BAKER’S COCOA
THE BEGINNING OF AMERICAN CHOCOLATE
Baker's Cocoa was created in 1765 in Dorchester, Massachusetts, and is America's oldest chocolate brand. The company was founded by Dr. James Baker, an American physician, who partnered with Irish chocolatier John Hannon to begin manufacturing drinking chocolate from imported cocoa beans in a chocolate mill. In a tragic accident, Hannon disappeared at sea during a cocoa trading voyage in 1779. Baker then acquired the remaining rights to the company from Hannon's widow in 1780, renaming it the Baker Chocolate Company.
THE LEGACY OF BAKER’S COCOA
In 1824, leadership of the company was passed to James Baker's grandson, Walter Baker, who significantly expanded the product line and made Baker's Chocolate a more widely recognized brand. The company continued to grow, and in 1835, Baker's began producing Prepared Cocoa, one of the earliest commercial cocoa powders in America. Baker's Cocoa soon became a household baking staple through widespread advertising, cookbooks, and recipe booklets that inspired home cooks to use cocoa in cakes, brownies, cookies, and hot chocolate. Baker's Chocolate reached a major milestone in 1849 when it introduced its first solid eating chocolate, later releasing German's Sweet Chocolate in 1852, which inspired the now-classic German chocolate cake recipe created in 1957. Production of Baker's Chocolate moved to Dover, Delaware, in 1966, and the brand was acquired by Kraft Foods in 1989. Today, Baker's Cocoa is remembered not only for its rich flavor but also for its long history of helping shape home baking traditions for generations of American families.
