How did Switzerland become a country of chocolate?

 

Godiva and Valrhona are now synonymous with high-quality chocolate, but until the 2000s, chocolate was considered Switzerland's representative product to the extent that people think of Switzerland when they think of chocolate.

There are also numerous chocolate makers, such as Nestle, Lindt, and Springley, which are the roots of Swiss chocolate's fame.

It's funny when you think about it.

Switzerland is a landlocked European country with no port cities. So, how did Switzerland become a country of chocolate?

Cacao was highly prized in Central America, from chocolate to Olmec, Maya, and the Aztecs that spread to Europe.

People used cacao also as a currency and as a drink in many ancestral rites. Warriors used to drink cacao drinks before the war. Conquistadors (Spanish: conquerors) also witnessed this first-hand.

When I drank this, I felt refreshed. Soon this cacao spread to Europe via Spain. In the early days, people used to mix cacao with red pepper and corn according to the Aztec recipe and drank as a kind of nourishing tonic and medicinal but soon started eating with sugar, vanilla, and cinnamon, etc.

The beginning of chocolate industries in Switzerland

Before the start of Swiss chocolate, even when chocolate like this infested Europe, Switzerland was an outlier. Switzerland was a landlocked country and located in the Alps was not suitable for agriculture.

However, the fact that Switzerland is adjacent to the present-day Piedmont region of Italy is what makes Switzerland the country of chocolate.

Piedmont in northwestern Italy, especially Turin, was the center of chocolate in southern Europe.

Originally a wealthy region, cocoa imported from Spain flowed into Turin through Nice, which led to the early development of the chocolate industry in Turin.

Already in the 18th century, the production of chocolate in Turin exceeded 350 kg, and Turin chocolate was exported to Austria, France, and Germany.

It even went so far as to set up an administrative department in charge of chocolate.

As a result, there were many Swiss youths who came to Turin to learn chocolate, which was popular at the time. An entrepreneur named François-Louis Cailler was one of them.

After four years of learning chocolate in Turin, Caille opened the first chocolate factory in Switzerland in 1819 with his own machine in Corsier, near Vevey.

The chocolate, which had been entirely imported until then, was produced directly, so it sold very well. When it sells so well, there's always going to be a new competitor.

Seven years later, in 1826, Philippe Schuchard founded a company called Chocolat Schüshard along with a chocolate factory and also opened a chocolate factory in Geneva in Jacques Pulqui.

Also in 1830, a grocery wholesaler, Charles-Amede-Kouler, who had been dealing with chocolate entered the market anew by making hazelnut chocolate.

But it was not these pioneers who really made Switzerland the realm of chocolate, but the next generation.

The Birth of "Milk chocolate"

After completing an apprenticeship in candle making in Alsace, Daniel Peter comes to Vevey, Switzerland with his brother Julian.

Now that I've learned the technique, I'm back to start the candle business in earnest.

But from the start, Brother Lee's business ran into crisis.

In the mid-19th century, Chemists discovered a method to separate kerosene from petroleum and kerosene did become usable for lighting.

In a nutshell, the Peter brothers' business has become a dead industry from the start.

Instead, Daniel Peter pays close attention to the food manufacturing industry.

I came to think of the food industry as an industry that will continue to grow.

Daniel Peter married the daughter of François-Louis Caillet, the founder of Switzerland's first chocolate factory, this fact seems to have a profound impact on his life.

The more I looked into the artisan's chocolate business, the greater the potential.

He learned the technique and founded the Peter-Caiye Company in Vevey in 1867.

And Daniel Peter was the first to develop milk chocolate.

"I tried mixing it, but it didn't work. Because of the moisture in the milk and the fat in the cacao, they do not mix, but rather aggregate".

It was Henri Nestlé, the founder of Nestlé, who helped.

Henri Nestlé was the man who succeeded in making baby food by drying milk.

So, he advised Daniel Peter to use powdered milk that has completely dehydrated the milk.

In fact, this was possible because both Henri Nestlé and Daniel Peter were living in Vevey.

Eventually, in 1875, he succeeded in making milk chocolate.

New Chocolate Another revolution took place in 1879 in Bern, 100 km from Vevey.

The main character is Rodolph Lindt, who became independent after an apprenticeship under Charles-Amede-Kouler, who made hazelnut chocolate.

The accidental invention of " The Conching Process". 

Legend has it that Lindt enjoyed playing and socializing more than work, and that's why he's so busy going out that he forgot to stop the chocolate roller one Friday.

As a result, the rollers were continuously squeezing and crushing the cacao beans for three days. Lindt: "I came back on Monday and saw the results, and it turned out to be chocolate with a soft texture I could not have imagined before".

On the advice of his pharmacist, he put as much cacao butter in the chocolate as he could.

Because cacao butter melts at human body temperature, the chocolate made by Lindt not only has a much softer texture but also melts in your mouth, giving you a fantastic taste.

Chocolate that feels like that is common now, so I wonder what's so great about it, but before Lindt developed this chocolate, chocolates were hard and lumpy when chewed.

In other words, Lindt developed 'conching', one of the processes used to make chocolate today.

The "Chocolate Revolution" of Switzerland

The country of chocolate Switzerland is a small country.

Because of the geographical proximity; characteristic of a small country, when a pioneer appeared in the new field of chocolate, many new entrepreneurs followed and influenced each other and developed.

Among them, fierce competition led to innovation, and in the end, their milk chocolate and the conching technology put the reputation of Swiss chocolate above any other country.

It wasn't until 1887 that the milk chocolate, developed by Daniel Peter in 1975, was subsequently refined and perfected.

However, overseas competitors could not make proper milk chocolate for more than 10 years.

There is one more thing. It was the active M&A between Swiss chocolate companies that had a big impact.

A typical example is lindt. Rodolph Lindt, who developed Conching, kept the process strictly secret and even managed the keys of the Conching plant himself.

However, he preferred to play over the business, so in 1899, before the age of 50, he handed the company over to the same Swiss chocolate company, Sprüngli.

Thanks to that, Conching begins to spread to other Swiss companies. These two companies still remain as Lindt & Sprüngli.

Similarly, when we decided to merge with Daniel Peter Dokler, who developed milk chocolate, our technologies combined to create synergy.

Nestlé also acquired the merged Peter-Caiye-Kheller in 1922, creating a synergy effect between Nestlé's strong dairy business and chocolate.

Swiss chocolate innovation continues.

Theodore Tobler and his cousin Emil Baumann created the Toblerone in 1908.

Toblerone is famous for making candies with nougat, almonds, and honey, and then covering them with milk chocolate to make Toblerone's signature triangular shape.

It opened the era of a full-fledged chocolate candy bar that went beyond simple chocolate.

It is these journeys that have built the reputation of Swiss chocolate for nearly 150 years.

Of course, Swiss chocolate today is not what it used to be.

The current trend is led by high-end chocolates such as Belgian chocolate and Valrhona, which have emerged in earnest since the 1980s.

Because of this, Swiss chocolate companies are reviving old brands that were lost during mergers and acquisitions.

The birth of the Swiss chocolate industry shows that fierce competition creates tremendous exchanges and rivalry for technology development.

In addition, synergies were generated in M&As with each other, leading to greater competitiveness.

Of course, this is a very old competition. It's not going to be much different now.