York's Affair with Chocolate

Some of the lovely Choc Affair products

Now, we know it’s the New Year, and you’re all probably trying not to think about the abundance of chocolate you have scoffed over the past few weeks, but we’d like to draw your attention back to that yummy goodness. In particular, York’s chocolate..

We have the pleasure of working with Choc Affair, a wonderful Fair Trade chocolate company based in our lovely city. They hand make and amazing array of chocolate products that definitely get our mouth’s watering. And this got us thinking, how and when did York’s affair with chocolate actually begin?
 
Sweet Beginnings

The blue Kit Kat (1942)

York’s first fling began as far back as 1725 with a lady called Mary Tuke, whose grocery shop was sold to the Rowntree family in 1862. Since then the company has been responsible for household names such as KitKat, (a studio favourite!), Smarties and Polos. Part of the success of the brand was down to a man called George Harris, who used then ‘American’ promotional methods: product development, advertising and branding, to bring those household names to life. Amazing how something that we now practise everyday was such a new concept less than 100 years ago!

Although Nestlé bought Rowntree’s in 1988, the name ‘Rowntree’ still means a lot to the city of York. Rowntree Park provides a beautiful green space for residents and tourists alike, and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation helps the UK’s poverty stricken, homeless, and aging populations.

The lesser known Chocolate Lemon and Chocolate Apple

Another chocolate-fuelled romance was budding in 1823 when Joseph Terry entered the York scene. His son, Joseph Terry Jnr was responsible for the ever-popular Chocolate Orange and the somewhat lesser known Chocolate Apple and Chocolate Lemon! Kraft took over Terry’s in 1993, but the brands that the nation still love live on, and will always be mine, not Terry’s, (let us know if you remember those adverts!








The present and the future

Nowadays chocolate is much a part of York as it was back then. Although Terry’s has left, Nestlé remains in the original Rowntree’s Factory and still employs around 1800 people and produces approximated 1 billion Kit Kats a year!

Although York still seduces some of the big brands, it’s the independent, artisan chocolatiers that really give York its title as the ‘home of chocolate’, and keeps the sweet stuff firmly in our hearts. York Cocoa House combines a shop, café and school run by Sophie, a lifelong chocolate lover, who wants to share her passion with the world. Also, Monk Bar Chocolatiers, a family run company, has been making high quality handmade chocolates within the walls since 1999.

Want to learn more about York’s cocoa dusted past? All of the city’s flirtations with various chocolate companies can now be found in York’s very own chocolate museum: York’s Chocolate Story. It even has a ‘chocolate bar’ where you can really indulge; cakes, choctails, and hot chocolate are just a few of the treats they have on offer.

So there you have it, we think it’s fair to say that York has a very chocolaty past, present, and probably future. All that talk of chocolate made you hungry? Go on, have a break, have a Kit Kat, you know you want to!


Information and images from:
http://www.choc-affair.com/
http://www.historyofyork.org.uk/themes/victorian/rowntree-co-chocolate-manufacturers
http://www.historyofyork.org.uk/themes/victorian/joseph-terry-sons-chocolate-manufacturers
http://www.scribd.com/doc/78692048/TERRYS-Timeline-of-Brand-Milestones
http://www.bq-magazine.co.uk/success-story/york/y13-ss2/
http://www.yorkcocoahouse.co.uk/
http://www.monkbar.com/
http://www.yorkschocolatestory.com/