History of Chocolate Chip Cookies

The history of chocolate chip cookies dates back to 1933. Ruth Graves Wakefield was running the Toll House Inn in Whitman, Massachusetts when she inadvertently arrived at the chocolate chip cookie.

In her attempt to bake a Butter Drop Do cookie (a cookie that dates back to colonial times) she added a broken up semi-sweet chocolate bar, gifted from Andrew Nestle, to her dough. The recipe actually called for Baker’s chocolate which Ruth did not have. Thinking that the semi-sweet chocolate would melt into the dough making chocolate flavored dough, the cookies came out with chunks of chocolate nestled into golden delicious vanilla based dough. She served them to her guests andthey were a huge hit.
The history of chocolate chip cookies does not stop there. Word spread quickly of Ruth’s new and interesting pastry and she became a local sensation. It was not long before she was filling a lot of chocolate chip cookie orders. When her cookie recipe was printed in a Boston newspaper the chocolate chip cookie became an overnight sensation.

In 1939 Betty Crocker, who was just hitting the domestic celebrity scene, had a national radio spot called “Famous Foods From Famous Eating Places.” She featured Ruth’s Chocolate Chip Cookie on her radio show which spring boarded Ruth and her cookie into the national public eye.

As this was all happening, someone else was taking their rightful place in the history of chocolate chip cookies. Andrew Nestle was reaping the rewards of Ruth’s kitchen blunder by selling record amounts of his semi-sweet chocolate bars. Both Ruth and Andrew realized the potential of their perfect union; his chocolate and her recipe. A deal was struck and Ruth gave Nestle the rights to print her recipe on the backs of his chocolate bars. In return, she merely requested a life time supply of his chocolate so she could continue to make her cookies at the Toll House Inn.

Nestle began scoring his chocolate bars for easier breaking and in time would also come to include a small chopping tool with the chocolate bar. However, 1939 this was all done away with and Nestle began making his chocolate in morsel form and the chocolate chip was born.

As the years went by the chocolate chip cookie evolved and grew in popularity. The Nestle Chocolate Company was enjoying their rights and the profits that came from the Toll House Trademark. However, all good legal agreements must come to an end. Loopholes in the original agreement between Nestle and Wakefield were discovered and in 1983 a federal court ruling took away Nestle’s exclusive right to the Toll House trademark. Toll House is now only a descriptive term for chocolate chip cookies. All in all it really doesn’t matter. It is a beloved cookie by all and Nestle’s role in the history of chocolate chip cookies will never be forgotten.


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