Sarah Foltz, Spring 2024
An urban legend involving Sir Hans Sloane (1660–1753), a collector and physician, has long persisted: Sir Hans Sloane is the inventor of chocolate milk. This legend is still repeated today. Sir Sloane, a physician and collector, left many impacts on the world, and his “invention” of chocolate milk is only one of them.
Drinking chocolate existed in Europe before Sir Hans Sloane. This chocolate was bitter (Cartier, 1700). A pair of The Palmerstone Gold Chocolate Cups, made by Cartier out of mourning bands made for Lady Palmetsonte’s deceased friends, contains the inscription, “DULCIA NON MERUIT QUI NON GUSTAVIT AMARA” meaning “He has not deserved sweet unless he has tasted bitter (Cartier, 1700).” These cups help to establish the bitter nature of chocolate, paralleled with the bitter nature of death. These cups are also representative of similar drinking chocolate cups at the time.
Sir Hans Sloane was born in Northern Ireland. He started his career in Jamaica as a physician to the Governor, the Duke of Albemarle. Sir Sloane was responsible for taking care of enslaved people as more people were enslaved and sent to Europe. Later, he served as a British physician, with notable patients Queen Anne and King George I (Sir Hans Sloane).
While serving as a physician in Jamaica (Delbourgo, 2017), Sir Hans Sloane saw a popular drink being served: cold chocolate with sugar and spices. He thought it was “nauseous” and added milk (Eveleth, 2014). Delbourgo mentions that based on how long this chocolate and milk had existed, Sir Sloane probably was not the first to invent chocolate milk. If he was the first to add milk, he was, at best, modifying an existing recipe (Delbourgo, 2011).
When Sir Hans Sloane returned to Europe, he began selling a version of this chocolate drink with added milk. He claimed this drink was medicinal (Eveleth, 2014). By selling chocolate milk as a medicinal product, Sir Sloane would be given credit for chocolate milk’s invention (Eveleth, 2014). Sir Sloane married Elizabeth Langley Rose, an heiress whose wealth came from sugar plantations (Sir Hans Sloane). Rose’s wealth, combined with Sir Sloane’s income from serving as a physician, allowed Sir Sloane to travel and collect artifacts from the places he visited.
Sir Sloane required that when he died his collections of artifacts and plants were donated to Britain. This collection included 32,000 coins and medals, 50,000 books, prints, and manuscripts, a herbarium of 334 volumes of dried plants, and 1,125 artifacts relating to ancient times (Sir Hans Sloane). These goods became the foundation of the British Museum, British Library, and the Natural History Museum. Sir Sloane required that the general public view these goods for free. Britain, in response, agreed to pay Sir Sloane’s heirs 20,000 pounds (Sir Hans Sloane). This sum amounts to $2,886,735.46 today (1270–2017 Converter, 2024), (Convert from British pound sterling (GBP) to United States dollar (USD)).
As a testament to his influence, both the British Museum and the British Library have a bust of Sir Hans Sloane to this day (Rysbrack, 1756). The statue in the British Library is modeled after the one in the British Museum. This bust was designed shortly before Sir Sloane’s death and was donated to the British Museum upon Sir Sloane’s death by his daughter (Rysbrack, 1756). The British Library has four busts of notable founding donors, which were added when the museum was built. One of the busts is a replica of Sir Hans Sloane's bust in the British Museum. The appropriateness of this bust remaining in the British Museum has been questioned. (British Museum removes statue of slave-owning founder, 2020). This bust remains in the British Museum as of March 2024; however, it is now surrounded by the accounts of enslaved people and what colonialism did to them.
The Cadbury brothers were inspired by Sir Sloane’s recipe, which helped them start their company in 1824 (Price, 2019). Cadbury’s original chocolate recipe was inspired by Sir Sloane’s addition of milk to the Jamaican chocolate drink. This addition of milk allowed Cadbury to create the milk chocolate candies that are still enjoyed today (Price, 2019). Cadbury is now worth six billion USD and is a prominent chocolate producer (Cadbury Brand Value 2023, 2023). The existence of milk chocolate is another facet of Sir Sloane’s legacy.
Sources suggest that Sir Hans Sloane did not invent chocolate milk, but he did play a role in its introduction and popularization in Europe. His donated collections helped contextualize his introduction to chocolate drinks in Jamaica and were key to founding the British Library, the British Museum, and the National History Museum. Sir Sloane also helped inspire the Cadbury brothers to create delicious milk chocolate. His influence has endured, both in our museums and in our refrigerators.
Bibliography
Cadbury Brand Value 2023. Statista. (2023, October 30).
https://www.statista.com/statistics/1337772/cadbury-brand-value/#:~:text=In%202023%2C%20Cadbury%20-%20a%20multinational%20confectionery%20company,contributes%20to%20the%20overall%20value%20of%20a%20corporation.
Cartier, John (1700). The Palmerston Gold Chocolate Cups [Cups]. The British Museum,
Convert from British pound sterling (GBP) to United States dollar (USD). Convert British Pound
Sterling to United States Dollar | GBP to USD Currency Converter. (n.d.). https://themoneyconverter.com/GBP/USD
Delbourgo, J. (2011). Sir Hans Sloane’s Milk Chocolate and the Whole History of the
Cacao. Social Text, 29(1), 71–101. https://doi.org/10.1215/01642472-1210274
Delbourgo, J. (2017). Collecting the World: Hans Sloane and the Origins of the British Museum.
Penguin Books LTD.
Eveleth, R. (2014, February 12). Chocolate milk was invented in Jamaica. Smithsonian.com.
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/chocolate-milk-was-invented-jamaica-180949734/
Guardian News and Media. (2020, August 25). British Museum removes statue of slave-owning
founder. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2020/aug/25/british-museum-removes-founder-hans-sloane-statue-over-slavery-links
The National Archives. (2024, February 13). 1270–2017. Currency converter.
https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/currency-converter/#currency-result
Price, J. (2019a, April 18). Sir Hans Sloane and the story of Chocolate. Britain Magazine.
https://britain-magazine.com/features/sir-hans-sloane-and-chocolate/
Price, J. (2019b, April 18). Sir Hans Sloane and the story of Chocolate. Britain The Official
Rysbrack, John Michael. (1756). Hans Sloane [Bust]. The British Museum, London, United
Kingdom. https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/H_1756-0619-1 (Rysbrack, 1756) Sir Hans Sloane. The British Museum. (n.d.). https://www.britishmuseum.org/about-us/british-museum-story/sir-hans-sloane
Acknowledgments
Funding for this Study Abroad class provided by the UAH Honors College. Thank you to the UAH Honors College for the SAGA grant funding air travel. Thank you to Cheryl and Chuck Foltz for helping to fund this trip.
