 440, Indonesia 402, Malaysia 364 and the United States 350. (source 20)
  • Europe as a whole still ground the most of any region: 1,792 thousand tonnes, 35.4% of the total, against 23.5% for Africa. (source 20)
  • Chocolate manufacture is concentrated differently. The European Union of 27 produced 3.7 million tonnes of chocolate in 2019, 64% of it in Germany, Italy and France. The figure excludes chocolate made for industrial use. (source 21)
  • An earlier release gives around 4.0 million tonnes for 2017, when the Union included the United Kingdom, so the two totals are not like for like. (source 22)
  • In the United States the census counted 258 chocolate and confectionery manufacturing plants in 2018, and 264 establishments primarily making products from cocoa beans in 2020. (source 23; source 24)
  • The number of small bean-to-bar makers, in any country: no official count and no peer-reviewed estimate was found.

Not shown: A trend. Each figure is one year, and the full series are sold by subscription.

Not shown: That the two American counts measure the same thing. They are different classifications in different years.

Sources

Studies are cited by author and year and summarised, with their limits, on the research pages. The official documents are listed here. Each was downloaded and read, and the passage relied on was checked to be in it.

  1. United States Patent Office (scan via Google patent images). US762705: Combined machine for nibbing, grading, and winnowing cocoa-beans or the like (1904-06-14). patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/pdfs/US762705.pdf
    Patent: evidence of a claim and a date, not of use · US
  2. United States Patent Office (scan via Google patent images). US1243244: Method of making so-called alkalized cocoa (1917). patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/pdfs/US1243244.pdf
    Patent: evidence of a claim and a date, not of use · US
  3. United States Patent Office (scan via Google patent images). US1387377: Manufacture of high-class 'fondant' chocolate and similar chocolates (1921-08-09). patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/pdfs/US1387377.pdf
    Patent: evidence of a claim and a date, not of use · US
  4. United States Patent Office (scan via Google patent images). US1862166: Continuous chocolate making process (1932-06-07). patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/pdfs/US1862166.pdf
    Patent: evidence of a claim and a date, not of use · US
  5. United States Patent and Trademark Office (scan via Google patent images). US4859483: Method for continuous processing of substances containing cocoa butter or similar fats (1989-08-22). patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/pdfs/US4859483.pdf
    Patent: evidence of a claim and a date, not of use · US
  6. United States Patent and Trademark Office (scan via Google patent images). US5215771: Process for continuously conching chocolate mass (1993-06-01). patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/pdfs/US5215771.pdf
    Patent: evidence of a claim and a date, not of use · US
  7. UK Patent Office (text via Google Patents). GB827172A: Improvements in or relating to cocoa-butter substitutes (1960-02-03). patents.google.com/patent/GB827172A/en
    Patent: evidence of a claim and a date, not of use · UK
  8. United States Patent Office (text via Google Patents). US2975060A: Cocoa butter substitutes and products containing them (1961-03-14). patents.google.com/patent/US2975060/en
    Patent: evidence of a claim and a date, not of use · US
  9. United States Patent Office (text via Google Patents). US2760867A: Finished chocolate product (1956-08-28). patents.google.com/patent/US2760867/en
    Patent: evidence of a claim and a date, not of use · US
  10. United States Patent Office (text via Google Patents). US2904438A: Chocolate product and process (1959-09-15). patents.google.com/patent/US2904438/en
    Patent: evidence of a claim and a date, not of use · US
  11. United States Patent and Trademark Office (scan via Google patent images). US4081559: Edible composition and method of manufacturing same (1978-03-28). patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/pdfs/US4081559.pdf
    Patent: evidence of a claim and a date, not of use · US
  12. United States Patent and Trademark Office (text via Google Patents). US4446166A: Chocolate composition for the preparation of heat-resistant chocolate articles (1984-05-01). patents.google.com/patent/US4446166/en
    Patent: evidence of a claim and a date, not of use · US
  13. United States Patent and Trademark Office (text via Google Patents). US5149560A: Heat-resistant chocolate and method of making same (1992-09-22). patents.google.com/patent/US5149560/en
    Patent: evidence of a claim and a date, not of use · US
  14. United States Patent and Trademark Office (scan via Google patent images). US5523110: Chocolate heat-resistance by particulate polyol gel addition (1996-06-04). patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/pdfs/US5523110.pdf
    Patent: evidence of a claim and a date, not of use · US
  15. UK Patent Office (text via Google Patents). GB459583A: Improved process for manufacturing articles of food or confectionery (1937-01-11). patents.google.com/patent/GB459583A/en
    Patent: evidence of a claim and a date, not of use · UK
  16. United States Patent Office (text via Google Patents). US2082313A: Process for manufacturing articles of food or confectionery (1937-06-01). patents.google.com/patent/US2082313/en
    Patent: evidence of a claim and a date, not of use · US
  17. European Commission. Case No COMP/M.5644 - Kraft Foods / Cadbury, Article 6(1)(b) decision in conjunction with Article 6(2) (2010-01-06). ec.europa.eu/competition/mergers/cases/decisions/m5644_20100106_20212_en.pdf
    Regulator's decision · EU
  18. European Commission. Case No COMP/M.5188 - Mars / Wrigley, Article 6(1)(b) non-opposition decision (2008-07-28). ec.europa.eu/competition/mergers/cases/decisions/m5188_20080728_20310_en.pdf
    Regulator's decision · EU
  19. Chocoladefabriken Lindt & Sprüngli AG. History (company history page). www.lindt-spruengli.com/about-us/history
    The company's own account · Switzerland
  20. International Cocoa Organization (ICCO). Grindings of cocoa beans (table from the Quarterly Bulletin of Cocoa Statistics, Vol. LI, No. 1, cocoa year 2024/25) (2025-02-28). www.icco.org/wp-content/uploads/Grindings_QBCS-LI-No.-1.pdf
    Official statistics · International
  21. Eurostat. EU production of chocolate (2020-08-31). ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/products-eurostat-news/-/ddn-20200831-1
    Official statistics · EU
  22. Eurostat. Main producers of chocolate in the EU (2019-04-17). ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/products-eurostat-news/-/edn-20190417-1
    Official statistics · EU
  23. US Census Bureau. Sweet Economic Tricks and Treats: 2018. www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/library/visualizations/2020/comm/economic-tricks-and-treats-2018.pdf
    Official statistics · US
  24. US Census Bureau. Manufacturing Day to Halloween (By the Numbers). broadcast.census.gov/comm/audio/by-the-numbers/october/manufacturing-day-halloween.pdf
    Official statistics · US

Reviewed 9 October 2026.

Related: chocolate machinery, the history section, cocoa trade, cocoa production by country and what legally counts as chocolate. All data.