There are number of times each year, such as mother’s day, valentines and your birthday when you may receive a nice box of chocolates as a gift. When you open the box you see the chocolates beautiful laid out in their individual compartments – interesting fact, these containers are made by a process called Vacuum Forming where the plastic is moulded into the required shapes.
One of the most well known chocolates brands is Cadburys, and many people will have tried at least one if not hundreds of their chocolates over the years. Here are some interesting facts about the company.
The company, although now an international concern, began from very humble beginnings when John Cadbury opened up his first shop in Birmingham back in 1824. He sold lots of different items but when it came to chocolate the only thing he sold was drinking chocolate that he ground into a powder by hand. It was first produced as a medicinal drink and was often bulked out with either barley or lentils. By 1841 Cadbury opened up his first factory which produced an incredible 11 different types of cocoa and 16 different types of drinking chocolate in total. When looking at the waste products that was produced from the drinking chocolate they began making eating chocolate from the cocoa butter that was left.
After running for just a few short years Cadbury, together with his brother and business partner had created a company that was noted as being fit for royalty and they received the royal warrant from Queen Victoria in 1855. They have retained their royal status ever since.
It was Cadbury that developed the heart shaped chocolate box that is used traditionally during Valentines. This was the idea of Richard Cadbury, the son of John and these boxes were produced form 1861 with roses and cupids decorating the boxes. Each year chocolates were produced for this special time of year in a variety of beautifully decorated boxes.
By 1875 Cadbury had developed the hollow easter egg and was regularly produced hundreds of these in time for Easter each year. By 1923 they had created the first type of cream filled egg and perfected this over the years until 1971 when the Cadburys Creme Egg was released.
Since these early times the business has developed into the international concern that we now know with many different chocolate varieties available. A quick trip to any supermarket will see the vast amount that is available from this historically significant company.