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“Mass chocolate consumption hit the United States in the late 1800s when Milton S. Hershey began selling chocolate-coated caramels. He then developed his own formula for milk chocolate, purchased chocolate factory equipment and introduced mass-produced chocolate bars and other shapes, like Hershey's Kisses, in 1900.” https://www.livescience.com/61754-chocolate-facts.html
“Americans weren’t responsible for one of chocolate’s biggest advances, Snyder writes. Advertisements for “solid eating chocolate” appear in mid-1800s newspapers, he writes, but the chocolates “were not well received by the public because of their coarse and gritty texture.” Swiss innovators developed the first appealing eating chocolate in the 1870s, and the rest was history.” https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/brief-history-chocolate-united-states-180964827/