Peter's Chocolate facts for kids
Gala peter ad
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| Fate | Mergers:
Acquired by |
|---|---|
| Successor | Brand owned by Cargill & Nestlé since 2002 |
| Founded | 1867 |
| Founder | Daniel Peter |
Peter's Chocolate (French: Chocolat Peter) was a famous Swiss chocolate company. It was started in 1867 by Daniel Peter in a town called Vevey, Switzerland. This company is super important because it made the first successful milk chocolate bar!
Over the years, Peter's Chocolate joined with other companies. It merged with Kohler in 1904 and then with Cailler in 1911. Later, in 1929, a big company called Nestlé bought it. In 2002, the brand was bought by Cargill. You might have seen old ads for Peter's Chocolate showing a man in traditional clothes waving a chocolate bar, often with mountains in the background.
Contents
The Story of Peter's Chocolate
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The company began in 1867 with Daniel Peter. He used to be a grocer and made candles in Vevey. Daniel Peter was also related to François-Louis Cailler, another early chocolate maker. When gas lighting became popular, people didn't need as many candles. So, Peter decided to focus on making chocolate. He bought one of Cailler's factories and named his new business Peter-Cailler & Cie.
How Milk Chocolate Was Born
Daniel Peter had a big goal: he wanted to make a solid version of the popular chocolate milk drink. This would make it easier to carry and eat. But there was a problem: water in chocolate makes it lumpy and spoils quickly. Earlier attempts using fresh milk didn't work well.
Peter found a clever solution! He used condensed milk from another company, the Anglo-Swiss Milk Company. He then dried it out even more. In 1875, he created the first version of solid milk chocolate. But it wasn't perfect yet.
The final, smooth milk chocolate bar was made in 1887. This was thanks to a special process called conching, invented by Lindt in 1879. Conching made the chocolate super smooth and creamy. The new milk chocolate bar was called Gala Peter. "Gala" comes from a Greek word meaning 'milk' or 'nourishment'.
Growing Big: Mergers and New Products
The Gala Peter chocolate became very popular. So, in 1901, a bigger factory was built in a town called Orbe. Peter's Chocolate also started selling its products in the United Kingdom that same year.
In 1904, Peter's company joined with Kohler to form Peter Kohler. Then, in 1911, it merged with Cailler to become Peter Cailler Kohler. In 1907, Peter's Chocolate even opened a factory in the United States, in Fulton, working with Nestlé. By 1911, Peter's milk chocolate recipe was so popular that it made up half of all the chocolate eaten worldwide! Milk chocolate quickly became the most common type of chocolate, replacing dark chocolate.
Daniel Peter also created another product in the 1890s called Delta Peter. This was a mix of milk and cocoa powder. You could add it to water to make a chocolate drink. It came in cool triangle-shaped packages. Each triangle of pressed powder was just enough for one cup.
A Secret Plot: Chocolate and Spies
During World War II, there was a strange story involving Peter's Chocolate. German secret agents tried to trick British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. Churchill loved sweets, so they planned to give him fake Peter's Chocolate bars. These bars looked real on the outside. But inside, they had hidden explosives! The bomb would go off if the bar was broken.
Luckily, a smart scientist named Lord Victor Rothschild found out about the plan. He warned everyone to watch out for these dangerous fake chocolate bars. This helped stop the attempt on Churchill's life.
See also
