Big Chocolate versus Small Batch

Big Chocolate versus Small Batch

Author: Marisa Mudge May 2015

Figure 2 (Bean, nd)

 “Big Chocolate” is used to describe multi-national food producers. Cargill, Barry Callebaut and ADM. Together they control 40% of global cocoa processing and supply chocolate to industrial food companies that use chocolate in their products. Mars Incorporated, Nestlé, Hershey, Mondelez International, and Ferrero together control 57.4% of the chocolate market.

Top 10 “Big Chocolate” Companies

Mars, Inc: Brands- Snickers, Mars Bar, Milky Way, M&Ms, and Twix

Nestl USA: Brands- Baby Ruth, Butterfinger, Kit Kat, Milky Bar, Matchmakers, Nestl Crunch, Oh Henry, and the Wonka Bars

Ferrero SpA: Brands- Nutella, Ferrero Rocher, Mon Cheri, and Giotto

Cadbury (Kraft): Brands- Cadbury, Fry's and Green & Black's

The Hershey Company: Brands- Hershey's Milk Chocolate, Hershey's Special Dark and Hershey's Cookies & Cream

Barry Callebaut AG: Brands- Sarotti in Germany, Jacques in Belgium and Alprose in Switzerland

Kraft Foods, Inc: Brands- Toblerone and Oreo

Chocoladefabriken Lindt & Sprngli AG: Brands –Lindor

Meiji Seika Kaisha, Ltd: Brands - Hello Panda and Yan Yan

 Russell Stover Candies Inc: Brands – Russell Stover

(O'Coughlin, 2009)

The “Big” mass market chocolate companies must compete on a global scale and typically at competitive price points.  Big chocolate can offer lower priced chocolate and maintain profitability because they lower the cost and quality of the inputs. Mass produced chocolates may contain more than the basic ingredients in an attempt to lower cost.  Production costs can be decreased by reducing cocoa solids content or by substituting cocoa butter with another fat.  Wax may be used to achieve a high gloss instead of the more costly tempering technique. “Big Chocolate” will abandon quality and technique in exchange for lower costs and higher margins.

Small-batch producers are interested in producing a high quality premium chocolate. Craft Chocolate contains a simple list of ingredients: pure cacao, butter, cacao powder and a sweetener. This craft makers produce in small batches and often from beans they have personally sourced. A small batch producer will use between 2 and 200 MT of cocoa beans per year. They will make bean-to-bar chocolate in one facility using traditional techniques

Small batch chocolate and Big chocolate have different goals. Big chocolate targets the mass market with a medium to low price point. Craft chocolate targets the connoisseur at the premium price point. (Green, 2014)

Chocolate-“Food of the Gods”-In the Beginning

Chocolate-“Food of the Gods”

Made from the cocoa bean that is found in pods from the cacao tree, the earliest documented record of chocolate was over fifteen hundred years ago in Central America. (Wilbur Chocolate, nd) With its’ tropical climate of high temperatures year round and high rain fall, Central America provides the ideal climate for the cacao tree,  or “food of the gods” per its Latin name, the Obroma Cacao. The origins of chocolate are believed to have begun with the ancient Mayan and Aztec civilizations, who made a spicy chocolati drink from roasted cocoa beans. The Aztec drink was described as “finely ground, soft, foamy, reddish, bitter with chilli water, aromatic flowers, vanilla and wild honey” from roasted chocolate beans.  (Wilbur Chocolate, nd) The Aztecs considered the drink a luxury, and consumed it in large quantities. The Maya brewed a spicy, similar drink by roasting and pounding the seeds of the cacao tree with maize and capsicum peppers and then letting the mix ferment. Both drinks were considered ceremonial, and the Aztecs considered it an aphrodisiac. It is reported that Montezuma, the Aztec emperor drank the drink fifty times a day from a golden goblet, and is quoted  to saying “the divine drink, which builds up resistance and fights fatigue. A cup of this precious drink permits a man to walk for a whole day without food.” in regards to the chocolate drink.

When the Spanish invaded Central America, they found more than just gold. Don Cortes, a Captain General and Governor of Mexico returned to Spain in 1528 with his galleons filled with cocoa beans and equipment for making the chocolati drink. The drink soon gained popularity in Spain. (Maya, 2011)

An Italian traveler to Central America, Francesco Carletti, learned how to make the drink from watching the Indians preparing the beans and making the drink. He brought the recipe and equipment back to Italy and by 1606 chocolate was well established in Italy. In 1615, Anne, daughter of Phillip 2 of Spain married King Louis 13 of France, and brought the chocolate recipe with her. The drink was well accepted in the French Court, as they believed it had medicinal benefits as well as nutritional merit. The custom of drinking chocolate made its way to England in around 1520, and the first chocolate house opened in London in 1657. (Wilbur Chocolate, nd)

The first chocolate factories opened in Spain, where the dried beans from Central America were transported to, stored, and turned to chocolate powder that was then exported throughout Europe. 

Sir Hans Sloane, an English doctor, is believed to be the first to bring from Central America back to Europe a recipe for chocolate blended with milk to create milk chocolate. The original Cadbury milk chocolate recipe was based on Sir Hans Sloane’s recipe. (MacDougall, 2003)

When the pilgrims came to North America, they brought their chocolate powder and recipes with them. Quakers, became well entrenched in chocolate, with some of the most well-known names in chocolate being tied to Quakers. Fry, Rowtree and Cadbury were all chocolate manufacturers known to have Quaker roots. (Office at West Hills Friends, nd) In the mid 1600’s bakers in Europe began to add chocolate powder to cakes, beginning the start of eating chocolate in solid form. In 1828, Johannes van Houten, a Dutch chemist, invented the method of extracting the bitter tasting fat or “cocoa butter” from the roasted beans, leading the way for solid chocolate manufacturing. In 1847 Joseph Fry (of Fry & Sons) is credited with producing and selling the worlds’ first chocolate bar, mixing sugar with cocoa powder and cocoa butter. (Quakers In the World, nd) In 1875, Daniel Peters, a Swiss manufacturer combined cocoa powder, cocoa butter, sugar, and dried milk powder to produce the first milk chocolate in solid form. (annmariekostyk.com, 2011)