Food manufacturing has been a cornerstone of Brooklyn’s manufacturing economy for 150 years. Not only was the borough was home to some of the largest chocolate and confectionary makers in the country, but its port brought the tropical ingredients from around the globe. We will discuss some of the large and small chocolate makers that dotted Brooklyn’s landscape, the men and women who worked in them, and the transformations brought to the industry by mechanization, unionization, and war. We will also look at some of the artisanal chocolate makers that are keeping the confectionary traditions alive today.
- The Easter Bunny Goes to War
- The 1919 Brooklyn Chocolate Flood
- Jacques Torres Chocolate
- “Brooklyn’s JoMart Chocolates” (New York Times)
- “Mexican Family Gives Brooklyn Mole Poblano Flavor” (Brooklyn Daily Eagle)
- History of the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco, and Grain Millers International Union
- Chocolate Manufacturing in World War I (National Archives)
- “Origin of a Dish: Brooklyn Blackout Cake” (Sarah Lohman)
- “City OK with Loss of Cocoa Port” (Brooklyn Paper)
- MRE & Ration Reviews (YouTube)
