The arrival of Easter has been associated with eggs for centuries, but it was a Bristol chocolate company that first came up with the bright idea to make them out of cocoa.
Until J S Fry and Sons created the very first hollow chocolate Easter egg in 1873, the custom in Britain was for people to give each other boiled and brightly painted hen’s eggs. A tradition believed to date back to Pagan times and the welcoming of spring, the eggs had become a symbol of the end of Lent in the Christian calendar.
Apparently solid chocolate eggs had already been made in Germany and France, but the experts at Fry’s hit on a surefire secret recipe to make them hollow inside. Their method involved mixing cocoa fat with cocoa powder and sugar to make a smooth paste that could be poured into moulds and would set firmly.
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The Fry’s eggs were so successful that rivals Cadbury copied the idea two years later, paving the way for countless more imitations and an enduring global tradition. It was no accident that Fry’s were the innovators in the field; they had, after all, already been delighting customers with their chocolate treats for more than a century.
Joseph Fry, a liberal and pacifist Quaker, bought an apothecary’s shop at Small Street, Bristol back in 1759, where he sold drinking chocolate - a custom already well established across Europe and London, where “chocolate houses” were the height of fashion. With partner John Vaughan, he began experimenting with the refining process at the original Fry’s factory in the heart of Bristol, between Union Street and The Pithay. They even patented a new way of grinding imported cocoa beans using steam power.
The business went through several name changes and partnerships before Joseph’s son, Joseph Storrs Fry took sole control of the business and established JS Fry and Sons as the largest chocolate company in the UK. By the mid 1800s his sons Francis and Richard had taken control and were eager to keep growing.
In 1847 they came up with the first solid “eating” chocolate. Eighteen years later they started producing the world’s first mass-produced chocolate bars, a dreamy concoction of firm dark chocolate filled with soft fondant cream that is still known and loved as Fry’s Chocolate Cream. Dozens of different products, from coated bars to boxes of individual filled chocolates, spilled out of the production line over the decades, spurred on from the late 1890s by chairman Joseph Storrs II, the original Joseph’s great grandson, and by the turn of the century the firm was one of Bristol’s biggest employers.
Following Joseph Storr II’s death in 1913, and the introduction of the world-famous Fry’s Turkish Delight a year later, the company merged with former rivals Cadbury in 1919. Four years later they were fast outgrowing their city factory and a new one was built and opened six miles away at Somerdale, Keynsham.
The Fry's name thrived. It was synonymous with delicious chocolate and boasted a royal seal of approval. In the 1930s the company even had its own show train that travelled the country promoting its wares, and pioneered the use of aeroplanes for quick delivery around the country.
Generations of Bristol families produced Fry’s and Cadbury’s chocolate treats - like Chocolate Cream, Turkish Delight, Curly Wurly, Crunchie - at the Keynsham building until it closed its doors in 2011. Bought out by Kraft Foods, who had originally agreed to keep the factory open, chocolate production was transferred to Poland, putting more than 500 local people out of work.
The site has since undergone a £60m redevelopment, but its historic origins haven’t been forgotten. It emerged as The Chocolate Quarter, a luxury retirement village with apartments, a care home, spa, gym and swimming pool.
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