Initially, the Hershey Chocolate Company produced sweet chocolate and cocoa for the flavoring and coating of Hershey’s own caramels. But soon, Hershey began selling his excess product to other confectioners. In fact, the first recorded sale of HERSHEY’S chocolate was on April 17, 1895.

While his new company was marketing more than a hundred different novelty items made of sweet chocolate, Hershey worked unceasingly on perfecting a formula for producing milk chocolate. It was a challenge that was to take years of trial and error to overcome.