In Brief: Quakers and Chocolate

By Helen Holt. Christian Alternative Books (Quaker Quicks), 2025. 95 pages. $12.95/paperback; $5.99/eBook.

A more worldly fun fact in Quaker history is the connection between several leading British Quaker families and the global chocolate industry. Biographies of various Cadburys and Rowntrees and histories of the Fry, Rowntree, and Cadbury chocolate businesses are not new, but few bring it all together as thoroughly and concisely as Helen Holt’s Quaker Quick Quakers and Chocolate.

The book wonders “how the faith and religious concerns of these three Quaker chocolate families flavored their business decisions and social enterprises.” Following an overview of the chocolate industry, a chronological narrative of the three major chocolate companies provides factual background and highlights business decisions and choices made along the way. One is struck by the family dynamics at play with brothers supporting brothers as they balance business innovations with their own desire to use their privilege to do good.

The four individuals featured—George Cadbury, Joseph Rowntree, Beatrice Boeke, and John Wilhelm Rowntree—include multiple generations impacted by the family business and financial wealth. Some took active leadership roles while others led lives more focused on creating a new world vision (some more radical than others). Each exhibited a need to live a life that speaks.

A list of publications for further reading is available for those wanting more. This quick read especially lends itself as a book study selection with seven compact chapters and much food for thought.

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Gwen Gosney Erickson is Quaker archivist at Guilford College in Greensboro, N.C.