Posted 11 years ago
aghcollect
(2304 items)
This is a 1930's - 1940's era Van Houten's & Zoon Cocoa Powder Tin with paper label made by C.J. Van Houten & Zoon, Inc., New York, NY)
Net Wt 1/2 lb. - tin measures about 3" X 2" by 5 1/4" high - (still half full)
** Coenraad Johannes van Houten (1801, Amsterdam-1887, Weesp) was a Dutch chemist and chocolate maker known for the treatment of cocoa mass with alkaline salts to remove the bitter taste and make cocoa solids more water-soluble; the resulting product is still called "Dutch process" chocolate. He is also credited with introducing a method for pressing the fat (cocoa butter) from roasted cocoa beans, though this was in fact his father's invention. Van Houten's invention was patented in 1828 and was one of the first packaged food products advertised and sold internationally.
The Van Houten Company was sold in 1962 to W.R. Grace and the brand name is still in use today as part of the Stollwerck Chocolate Manufacturing Company, Belgium.