A Hershey chocolate bar. The Hershey Company is one of the largest chocolate manufacturers in the world.
Many chocolate manufacturers have created products from chocolate bars to fudge, hoping to attract more consumers with each creation. Hershey and Mars have become the largest manufacturers in the world.[citation needed] Other large manufacturers include Nestl, Kraft Foods and Lindt.
The Hershey Company, known for their Hershey bar, Hershey's Kisses and Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, is the largest chocolate manufacturer in North America.[83] Mars, Incorporated, one of the largest privately owned U.S. corporations, is a worldwide manufacturer of confectionery and other food products, with US$21billion in annual sales in 2006. Mars is known for Mars Bar, Milky Way, M&M's, Twix and Snickers, as well as other confectionery items, such Skittles.
Food conglomerates Nestl SA and Kraft Foods both have chocolate brands. Nestl acquired Rowntree's in 1988 and now market chocolates under their own brand, including Smarties and Kit Kat; Kraft Foods through its 1990 acquisition of Jacobs Suchard, now own Milka and Suchard. In February 2010, Kraft also acquired British-based Cadbury plc, the world's largest confectionery manufacturer.[84] Cadbury is well known for its Dairy Milk range and Creme Egg; Fry's, Trebor Basset, the fair-trade brand Green & Black's also belong to the group.
The chocolate industry, a steadily growing, $50 billion-a-year worldwide business centered on the sale and consumption of chocolate, is prevalent on five out of seven continents.[85] Big Chocolate, as it is also called, is essentially an oligopoly between major international chocolate companies in Europe and the U.S. These U.S. companies, such as Mars and Hersheys alone, generate $13 billion a year in chocolate sales and account for two-thirds of U.S. manufacturers.[86] However, Europe accounts for 45% of the world's chocolate revenue.[87]
Chocolate is one of the most popular holiday gifts. The International Chocolate Day is observed on September 13.[88] On Valentine's Day, a box of chocolates is traditional, usually presented with flowers and a greeting card. It may be given on other holidays, and birthdays. At Easter, chocolate eggs are traditional. This is a confectionery made primarily of chocolate, and can either be solid, hollow, or filled with other sweets or fondant. Many confectioners make holiday-specific chocolate candies, usually variants of their standard fare.
Chocolate has been the center of several successful book and film adaptations. In 1964, Roald Dahl published a children's novel titled Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. The novel centers on a poor boy named Charlie Bucket who takes a tour through the greatest chocolate factory in the world, owned by Willy Wonka. Two film adaptations of the novel were produced. The first was Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, a 1971 film which later became a cult classic. Thirty-four years later, a second film adaptation was produced, titled Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. The 2005 film was very well received by critics[89] and was one of the highest grossing films that year, earning over US$470,000,000 worldwide.[90] Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was also recognized at the 78th Academy Awards, where it was nominated for Best Costume Design for Gabriella Pesucci.[91]
Like Water for Chocolate (Como agua para chocolate), a 1989 love story by novelist Laura Esquivel, was adapted to film in 1992. The plot incorporates magical realism with Mexican cuisine, and the title is a double entendre in its native language, referring both to a recipe for hot chocolate and to an idiom that is a metaphor for sexual arousal. The film earned 11 Ariel Awards from the Academia Mexicana de Artes y Ciencias Cinematogrficas, including Best Picture.
Chocolat, a 1999 novel by Joanne Harris, tells the story of Vianne Rocher, a young mother, whose confections change the lives of the townspeople. The 2000 film adaptation, Chocolat, also proved successful, grossing over US$150,000,000 worldwide,[92] and receiving Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations for Best Picture, Best Actress, and Best Original Score.[93][94]
Chocolate also features in a large number of other literary works, often in a role central to the plot such as JoAnna Carl's Chocoholic Mysteries series and Toby Moore's Death by Chocolate.
The text was was derived from the Chocolate page on Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. It is for educational use in COSC 101, Intro to Computing I, at Colgate University.