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Peter's Chocolate
Founded1867
FounderDaniel Peter
FateMergers:
  • Kohler (1904)
  • Cailler (1911)

Acquired by

SuccessorBrand owned by Cargill & Nestlé since 2002

Peter's Chocolate (French: Chocolat Peter, formerly Peter-Cailler) was a Swiss chocolate producer founded in 1867 by Daniel Peter in Vevey. It is notably the company who produced the first successful milk chocolate bar. It merged with Kohler in 1904, with Cailler in 1911, and was bought by Nestlé in 1929. The brand was purchased by Cargill in 2002.[1] Peter's Chocolate was recurrently advertised with the image of a traditionally dressed man waving a chocolate bar, often with an Alpine scenery.[2]

History

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Traditional ad for Peter's Chocolate

The company was established by Daniel Peter in 1867, who was originally a grocer and candle maker based in Vevey. He was also the son-in-law of François-Louis Cailler, a pioneering (and neighbouring) chocolatier of the early 19th century.[3] After gas lighting was installed in the town, Peter focused on the production of chocolate. His business started after the acquisition of one of Cailler's factories at Rue des Bosquets, which was therefore first named Peter-Cailler & Cie.[4]

One of the main goals of Peter as a chocolatier was the creation of a solid version of the popular chocolate milk beverage, so that it could be more easily transported and consumed.[5] However, pure chocolate cannot contain any water, as it prevents it from having a smooth texture. Moisture also favors mildew, therefore a poor shelf life (earlier attempts had been made with small quantities of fresh milk).[6] Peter ultimately solved the issue by using condensed milk from the Anglo-Swiss Milk Company, which he further dehydrated.[7] This is called the milk chocolate crumb process.[8] He previously also tried using powdered milk but without success.[9] In 1875, a first version of solid milk chocolate was created and commercialized.[10] However, it is only in 1887 that the final product was developed, with the help of conching invented by Lindt in 1879, which would refine the chocolate and make it smooth and homogeneous. The new milk chocolate bar was named Gala Peter, after the Greek word gala meaning 'milk', 'spiritual nourishment' or 'abundance'.[11]

The Orbe factory

Following the wide success of the Gala Peter brand, a larger factory was built at Orbe in 1901. The factory was later dismantled with the exception of a 52-metre-tall chimney (preserved and refurbished in 2021).[12] The same year, Peter's Chocolate was exported to the United Kingdom.[11] In 1904, the company merged with Kohler to form Peter Kohler and, in 1911, it merged with Cailler to form Peter Cailler Kohler. In 1907, the first production line was opened abroad with the collaboration of Nestlé, in Fulton in the United States.[13] By 1911, Peter's milk chocolate recipe represented half of the world's chocolate consumption. Milk chocolate replaced dark chocolate as the "standard" chocolate.[11][14]

Daniel Peter also launched the Delta Peter brand in the 1890s, which consisted of milk and cocoa powder that could be added to water to make a chocolate drink. Peter used a triangular packaging, with each individual triangle of pressed powder to be used for one cup.[15]

During World War II, German secret agents attempted to assassinate British Prime Minister Winston Churchill (who was known to have a sweet tooth) with fake Peter's Chocolate bars. Underneath a real chocolate exterior were flat slabs of explosive which would have been activated by the breaking of a bar.[16][17] The attempt on Churchill's life was prevented by the scientist Lord Victor Rothschild, who warned the public to watch out for the fake bars.[18]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Our Story". Peter's Chocolate. Retrieved 14 August 2022.
  2. ^ Hackenesch, Silke (2017). Chocolate and Blackness: A Cultural History. Campus Verlag. p. 78. ISBN 9783593507767. Figure 9 shows a man who is obviously supposed to appear as Swiss and "traditionally dressed." He has just reached a mountaintop in the Alps, and waves Peter's milk chocolate.
  3. ^ Chrystal, Paul (2021). Rowntrees: The Early History. Pen and Sword Books. ISBN 9781526778901. Retrieved 14 August 2022. In 1867, Daniel Peter, François-Louis Cailler's son-in-law, started producing chocolate under the name Peter-Cailler.
  4. ^ van Driem, George L. (2019). The Tale of Tea: A Comprehensive History of Tea from Prehistoric Times to the Present Day. Brill Publishers. p. 165. ISBN 9789004393608. Daniel Peter (1836-1919) acquired cacao mills from the Cailler family in 1861, although the contract of sale stipulated that he was not permitted to produce chocolate himself for a period of six-year. [...] in 1867 Daniel Peter began producing chocolate which he marketed under his business pseudonym of Peter Cailler.
  5. ^ "L'inventeur oublié du chocolat au lait" [The forgotten inventor of milk chocolate]. Feuille des Avis Officiels du canton de Vaud (in French). Canton of Vaud. 26 March 2023. Retrieved 14 August 2022. Peter démarre comme épicier puis fabricant de chandelles à Vevey avant de racheter l'une des fabriques de François-Louis Cailler. Son mariage avec la fille de ce dernier, couplé à l'arrivée du gaz de ville qui signe bientôt la mort du marché des chandelles, achève de propulser Peter du côté des aventuriers de l'or brun. Doté d'un sens aigu des affaires, il cherche à rendre le chocolat au lait liquide «portionnable» et donc transportable, gageure des temps modernes. À la ville, le lait naturel étant rare et souvent falsifié avec de l'eau et de la craie... [Peter started out as a grocer then a candle maker in Vevey before buying one of François-Louis Cailler's factories. His marriage to the daughter of the latter, coupled with the arrival of town gas which soon marked the death of the candle market, finally propelled Peter to the side of the adventurers of brown gold. Endowed with a keen sense of business, he seeks to make liquid milk chocolate “portionable” and therefore transportable, a challenge of modern times. In the city, natural milk being rare and often falsified with water and chalk...]
  6. ^ Mayer, Susann (January 2021). "Rekonstruktion der ersten Milchschokolade gelungen". Technische Universität Dresden. Retrieved 16 June 2023. Die Kakaomasse so fein zu mahlen wie heute war z.B. damals nicht möglich. Milchpulver gab es damals nicht, so wurde Flüssigmilch verwendet. „Bei den ersten Versuchen hatte die Masse eher die Textur eines Kaubonbons. Am Ende sind wir bei 60 Prozent Kakao, 30 Prozent Zucker und 10 Prozent Milch angelangt", erzählt Schneider. [For example, it was not possible to grind the cocoa mass as finely as it is today. There was no powdered milk back then, so liquid milk was used. “In the first attempts, the mass had more the texture of a chewy candy. In the end, we ended up with 60 percent cocoa, 30 percent sugar and 10 percent milk," says Schneider.]
  7. ^ Beckett, S. T. (2019). The Science of Chocolate. Royal Society of Chemistry. p. 5. ISBN 9781788012355. This meant that he had much less water to evaporate, and he was able to remove the remaining amount using relatively cheap water-powered machines.
  8. ^ Beckett, Steve T. (2017). Beckett's Industrial Chocolate Manufacture and Use. John Wiley & Sons. p. 135. Daniel Peter found that by drying his dark chocolate paste with Nestlé's sweetened condensed milk he could achieve his aim. In the process he developed the first crumb-based milk chocolate.
  9. ^ Marks, Bernard (10 April 2016). "ZUG: Schoggi-Erbe zwingt Nestlé in die Knie". Retrieved 15 August 2022. Nach jahrelanger Forschung gab Daniel Peter im Jahr 1873 die Idee auf, mit Milchpulver Schokolade zu verfeinern. Er versuchte es schliesslich mit Kondensmilch. 1875 gelang es ihm eine aus Kakao, Zucker und Kondensmilch bestehende Schokolade zu entwickeln, die beim Publikum zu einem Grosserfolg wurde. [After years of research, Daniel Peter gave up the idea of refining chocolate with milk powder in 1873. He finally tried condensed milk. In 1875 he succeeded in developing a chocolate made from cocoa, sugar and condensed milk, which was a huge hit with the public.]
  10. ^ Beckett, Steve T. (2011). "Ingredients from milk". Industrial Chocolate Manufacture and Use. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 9781444357554. The first use of milk in a solid chocolate product is commonly attributed to Daniel Peter in 1875. Before this, combinations of milk and cocoa solids were consumed as beverage during the eighteenth century.
  11. ^ a b c Collins, Ross F. (2022). Chocolate: A Cultural Encyclopedia. ABC-CLIO. p. 310. ISBN 9781440876080. While peter introduced milk chocolate in 1876, his first commercially successful chocolate bar, Chocolat au Lait Gala Peter, debuted in 1887, "Gala" from the Greek means milk, spiritual nourrishment, or abundance. [...] Peter's milk chocolate, containing almost no water, would not mildew or spoil, a triumph of chocolate manufacturing. His original bar did, however, taste a bit gritty. Another Swiss inventor addressed that problem in 1879 with the invention of conching. [...] Cadbury at the time was trying to compete with the new milk-based Swiss recipe that by 1911 represented half of the world's chocolate consumption. Milk chocolate grew to become the standard of what the public thought chocolate should be.
  12. ^ "Nouvelle jeunesse pour la cheminée industrielle d'Orbe". Radio Lac. Geneva. 24 December 2021. Retrieved 14 August 2022. Au fil des ans, cette cheminée de 52 mètres de haut, érigée à l'époque pour la chocolaterie Daniel Peter, est devenue "un emblème" pour Nestlé, mais aussi pour la cité du Nord vaudois. [Over the years, this 52 meter high chimney, erected at the time for the Daniel Peter chocolate factory, has become "an emblem" for Nestlé, but also for the city of northern Vaud.]
  13. ^ Farfaglia, Jim (2018). "Peter's Chocolate comes to town". Nestlé in Fulton, New York: How Sweet It Was. Arcadia Publishing. ISBN 9781439665886. In 1904, officials from the inquiring company asked Nestlé if they could make space at their Fulton campus for the manufacture of an additional food product: the milk chocolate candy bar. Peter's Chocolate was anxious to introduce its quality candy bar to the United States
  14. ^ Hoffmann, Frank (2020). "Chapter IV: Chocolate Fantaisies". Chocolate Fads, Folklore & Fantasies: 1,000+ Chunks of Chocolate Information. Routledge. ISBN 9781317953005. "The entire over-the-counter candy bar industry is 95 percent milk chocolate. People are weaned on it. Dark chocolate is a connoisseur's chocolate—more tasty, richer. As a result, a person who wants that will never buy milk." —Joe Foscaldo, Marketing Manager for Phillips Candy House (quoted in Boston Globe)
  15. ^ Gilomen, Hans-Jörg (2001). Innovationen: Voraussetzungen und Folgen, Antriebskräfte und Widerstände. Chronos. p. 146. ISBN 9783034005180. Vermutlich seit Beginn der 1890er Jahre wurde die Milchschokolade auch in kleinen, dreieckigen Portionen in gepresster Pulverform und einer dreieckigen Verpackung unter dem Namen "Delta Peter" verkauft - ein Vorläufer der 1908 von Theodor Tobler auf den Markt gebrachten Toblerone! [Presumably since the beginning of the 1890s, milk chocolate was also sold in small, triangular portions in pressed powder form and a triangular packaging under the name "Delta Peter" - a forerunner of the Toblerone launched by Theodor Tobler in 1908!]
  16. ^ Murphy, Colin (2018). Fierce History: 5,000 years of startling stories from Ireland and around the globe. The O'Brien Press. ISBN 9781788490689. The Nazis' plan was to work thus: Flat slabs of explosive were stuck to a piece of canvas, which was then coated in a thin layer of chocolate. The bomb was then packaged as Peter's Chocolate - a luxury item, especially in wartime.
  17. ^ Klein, Christopher (28 January 2021). "Nazis Planned to Kill Winston Churchill With an Exploding Chocolate Bar". History.com. Retrieved 14 August 2022. The killer candy was cloaked in a black foil wrapper with gold lettering bearing the brand name "Peter's Chocolate." Underneath the real chocolate exterior was steel and canvas, and when a piece of chocolate at the end of the bar was broken off and the canvas pulled, it activated a bomb that would explode after a seven-second delay. MI5 believed Nazi secret agents were plotting to smuggle the explosive chocolate into the War Cabinet and into the hands of Prime Minister Winston Churchill, who was known to have a sweet tooth.
  18. ^ Babka, Boulou, & Blintzes: Jewish Chocolate Recipes from around the World. Green Bean Books. 2021. p. 12. ISBN 9781784387020. The attempt on Churchill's life was partly foiled by the Jewish scientist Lord Victor Rothschild, who was working for the security services. Rothschild asked an artist named Laurence Fish to draw up posters of the chocolate and warn the public to watch out for the bars.
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