U.S. President Thomas Jefferson discovered his love for chocolate in his travels to Europe, in the 1780s. At that time, chocolate in the United States was still very much a novelty. The mill that would become America’s first chocolate manufacturer was started in 1765, near Dorchester, Massachusetts; however, the American Revolution during the 1770s precluded any substantial progress for introducing chocolate to Americans at the time. Plus, countries that controlled cocoa and sugar supplies imposed high importation costs, delaying the mass development of American chocolate even longer. Chocolate was largely a luxury item up to the War of 1812.
The years following the War of 1812 witnessed rapid development in the American chocolate industry. Importation duties decreased, and chocolate manufacturers built their businesses in a flurry. By 1869, there were 949 factories making chocolate in the United States, although many were really just small chocolate shops. Improved means of travel and communication brought about influence from foreign countries; chocolate recipes from Mexico, South America, and the West Indies were featured in The Boston Cooking-School Cook Book in 1896, for example. Raw materials needed for chocolate production continued to flow into U.S. borders, especially once cacao plantations spread to Africa in the early 1900s.
According to historian Ray Broekel, as many as 40,000 different types of chocolate bars had been created by American manufacturers. This brought attention to the issue of American chocolatiers focusing on quantity over chocolate's quality, since the Europeans were reputed for fine chocolate quality. However, only a few prominent corporations would ultimately survive. The Hershey Chocolate Company, founded by Milton S. Hershey, was one such successful corporation. Hershey moved his company to close to Pennsylvania’s dairy production and invested in chocolate-manufacturing equipment, with the goal of revolutionizing mass production for milk chocolate. Other companies created innovative ideas of their own; the Mars family created the Milky Way by putting the taste of chocolate malted milk in a candy bar, and chewy Tootsie Rolls were invented in 1896 by Austrian immigrant Leo Hirshfield.
While American chocolate companies teemed with new commercial ideas for chocolate, particularly during the first half of the 20th century, chocolate was very involved in WWI and WWII. For both wars, companies like Hershey's were commissioned to manufacture large blocks of field chocolate; the chocolate was meant to withstand outdoor battle conditions and be easily distributed amongst hordes of soldiers. This actually helped fuel domestic chocolate demand after the wars, because once soldiers returned home, the tastes they had developed for chocolate remained with them.
Over the following decades, the American chocolate industry became increasingly diversified and contributed to chocolate’s power in the economy, media, and arts. Publications about chocolate, unions such as the Chocolate Manufacturers’ Association, and even chocolate-flavored cigarettes were all novelties that stemmed from this “chocolate movement.” Entrepreneurs realized that there was much to be had in this dynamic industry, beyond the simple piece of chocolate; they pushed their creativities to the limit, and are continuing to do so right now.
Today’s American chocolate industry is more than an industry; it is a culture of its own. Chocolate caters to all kinds of tastes; there are mass-produced Hershey bars for the general population, to specialty shop gourmet chocolates that cost hundreds of dollars for the wealthier. Science, technology, mass media, and art are just some aspects of American society that have shaped the industry as well.