confectioner named Daniel Peter used the new
dried milk powder produced by his
countryman Henri Nestlé to make the first
solid milk chocolate. Not only do milk flavors
blend well with chocolate, but the milk
powder dilutes the strong chocolate flavor,
and milk proteins reduce its astringency and
make the taste milder. Today, most chocolate
is now consumed in the form of milk
chocolate. Then in 1878, a Swiss
manufacturer named Rudolphe Lindt invented
the conche, a machine which ground cacao
beans, sugar, and milk powder slowly for
hours and even days, and developed a much
finer consistency than had been possible
before. This is the consistency that we now
take for granted in even the most ordinary
chocolates.
Having contributed so much to the
evolution of modern chocolate, the Swiss are
understandably the world’s champion
chocolate eaters, and have been so for a long
barry
(Barry)
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