Cadbury launched Dairy Milk in 1905, helping popularize milk chocolate in Britain.
The bar was developed by the Cadbury company, founded by John Cadbury in Birmingham in 1824. Its recipe used a higher proportion of milk than many earlier chocolate products, giving it a notably creamy taste.
Dairy Milk became one of Cadbury's best-known products and remains strongly associated with the brand. The bar is sometimes described as the first milk-chocolate bar, but milk chocolate products existed before 1905; Cadbury's achievement was making this style highly popular and commercially successful.
Cadbury later expanded the range with products such as Whole Nut, Fruit & Nut, and Caramel. Kraft Foods acquired Cadbury in 2010, and Mondelez International became its owner in 2012.