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New Delhi: Loving chocolates has no age limit. From a child to an adult, everyone savours chocolate. At some point in life, certainly, you have felt gratitude for the existence of this delicious thing. And it’s great that we have a specific day dedicated to chocolates. Yes, the world celebrates International Chocolate Day every year on September 13. The day coincides with the birthday of Milton S Hershey, the founder of The Hershey Chocolate Company, a prominent figure in the industry.
International Chocolate Day not only lets us indulge in our favourite bar of sweetness but also reminds every chocolate lover of its rich history and evolution. In around 1500 BCE, people drank it as a bitter cocoa beverage. Later, it evolved into one of the most loved treats globally. As the day is hardly a week away, let’s trace back the chocolate legacy of Hershey in the world and India.
International Chocolate Day is celebrated every year on September 13, to honour the birthday of Milton Snavely Hershey, acknowledging his unparalleled contribution to the popularisation of chocolate in the US and across the globe.
Hershey, who was born in 1857, became an American confectioner, businessman, and philanthropist. He faced multiple failures before he built a successful caramel company in 1883. At the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago, Hershey was captivated by German chocolate-making equipment. He bought the machinery and, in 1900, sold his successful caramel business for $1 million to focus entirely on chocolate production.
In 1903, he began building what would become the world’s largest chocolate-manufacturing plant in Pennsylvania’s Derry Township, the area where he was born. The factory opened in 1905, and the Hershey’s Milk Chocolate Bar was introduced to the public. Hershey’s Kisses followed in 1907.
His legacy is defined by the way chocolate was produced and marketed, making it more affordable and accessible to the public.
This day also celebrates the rich history of chocolate that could be traced back to Mesoamerican civilisation, and it has covered a crucial journey to establish itself as a global phenomenon in the modern world.
This day recognises the cultural, economic and historical significance of chocolate, bringing joy to people worldwide.
Chocolate was introduced in India during the British colonial period in 1798 when they set up cacao plantations in Tamil Nadu’s Courtallam. Later, it became a pivotal agricultural industry in the 1960s with Cadbury’s initiative in Kerala’s Wayanad. Cadbury, founded in the UK in 1824, went on to dominate the Indian chocolate market for decades. On the other hand, Hershey entered India much later in India first as a joint venture with Godrej in 2008. In 2013, it fully owned operation.
Cocoa farming grew by replacing the Criollo variety with the more robust Forastero. Kerala Agricultural University and CAMPCO took multiple initiatives to stabilise the marketing, setting India among the global cacao-producing producing. Today, the Indian market is majorly dominated by Cadbury and Nestle.
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