The Emperors of Chocolate – Joel Glenn Brenner

Non-Fiction
Softcover from Amazon - $10.85
Extra Super Nerdy Distinction!

Buy it if: Like chocolate or not, you’re a sucker for a charming business profile

Don’t buy it if: No way, no how do you care about business of any kind. And you’re lactose intolerant to boot…

I love chocolate, I really do. Dark chocolate, milk chocolate, white chocolate…it’s really one of the world’s most fantastic substances. Surprisingly, I never considered this when I purchased a house so near two of the world’s most influential chocolate makers. With Hershey being just across the Susquehanna River and Mars near my old DC haunt in northern Virginia, I’m ideally located for sweet gorging. I knew that. What I didn’t know was the rich and vibrant history of these companies. And the strikingly different stories that lie behind their respective creations.

Yet, despite my admitted naïvete, I’m no longer blindly perusing the candy aisle with no sense of the deep history I’m strolling past. In The Emperors of Chocolate, author Joel Glenn Brenner tells the parallel tales of Hershey and Mars with encompassing profiles of each business and its values, while including some of the most fascinating details you’ll ever find in a business profile. Not since Roald Dahl has there been such richly told story of candy.

Admittedly, Brenner has been gifted a great cast of characters. Mars plays the vast, Microsoft-style empire, quietly dominating industries you’d never even suspect it owns (kitty litter?!) from the quiet little town of McClean, Virginia. Meanwhile, Milton Hershey’s little experiment careens wildy with Wonka-like flair - the Apple to Mars’ Microsoft - eschewing traditional business schemes for philanthropy and parks. (Hershey Park used to be just that, a park for Hershey employees to enjoy during their free time.) There’s even a company funded Hershey school for boys that could be (and probably is) the subject of a book itself.

As The Emperors of Chocolate explores the vastly different roots and philosophies of these companies with dueting, call and response-style chapters, it also carefully weaves in the rest of the chocolate-making world for context. Nestle, Cadbury and the others make appearances when appropriate and help set a very useful context for the discussions that follow. Even with the focus squarely on Mars and Hershey, it’s difficult to avoid becoming enamored with the asides pertaining to world chocolate supplies and the difference between American and European pallets. (Just ask a Londoner their opinion of the Hershey flavor, you’ll see!) It’s easy to forget what a common human experience chocolate is, and as such, one that nearly everybody has an opinion on. But oh how those opinions vary! Without a doubt, once Brenner’s through with you you’ll never taste chocolate the same way again, and in this case, that’s a very good thing.

But this work really succeeds thanks to its infusions of drama and character. In my opinion, the measure of a truly great business profile is found in the enchanting details, the small facts that lodge themselves in your brain, only to reappear months later in the oddest of contexts. The Emperors of Chocolate delivers these in spades. Admittedly, more of the vignettes are Hershey-centric, but that is mainly due to the unbelievable secrecy that has traditionally surrounded the Mars company, a veil that is rarely lifted even today and a circumstance, that ironically, makes the company all the more fascinating. Hershey, on the other hand, continually delivers charm and joy at nearly every turn, and some bits are just plain fun. Did you know Milton Hershey’s mother personally wrapped Kisses in foil by hand on her front porch until the day she died. How cool is that?

Brenner’s economy of words packs a lot into a little space and this one of the few business profiles that I think ‘goes mainstream.’ Even if such reading material is not normally your cup of tea, this one absolutely deserves a shot. It’s tough not to be captivated by these vastly different companies, dueling for the same market, and the author delivers the goods in chapter after chapter with a terrific writing style. Highly recommended, whether you prefer milk, dark or even with almonds…