Who produced the first solid chocolate bar in 1847?

Joseph Fry produced the first modern solid chocolate bar in 1847.

Fry’s company, J. S. Fry & Sons of Bristol, England, discovered that a workable chocolate mixture could be made by combining cocoa powder, sugar and melted cocoa butter. The mixture could then be moulded into a solid bar rather than served only as a drink.

This innovation helped move chocolate from an expensive beverage toward a portable confection. Fry’s chocolate business had already become important in Britain, and its later products included Fry’s Chocolate Cream, introduced in fondly remembered confectionery history.

The claim concerns the first modern solid chocolate bar, not the first chocolate product of any kind. Cacao beverages had existed in Mesoamerica for centuries, and European chocolatiers had produced other chocolate preparations before 1847.