Chocolate Wars: The 150-Year Rivalry Between the World's Greatest Chocolate Makers [Hardcover]

Deborah Cadbury (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 19, 2010

With a cast of characters that wouldn’t be out of place in a Victorian novel, Chocolate Wars tells the story of the great chocolatier dynasties, through the prism of the Cadburys. Chocolate was consumed unrefined and unprocessed as a rather bitter, fatty drink for the wealthy elite until the late 19th century, when the Swiss discovered a way to blend it with milk and unleashed a product that would conquer every market in the world.

Thereafter, one of the great global business rivalries unfolded as each chocolate maker attempted to dominate its domestic market and innovate new recipes for chocolate that would set it apart from its rivals. The contest was full of dramatic contradictions: The Cadburys were austere Quakers who found themselves making millions from an indulgent product; Kitty Hershey could hardly have been more flamboyant yet her husband was moved by the Cadburys tradition of philanthropy. Each was a product of their unique time and place yet they shared one thing: they want to make the best chocolate in the world.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

A descendant of the Cadbury family of chocolatiers, author Cadbury is also an award-winning documentary producer for the BBC and has seven other books to her credit. The history of chocolate, from its origins as an exotic Aztec beverage to the most prized confectionery in the world, is told here through the eyes of the British Quaker family that transformed a gritty, oily brew into one of the most sought-after delectable treats on the planet. In doing so, the Cadbury brothers turned their father’s humble and nearly bankrupt business into a globally dominant corporation in the span of two generations. The path to success was not easy, and Cadbury tells the story of fierce competition from names like Fry, Nestlé, Hershey, and Mars, as well as the Dutch and Swiss entrepreneurs who were so crucial in cracking the food chemistry of the cacao bean. Cadbury chronicles 150 years of chocolate wars that only heated up further into a global-merger competition, which saw the venerated Cadbury brand get swallowed up by the food giant Kraft in 2009. This tale of capitalist rivalry mixed with Quaker values makes for a very sweet journey. --David Siegfried

Review

Booklist, October 1, 2010
“This tale of capitalist rivalry mixed with Quaker values makes for a very sweet journey.”

Washington Post
“This is a delicious book, seductive as a tray of bonbons, a Fancy Box in every way.”

The New Yorker Book Bench
“For chocolate lovers and Roald Dahl fans, some heartening news: Willy Wonka’s factory – or at least something that sounds very much like it – was a real place... Though Cadbury begins with teasingly enviable childhood recollections... the story she tells is really about Quakers, and one family’s continuous struggle to reconcile religious values – pacifism, austerity, sobriety – with the indulgent nature of their product and the ruthlessly competitive capitalism of the world in which they made their fortune... It’s hard not to root for these guys and the story is all the more bittersweet because we know how it ends.”

The Daily Telegraph
“Engaging and scholarly, confident and compassionate, Chocolate Wars is less a family biography than an impressively thought provoking parable for our times... A vibrant history.” 

Business Times
“Fascinating...Chocolate Wars presents narrative history at its most absorbing, peopled by colourful characters: the true story of the chocolate pioneers, the visions and ideals that inspired them and the mouth-watering concoctions they created... Deborah gives readers an insider look, fleshing out the stories around her family with her familiar competence as a bestselling historian and award winning documentary maker.”

Kirkus
 “A fine pocket history of corporate confectionery... Cadbury has a knack for capturing the driven personalities who launched these [chocolate] empires.” 

Library Journal
“Although written by proud Cadbury kin, the narrative is balanced and fair. This is a well written and well researched look at chocolate and the Quaker business tradition that any food or history buff will enjoy.”

Sunday Times
“Chocolate Wars – clear, readable and richly detailed – is at least as much about Quakers as it is about chocolate... enjoyable.”

Financial Times, November 15, 2010
“Deborah Cadbury’s branch of the Cadbury family wasn’t involved in the chocolate business but she garnered a deep impression from a childhood visit to her cousins’ company and the reader of Chocolate Wars feels they are getting an insider’s view. Her own background as a historian and TV documentary maker means that this book communicates in an episodic and visual style, making what risks being a dull subject gripping as it flips back and forth around the world documenting parallel events in the emergence of the chocolate industry.”

Examiner.com, November 14, 2010
“The 150-year rivalry among the world’s greatest chocolate making families, is told by a descendant of one of the families. Just think what sweetness came out of these families' rivalries, depicted deliciously in this new book.”

 

Boston Globe, November 14, 2010
“Deborah Cadbury begins with a brief description of Quaker aims and humane business practices before moving on through the history of the family business. This takes in the truly exciting race to put Cadbury’s chocolate candy in every mouth, to the exclusion of that made by rival English Quaker firms, Rowntree and Fry, to say nothing of the Swiss Lindt and Nestlé. Her many faceted account takes in technology, distribution, and industrial espionage, advertising and packaging, labor relations and model housing for workers, the role of the firm and its owners in wartime and international expansion.”

 

Gulfnews.com, November 26, 2010
“Engaging and scholarly, Chocolate Wars is less a family biography than an impressively thought-provoking parable for our times.”

 

Los Angeles Times, November 28, 2010
“Fascinating…Read this excellent book.”

 

Philadelphia Inquirer, November 28, 2010
“The inside story of the 150-year rivalry among Cadbury, Hershey, Nestlé, and Mars is a fascinating and luscious tale. Deborah Cadbury, great-great-great-granddaughter of 19th-century chocolate maker John Cadbury, tells it eloquently in Chocolate Wars, drawing the reader into her epic of family and industry with clear love for her subject.”

Christian Science Monitor, December 1, 2010
“[Chocolate Wars] pits idealism against capitalism, religious piety against the forces of greed and cutthroat competition. Though, like great fiction, it defies belief, it’s the true story of our favorite guilty pleasure. Cadbury’s book, like her namesake’s famous sampler, is full of surprises and delights.”

Bnreview.com, December 2010
“This engaging history of the 150-year rivalry among the world's greatest chocolate makers—the English firms Fry, Rowntree, and Cadbury (to which the author, Deborah Cadbury, is an heiress), their European competitors Lindt and Nestlé, and the American upstarts Hershey and Mars—is delightful, especially for its fascinating portrait of the 19th-century success of Quaker capitalism, built quite remuneratively on the ideal that wealth creation entails responsibilities beyond personal gain.”

KREL (Florida talk radio) “The Happy Cook”

“An eye-opening, illuminating book that features a cast of brilliant entrepreneurs…the story gripped me from start to finish.”

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 384 pages
• Publisher: PublicAffairs; 1ST edition (October 19, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1586488201
• ISBN-13: 978-1586488208
• Product Dimensions: 6.1 x 1.4 x 9.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (30 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #646,542 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars A sweet story that won't make you nuts... November 25, 2010

By Peter St Wecker

Format:Hardcover

As a lover of chocolate, I was instantly drawn into this book. This is the story of an English family (the Cadbury's) who strove to reconcile their religion with their growing business. Although Quakerism is discussed in the book, I strongly disagree with the previous reviewer that the book has too much information on the Cadbury's religion. Due to their beliefs, the Cadbury's were left with few options for a vocation in Victorian England. However, in spite of these barriers, they were still able to excel. To understand the Cadbury family you must understand their influences, and Quakerism was certainly a strong force in their life.

In writing this book, Deborah Cadbury seeks to tell the story of both her family's famous chocolate brand, and the rise of a global economy. While there is a fair amount of discussion about Quakerism in the book, this seems to stem from two reasons:

1) To understand the Cadbury's, their competitors, and their business decisions, one needs to understand the world they lived in, including their religion, and

2) Most people who read this book probably won't know much about Quakerism (much less 19th century Quakerism), and so some level of detail is needed.

As Ms. Cadbury points out, "Richard and George Cadbury's entire worldview was shaped by Quaker values." This affected such decisions as advertising (strongly discouraged), sources of cocoa (and the use of slaves), the development of a charitable trust, and key decisions that came about as a result of Quaker pacifism during World War I. Quakerism even had a role on American chocolate maker Milton Hershey. Although not a Quaker himself, he was influenced by the large Quaker presence surrounding his candy shop in Philadelphia.

Overall, I found this book a fascinating story of a family business that grew into a worldwide empire.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating account of chocolate industry January 7, 2011

By Nancy S. Jackson

Format:Hardcover

I received this book for Christmas. I found it to be a fascinating account of the development of the chocolate industry. It discusses the different companies that came into existence all about the same time, their searches for the ideal cocoa and chocolate, their work ethics and beliefs that supported those ethics. I found it interesting that when rich, they worked to better the lives of others - something that Gates and Buffett are doing today. An interesting read.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars `Business was not an end in itself; it was a means to an end.' October 13, 2011

By J. Cameron-Smith TOP 1000 REVIEWER

Format:Hardcover

In writing this book, Deborah Cadbury set out to understand `the journey that took my deeply religious Quaker forebears from peddling tins of cocoa from a pony and trap around Birmingham to this mighty company that reached round the globe.' It's an interesting story, peopled with some fascinating characters, and spans almost 200 years from the beginnings of the business in 1824 to the takeover of the Cadbury chocolate business by Kraft in 2009.

In addition to members of the Cadbury family, the people we meet in the book include Henri Nestlé, who experimented with baby formula before becoming an internationally known chocolate magnate, and Daniel Peter (whose baby daughter Rose benefitted from Nestlé's baby formula) who successfully making a milk chocolate bar after experimenting with milk and chocolate for many years. We also meet Rodolphe Lindt, Domingo Ghiradelli, Milton Hershey and C.J van Houten (inventor of the cocoa press).

In the middle of the 19th century, the cocoa bean was almost invariably consumed as a drink. And not a particularly appealing drink: it was gritty and visibly oily. The first chocolate bar did not appear in Britain until 1847 (made by the Fry brothers) but it wasn't particularly appealing either.

The Cadbury brothers, George and Richard, were the third generation of Cadbury tradesman in Birmingham. Their grandfather Richard Tapper Cadbury had sent his son John to London to learn about the cocoa bean. A generation later, George and Richard had created a chocolate company. The Cadbury family were Quakers, as were the other British chocolate families of Rowntree and Fry, and their focus on worker welfare saw a number of innovative workplace reforms. Under George Cadbury's direction, workers were provided with housing, education and training. There were also medical facilities and pension schemes for employees. In 1878, the Bournbrook estate on the outskirts of Birmingham was acquired by the brothers. The new factory, at what was renamed Bournville, was completed in 1879. There was room for landscaped parks, including rose gardens, and for organised recreation, including cricket.

Cadbury's Dairy Milk chocolate became a household name after its invention in 1905, and mass production began in earnest after World War I. A merger with J S Fry and Sons in 1919 and the development of products such as Cadbury's Milk Tray and then Roses placed Cadbury's at the forefront of world chocolate manufacture.

It's all here in this book: a history of the Cadbury enterprise and of chocolate manufacture during the 19th and 20th centuries. The history involves exploration and innovation and, occasionally, espionage. The hostile takeover by Kraft saw the end of an era, of a Quaker company that had flourished on the principle of altruism and had taken over 180 years to build.

The book is interesting as well because of the information it includes about the role that Quakers played in English business and banking during the 18th and 19th centuries. By the early 19th century, some 4,000 Quakers were running English banks and companies, this was because their rules forbade them from entering Parliament, the Armed Forces and some professions (such as the law). Companies such as Bryant & May (matches), Clark (shoes), Huntley & Palmer (biscuits) and Wedgwood (chinaware) were all significant. In accordance with their own strict standards, the Quakers believed that wealth creation should fund social projects, that quality was paramount and that reckless debt was shameful.

I picked up this book on the basis of another review, and I'm glad that I did. Cadbury's chocolate has been part of my life for over 50 years, but I knew little of the history of the company or of the chocolate making process. This book brings both to life, as well as providing interesting information about the role of Quaker-run companies during the Industrial Revolution and beyond.
I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in the history of chocolate, in aspects of the manufacturing industry during the 19th and 20th centuries and in the growth of advertising. It's sad, too, to see how the appetite for profit has starved notions of social welfare.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith