In 1764, John Hannon (alternatively spelled "Hannan" in some sources) and the American physician Dr. James Baker started importing
cocoa beans and producing
chocolate in the
Lower Mills section of
Dorchester, Massachusetts. The original brand name was "Hannon’s Best Chocolate", which was "manufactured for almost fifteen years" and was sold with a money-back guarantee if the consumer was unsatisfied with the product. By 1849 (under Walter Baker), the Baker's Chocolate brand had spread to
California during the
Gold Rush era. Production was limited to one kind of chocolate until 1852, when employee Samuel German created "German's Sweet Chocolate" that had a higher sugar content than previous baking chocolates. In 1957 a Dallas, Texas newspaper printed a cake recipe for "German's Chocolate Cake" based on this chocolate. Subsequent reprints in other newspapers by the company's owner
General Foods named it "
German chocolate cake". Chocolate production steadily increased through the century. The trademark logo of
La Belle Chocolatière was adopted in 1883 by the fourth-generation familial owner,
Henry L. Pierce, step-nephew of Walter Baker. Pierce began advertising Baker's Chocolate heavily in newspapers to increase sales. In 1896, Baker's Chocolate was advertising in around 8,000 newspapers in the United States. The company also advertised using signage and cards in grocery stores, in novels, in street cars and using billboards. Promotional offers of tableware and logo pins helped attract customers. Around the late 1800s, the company began promoting the notion of using chocolate as an ingredient in desserts and for baking. Following Pierce's death in 1896, the Forbes Syndicate bought the company, which they sold In 1927 to the
Postum Cereal Company, later known as
General Foods. In 1966 production moved from Dorchester, Massachusetts to
Dover, Delaware. The company was passed onto
Kraft Foods in 1989 when they acquired General Foods. Baker's is now owned by Kraft Heinz, a company formed by the merger between Kraft Foods and
Heinz. ==Products==