Tour of a Chocolate and Cocoa Manufactory, 1884

When we found this document, we realized we had to share it with our customers. Published in 1884, it is a tour of Fry's Chocolate, one of the major chocolate factories in the United Kingdom. Fry's Chocolate is no longer in business, but it was very influential in the early development of fine vintage chocolate. The pictures and text are from the original document (with gentle editing by us.)

The Manufactory, Bristol

Anyone who passes along Wine Street, Bristol, will, if he be keen-scented, become fully aware that he is close vicinity of a chocolate factory. The aromatic berry scatters its perfume far and wide. The manufacture itself is a growth of a century and a half. The first patent, still in the possession of its present manufacturers, is dated 1730, and the old building where the chocolate was then made, though solid and handsome, stands in vivid contrast to the huge pile of buildings which pour forth the chocolate and cocoa at the rate of several tons per day. Any one entering the factory cannot but be impressed with the ceaseless whirl of machinery, the general sense of movement, and the constant activity that pervade the buildings. Here is a huge wheel, many feet in diameter, driving a series of grindstones which are pulverizing the nut; there is a winnowing machine, which separates the husks; close by is an elevator, which lifts the nibs to their next position; and so on throughout the whole building — machinery doing the work of hand labor, rendering food cheaper, and yet finding employment for the larger number of workers.

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