Analysis of information sources in references of the Wikipedia article "J. S. Fry & Sons" in English language version.
et certains la considèrent comme la première tablette industrielle (oubliant celle de Menier en 1836)[and some consider it the first industrial tablet (forgetting that of Menier in 1836)]
There is no way of exactly dating the birth of the chocolate confection [...] With the addition of sugar this began the production of what are called modern chocolates. Many people take it to mean that solid chocolate was not eaten before Van Houten's time, but as the preceding paragraph has shown, this is not so.
It is not known when eating chocolate was first sold in Britain. It appeared on Cadbury's price list in 1842, but the firm advertised only one brand and that appeared to have been imported from France as it was listed as 'French Eating Chocolate'.
and by 1847 Fry's were marketing 'Chocolat Délicieux à Manger'
However, Fry's experimented with eating chocolate, copying French assortments and producing 'chocolate creams' [...] Sales of eating chocolate rose from about ten tonnes in 1852 to over 1,100 tonnes in 1880
Chocolat à manger is a preparation of chocolate, originally French, made up with sugar into small long cakes for eating.
Unless chocolate contains about 25 per cent. of cacao-butter it cannot be moulded. A mixture of equal amounts of sugar and cacao beans would provide the necessary proportion of cacao-butter, but would result in a chocolate too bitter to suit the public taste. By replacing a portion of the cacao beans by cacao-butter a more palatable eating chocolate can be obtained. Although a comparatively modern process the exact date of its introduction is unknown, but eating chocolate was sold by Fry & Sons in 1847, and by Cadbury Bros. in 1849.
The inventor of chocolate is unknown, but Fry's sold a 'chocolat délicieux à manger' in 1847 and Cadbury Brothers were selling a similar product two years later.
In 1847, Fry's made the first molded chocolate eating bar by removing excess cocoa butter, then slowly adding it back into the melted chocolate
Fry's Cream Stick was the first mass-manufactured chocolate candy, in 1853, and was then relaunched in modern bar form in 1866 as Fry's Chocolate Cream.
