Got a note from Nephew John that read, “Chris is baking Christmas cookies and the question of the day is what came first the chocolate chip or Hershey kiss? I am sure you will need to taste the cookies as well and if there are any left I will make sure she sends you some!”
Well, you’re probably already thinking the same thing I am – IF there are any left doesn’t instill a lot of confidence that I’ll be getting any. Obviously any nephew in awe of his uncle would have said, I’ll be sure that some are on their way to you as soon as they come out of the oven – sigh – it just seems to be all about me with this younger crowd….
Anyhow, he does pose an interesting question and I know the answer without resorting to my extensive research. When Kelly and David were young, we took them to Hershey Park, and I learned more than I ever wanted to know about Hershey’s chocolate, and being a big fan of chocolate chip cookies, I’m very familiar with the history of chocolate chips.
It’s interesting that both of the items asked about are products of names that you still see on the shelves in stores – Hershey and Nestlé.
To go back a ways, the Mayan civilization (at least the rich people) consumed a chocolate drink made from Cacao beans. It wasn’t until 1847 that Joseph Fry discovered a way to create a paste that could be pressed into molds. Until then, people drank chocolate and didn’t “eat” it.
Some people believe that the first chocolate bar was invented by the Cadbury Chocolate Company in England, but probably Joseph Fry did it first.
Anyhow, let’s just say that around about 1847, we had chocolate bars. It wasn’t until 1933 that someone came up with chocolate chip cookies. That someone was Ruth Graves Wakefield that worked in the Toll House Inn in Whitman, Massachusetts. Ms. Wakefield took a Nestlé chocolate bar and cut up little chunks, and added it to her cookie dough. Well, needless to say, the cookies were a big hit.
(Ms. Wakefield made an agreement with Nestlé to add her recipe to the wrapper of the chocolate bar in exchange for a lifetime supply of chocolate.) In 1939 Nestlé started selling the chocolate in chip, or “morsel” form to save people the trouble of chopping up the bars. (You’ve probably already figured out that Toll House cookies were named for the Inn where Ruth worked.)
So what about the Hershey kiss? Hershey introduced the Hershey Kiss in 1907. So the kiss was around more than 30 years before the chocolate chip. Sure seems like someone should have come up with the idea sooner – after all if you sit a kiss and a chip side by side the kiss just looks like a chip on steroids. In fact, I’m guessing that if you used Hershey kisses for chocolate chips and made the cookie proportionally bigger, you’d have a really good thing – probably couldn’t eat more than two or three. Someone once said,there are two kinds of people in the world – those who love chocolate, and communists. That’s probably true, but not important now – I’ll be on the porch waiting for the delivery from Chris and John.
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