Chapter 4 of Cocoa and Chocolate. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. This reading by Allison Hester of Athens, Georgia. Cocoa and Chocolate. Their history from plantation to consumer by Arthur W. Chapter 4. When one starts to discuss, however briefly, the producing areas, one ought first to take off one's hat to Ecuador for so long the principal producer, and then to Venezuela, the land of the original cocaio, and producer of the finest Criollo type. Having done this, one ought to say words of praise to Trinidad, Granada, and Ceylon for their scientific methods of culture and preparation. And last but not least, the newest and greatest producer, the Gold Coast, should receive honorable mention. It is interesting to note that in 1918, British possessions produced nearly half, 44% of the world's supply. Whilst the war has not very materially hindered the increase of cocaio production in the tropics, the shortage of shipping has prevented the amount exported from maintaining a steady rise. The table below, taken mainly from the Gordian, illustrates this. World production of cocaio, total in tons, one ton equals 1,000 kilograms, 1908, 194,000, 1909, 206,000, 1910, 220,000, 1911, 241,000, 1912, 234,000, 1913, 258,000, 1914, 277,000, 1915, 298,000, 1916, 297,000, 1917, 343,000, 1918, 273,000, 1919, 431,000. The following table is compiled chiefly from Montseur's Theo Vassmer and Company's reports in the Confectioners Union. Cocaio production of the chief producing areas of the world, one ton equals 1,000 kilograms, Gold Coast, 1914, 53,000, 1915, 77,300, 1916, 72,200, 1917, 91,000, 1918, 66,300, Brazil, 1914, 40,800, 1915, 45,000, 1916, 43,700, 1917, 55,600, 1918, 41,900, Ecuador, 1914, 47,200, 1915, 37,000, 1916, 42,700, 1917, 47,200, 1918, 38,000, San Tomé, 1914, 31,400, 1915, 29,900, 1916, 33,200, 1917, 31,900, 1918, 26,600, Trinidad, 1914, 28,400, 1915, 24,100, 1916, 24,000, 1917, 31,800, 1918, 26,200, San Domingo, 1914, 20,700, 1915, 20,200, 1916, 21,000, 1917, 23,700, 1918, 18,800 tons. Venezuela, 1914, 16,900, 1915, 18,300, 1916, 15,200, 1917, 13,100, 1918, 13,000, Lagos, 1914, 4900, 1915, 9100, 1916, 9000, 1917, 15,400, 1918, 10,200, Granada, 1914, 6,100, 1915, 6,500, 1916, 5,500, 1917, 5,500, 1918, 6,700, Fernando Poe, 1914, 3,100, 1915, 3,900, 1916, 3,800, 1917, 3700, 1918, 4,200 tons. Ceylon, 1914, 2900, 1915, 3900, 1916, 3500, 1917, 3700, 1918, 4000, Jamaica, 1914, 3800, 1915, 3600, 1916, 3400, 1917, 2800, 1918, 3000, Suriname, 1914, 1900, 1915, 1700, 1916, 2000, 1917, 1900, 1918, 2500 tons. Cameroons, 1914, 1200, 1915, 2400, 1916, 3000, 1917, 2800, 1918, 1300, Haiti, 1914, 2100, 1915, 1800, 1916, 1900, 1917, 1500, 1918, 2300, French colonies, 1914, 1800, 1915, 1900, 1916, 1600, 1917, 2200, 1918, 1700 tons. Cuba, 1914, 1800, 1915, 1700, 1916, 1500, 1917, 1500, 1918, 1000 tons. Java, 1914, 1600, 1915, 1500, 1916, 1500, 1917, 1600, 1918, 800, Samoa, 1914, 1100, 1915, 900, 1916, 900, 1917, 1200, 1918, 800, Togo, 1914, 200, 1915, 300, 1916, 400, 1917, 1600, 1918, 1000, St. Lucia, 1914, 700, 1915, 800, 1916, 700, 1917, 600, 1918, 500, Belgian Congo, 1914, 500, 1915, 600, 1916, 800, 1917, 800, 1918, 900, Dominica, 1914, 450, 1915, 550, 1916, 300, 1917, 300, 1918, 300, St. Vincent, 1914, 100, 1915, 100, 1916, 75, 1917, 50, 1918, 75.  In the map of South America, given on page 89, the principal Cacaio producing areas are marked. Their production in 1918 was as follows. Cacaio beans exported. Brazil, 41,865 metric tons. Percentage of the world's production, 15.4. Ecuador, 38,000 metric tons. Percentage of the world's production, 14. Venezuela, 13,000 metric tons. Percentage of the world's production, 5. Suriname, 2,468 metric tons. Percentage of the world's production, 9 tenths. British Guiana, 20 metric tons. Percentage of the world's production, 100. South American total, 93,353 tons. Percentage of world's population, 35.31%. Ecuador. Arriba and Machela Cacaos. In Ecuador for many years, the chief producing area of the world, dwell the Cacaio kings. Men who possess very large and wild Cacaio boarists, each containing several million Cacaio trees. The method of culture is primitive, and no artificial manures are used. Yet, for several generations, the trees have given good crops, and the soil remains as fertile as ever. The two principal Cacaos are known as Arriba and Machela, or clasped together as Guayaquil, after the city of that name. Guayaquil, the commercial metropolis of the Republic of Ecuador, is an ancient and picturesque city built almost astride the equator. Despite the unscientific cultural methods, and the imperfect fermentation, which results in the Cacaio containing a high percentage of unfermented beans, and not infrequently moldy beans also, this Cacaio is much appreciated in Europe and America, for the beans are large and possess a fine strong flavor and characteristic scented aroma. The amount of Guayaquil Cacaio exported in 1919 was 33,209 tons. An interesting experiment was made in 1912, when a protective association known as the Asociación de Agricultores del Ecuador was legalized. This collects half a golden dollar on every 100 pounds of Cacaio, and by purchasing and storing Cacaio on its own account, whenever prices fall below a reasonable minimum, attempts in the planter's interest to regulate the selling price of Cacaio. Unfortunately, as Cacaio tends to go moldy when stored in a damp tropical climate, the Asociación is not an unmixed blessing to the manufacturer and consumer. Brazil, Pará, and Bahia Cacaos. Brazil has made marked progress in recent years, and has now overtaken Ecuador in quantity of produce. The Cacaio, however, is quite different from, and not as fine as, that from Guayaquil. The principal Cacaio comes from the state of Bahia, where the climate is ideal for its cultivation. Indeed, so perfect are the natural conditions that formerly no care was taken in Cacaio production, and much of that gathered was wild and uncured. During the last decade, there has been an improvement, and this would, doubtless, be more noteworthy if the means of transport were better. For at present, the roads are bad, and the railways inadequate. Hence, most of the Cacaio is brought down to the city of Bahia in canoes. Nevertheless, Bahia Cacaio is better fermented than the peculiar Cacaio of Pará, another important Cacaio from Brazil, which is appreciated by manufacturers on account of its mild flavor. Bahia exported in 1919 about 51,000 tons of Cacaio. Venezuela Caracas Carupano Maracaibo Cacaios Venezuela has been called the classic home of Cacaio, and had not the chief occupation of its inhabitants been revolution, it would have retained till now the important position it held a hundred years ago. It is in this enchanted country that the finest Cacaio in the world is produced, the Criolo, the bean with the golden brown break. The tree which produces this is as delicate as the Cacaio is fine, and there is some danger that this superb Cacaio may die out, a tragedy which every connoisseur would wish to avert. The Gordian estimates that Venezuela sent out from her three principal ports in 1919 some 16,226 tons of Cacaio. In the map of South America, the principal West Indian islands producing Cacaio are marked. Their production in 1918 was as follows, Cacaio beans exported, Trinidad, British, 26,177 metric tons, percentage of the world's production 9.7, San Domingo, 18,839 metric tons, 7% of the world's production. Grenada, British, 6,704 metric tons, 2.5% of the world's production. Jamaica, British, 3,000 metric tons, 1.1% of the world's production. Haiti, 2,272 metric tons, 8 tenths of a percent of the world's production. St. Lucia, British, 500 metric tons, 2 tenths of a percent of the world's population. Dominica, British, 300 metric tons, 1 tenth of a percent of the world's production. St. Vincent, British, 70 metric tons, 2 hundredths of a percent of the world's production. West Indies total, 57,862 tons, 21.42% British West Indies, 36,751 tons, 13.6% Trinidad and Grenada Cacaio was grown in the West Indies in the 17th century, and the inhabitants, after the destructive blast, which utterly destroyed the plantations in 1727, bravely replanted Cacaio, which has flourished there ever since. The Cacaios of Trinidad and Grenada have long been known for their existence, and it is mainly from Trinidad that the knowledge of methods of scientific cultivation and preparation has been spread to planters all around the equator. The Cacaio from Trinidad, famous alike for its Cacaio and its pitch lake, has always held a high place in the markets of the world, although a year or two ago, the inclusion of inferior Cacaio and the practice of claying was abused by a few growers and merchants. With the object of stopping these abuses and of producing a uniform Cacaio, there was formed a Cacaio Planters Association, whose business it is to grade and bulk and sell on a cooperative basis the Cacaio produced by its members. This experiment has proved successful, and in 1918 the association handled the Cacaio from over 100 estates. We may expect to see more of these Cacaio Planters Associations formed in various parts of the world, for they are in line with the trend of the times towards large and ever larger unions and combinations. Trinidad is also progressive in its system of agricultural education and in its formation of agricultural credit societies. The neighboring island of Granada is mountainous, smaller than the Isle of White, and, if the Irish will forgive me, greener than Aaron's Isle. The methods of Cacaio cultivation in vogue there might seem natural to the British farmer, but they are considered remarkable by Cacaio Planters, for in Granada the soil on which the trees grow is forked or tilled. Possibly from this follows the equally remarkable corollary that the Cacaio trees flourish without a single shade tree. The preparation of a bean receives as much care as the cultivation of the tree, and the Cacaio, which comes from the estates, has an unverified constancy of quality, not infrequently giving 100% of perfectly prepared beans. It is largely due to this that the Cacaio from this small island occupies such an important position on the London market. The Cacaio from San Zamingo is known commercially as Samana or Sanchez. A fair proportion is of inferior quality and is little appreciated on the European markets. The bulk of it goes to America. The production in 1919 was about 23,000 tons. In the map of Africa, the principal producing areas are marked. Their production in 1918 was as follows. Cacaio beans exported. Gold Coast, British, 66,343 metric tons, 24.5% of the world's production. San Tomé, 19,185 metric tons, 7.1% of the world's population. Lagos, British, 10,223 metric tons, 3.8% of the world's production. Fernando Poe, 4,220 metric tons, 1.6% of the world's production. Cameroons, 1,250 metric tons, 0.4% of the world's production. Togo, 1,000 metric tons, 0.4% of the world's production. Belligen Congo, 875 metric tons, 0.3% of the world's production. African Total, 103,096 tons, 38.1% of the world's production. British Africa, 76,566 tons, 28.3% of the world's production. The Gold Coast, Acre Cacaio. The name recalls stories of a romantic and awful past in which gold and the slave trade played their terrible part. Happily, these things are of the past. So is the deadly climate. We are told that it is now no worse than that of the other tropical countries. According to Sir Hugh Clifford, until recently, Governor of the Gold Coast, the West African climatic bogey is a myth, and the monumental reputation for unhealthiness, undeserved. When Dave Kandoli wrote concerning Cacaio, I imagine it would succeed on the Guinea Coast. As the West African Coast is sometimes called, he achieved prophecy, but he little dreamed how wonderful the success would be. The rise and growth of the Cacaio growing industry in the Gold Coast is one of the most extraordinary developments of the last few decades. In 30 years it has increased its export of Cacaio from nothing to 40% of the total of the world's production. Production of Cacaio on the Gold Coast, year 1891, quantity 0 tons, 80 pounds, value in pounds 4, 1896, 34 tons, value in pounds 2,276, 1901, 980 tons, value in pounds 42,837, 1906, 8,975 tons, value in pounds 336,269, 1911, 30,798 tons, value in pounds 1,613,468, 1916, 72,161 tons, value in pounds 3,847,720, 1917, 90,964 tons, value in pounds 3,146,851, 1918, 66,343 tons, value in pounds 1,796,985, 1919, 177,000 tons, value in pounds 8 million. The conditions of production in the Gold Coast present a number of features entirely novel. We hear from time to time of concessions being granted in tropical regions to this or that company of enterprising European capitalists who employ a few Europeans and send them to the area to manage the industry. The inhabitants of the area become the manual wage earners of the company and too often in the lust for profits or as an offering to the God of commercial efficiency the once easy and free life of the native is lost forever and a form of wage slavery takes its place with doubtful effects on the life and health of the workers. In defense it is pointed out that yet another portion of the earth has been made productive which without the initiative of European capitalists must have lain follow. But in the Gold Coast the indolent native has created a new industry entirely native owned and in 30 years the Gold Coast has outstripped all the areas of the world in quantity of produce. 40 years ago the natives had never seen a cacaio tree. Now at least 50 million trees flourish in the colony. This could not have happened without the strenuous efforts of the Department of Agriculture. The Gold Coast now stands head and shoulders above any other producing area for quantity. The problem of the future lies in the improvement of quality and difficult though this problem be we cannot doubt given a fair chance that the far-sighted and energetic agricultural department will solve it. Indeed it must injustice be pointed out that already a very marked improvement has been made and now 50 to 100 times as much good fermented cacaio is produced as there was 10 years ago. However if the high standard is to be maintained the work of the Department of Agriculture must be supplemented by the willingness of the cacaio buyers to pay a higher price for the better qualities. The phenomenal growth of this industry is the more remarkable when we consider the lack of roads and beasts of burden the usual pack animals horses and oxen cannot live on the Gold Coast because of the tetsy fly which spreads amongst them the sleeping sickness. And so the native used as he is to heavy head loads naturally adopted this as his first method of transport and hundreds of the less affluent natives arrive at the collecting centers with great weights of cacaio on them. Their heads women and children light hearted chattering and cheerful bear their 60 pounds head loads with infinite patients. Heavier loads approaching sometimes 200 weight are born by grave silent Hossam in often a distance of over 30 or 40 miles. One day not so many years ago some more ingenious natives in the hills at the back of the coast filled an old palm barrel with cacaio and rolled it down the ways to Acra. And now today it is a familiar sight to see a man trundling a huge barrel of cacaio weighing half a ton down to the coast. The sound of a motor horn is heard and he wildly turns the barrel aside to avoid a disastrous collision with the new weird transport animal from Europe. Motor lorries have been used with great effect on the coast for some seven years. They have the advantage over pack animals that they do not succumb to the bite of the dreaded tetsy fly. But nevertheless it not a few derelicts lie or stand on their heads in the ditches the victims of overwork or accident. Having brought the cacaio to the coast there yet remains the lighter edge to the ocean liner which lies anchored some two miles from the shore rising and falling to the great rollers from the broad Atlantic. A long boat is used manned by some 20 swarthy natives who glory vocally in their passage through the dangerous surf which roars along the sloping beach. The cacaio is piled high on wood racks and covered with tarpulins and seldom shares the fate of passengers and crew who are often drenched in the surf before they swing by a crane in the primitive mammy chair. High but not dry on board the hospitable elder dimster line. Santome. We now turn from the gold coast and the success of native ownership to another part of West Africa a scene of singular beauty where the Portuguese planters have triumphed over savage nature. Two lovely islands Santome and its little sister Isle of Príncipe lie right on the equator in the Gulf of Guinea about 200 miles from the African mainland. A warm lazy sea the sea of the doldrums sapphire or turquoise or in deep shaded pools a radiant green joyfully foams itself away against these fairy lands of tossing palm dense vegetation rushing cascades and purple precipitous peaks. A soil of volcanic origin is covered with rich humus of decaying vegetation and this with a soft humid atmosphere makes an ideal home for cacaio. The bean introduced in 1822 was not cultivated with diligence till 50 years ago. Today the two islands which together have not half the area of Surrey grow 32,000 metric tons of cacaio a year or about one-tenth of the world's production. The income of a single planter once a poor peasant has amounted to hundreds of thousands of sterling. Dotted over the islands here nestling on a mountainside there overlooking some blue inlet of the sea are more than 200 plantations or rocas whose buildings look like islands in a green sea of cacaio shrubs above which rise the grey stems of such forest trees as have been left to afford shade. Here not only have the cultivation, fermentation and drying of cacaio been brought to the highest state of perfection but the details of organization. Planters homes, hospitals, cottages, drying sheds and decaviel railways are often models of their kind. Intelligent and courteous the planters make delightful hosts at their homes 5000 miles away from Europe. The visitor who knows what it means to struggle with steaming virgin forests, rank encroaching vegetation, deadly fevers and the physical and mental inertia engineered by the tropics will marvel at the courage and energy that have triumphed over such obstacles. Calculating from various estimates each laborer in the islands appears to produce about 1640 pounds of cacaio yearly and the average yield per cultivated acre is 480 pounds or about 30 pounds more than that of Trinidad in 1898. There is no available labor in Santo May. The planters get their workers from the mainland of Africa. Prior to the year 1908 the labor system of the island was responsible for grave abuses. This has now been changed. Natives from the Portuguese colonies of Angola and Mozambique now enter freely into contracts ranging from one to five years, two years being the time generally chosen. At the end of their term of work they either re-contract or return to their native land with their savings, with which they generally buy a wife. The readiness with which the natives volunteer for the work on the islands is proof both of the soundness of the system of contract and of the good treatment they receive at the hands of the planters. Unfortunately the mortality of the plantation labors has generally been very heavy. One large and well managed estate recording on average of 7 years an annual death rate of 148 per thousand and many rocas still have more appalling records. Against this, other plantations only a few miles away may show a mortality approximating to that of an average European city. In February 1918 the workers in Santomé number 39,605 and the deaths during the previous year 1917 were 1,808, thus showing on official figures an annual mortality of 45 per thousand. Comparing this with the 26 per thousand of Trinidad and remembering that most of the Santomé laborers are in the prime of life, it will be seen that this death rate represents a heavy loss of life and justifies the continued demand from the British cocoa manufacturers for the appointment and report of a special medical commission. The Portuguese government is prepared to meet this demand for it has recently sent a commissioner, Dr. Jo Quim Guaiva to Santomé to make a thorough examination of labor conditions including work, food, housing, hospitals and medical attendance and to report fully and confidentially to the Portuguese colonial secretary. If this important staff is followed by adequate measures of reform there is every reason to hope that the result will be a material reduction in the death rate as the good health enjoyed on some of the rocas shows Santomé to be not more unhealthy than other tropical islands. Cameroons The Cameroons which we took from the Germans in 1916 is also on the west coast of Africa. It lags far behind the gold coast and output although both commenced to grow cacao about the same time. The Germans spent great sums in the Cameroons in giving the industry a scientific basis. They adopted the estate plan and possibly the fact that they employ contract labor explains why they have not had the same phenomenal success that the natives working for themselves have achieved on the gold coast. Various countries and districts which are responsible for about 97% of the world's cacao crop have now been named and briefly commented upon. Of other producing areas the islands, Ceylon and Java are worthy of mention. In both of these, as also in Venezuela, Samoa and Madagascar, is grown the Creolo Cacao which produces the plump sweet beans with the cinnamon break. Cacao beans from Ceylon or Java are easily recognized by their appearance because being washed they have beautiful clean shells. But there is a serious objection to washed shells namely that they are brittle and as thin as paper so that many are broken before they reach the manufacturer. Ceylon is justly famous for its fine old red along with this a fair quantity of inferior cacao is produced which by being called Ceylon such as the power of a good name tends to claim a higher price than its quality warrants. Cacao markets from the plantation to the European market. It is mentioned above that on the gold coast, Cacao is brought down to Acra as head loads or in barrels or in motor lorries. These methods are exceptional. In other countries it is usually put in sacks at the estate. Every estate has its own characteristic mark which is stamped on the bags and this is recognized by the buyers in Europe and gives a clue to the quality of the contents. There is not as yet a uniform weight for a bag of Cacao although they all vary between 1 and 200 count. Thus the bags from Africa contain one and one fourth hundred weight whilst those from Guayaquil contain one and three quarters hundred weight. In these bags the Cacao was taken to the port on the back of mules in horse or ox carts in canoes down a stream or more rarely by rail. It is then conveyed by lighters or surf boats to the great ocean liners which lie anchored off the shore. In the hold of the liner it is rocked thousands of miles over the azure seas of the tropics to the grey-green seas of the temperate zone. In pre-war days a million bags used to go to Hamburg, three quarters of a million to New York, half a million to Haver and only a trifling quarter of a million to London. Now London is the leading Cacao market of the world. During the war the supplies were cut off from Hamburg whilst Liverpool becoming a chief port for African Cacao in 1916 imported a million bags. Then New York began to gorge Cacao and in 1917 created a record importing some two and a half million bags or about 150,000 tons. Whilst everything is in so fluid a condition it is unwise to prophesy. It may however be said that there are many who think now that the consumption of cocoa and chocolate in America has reached such a prodigious future that New York may yet oust London and become the central dominating market of the world. Difficulties of buying. Every country produces a different kind of Cacao and the Cacao from any two plantations in the same country often shows wide variations. It may be said that there are as many kinds of Cacao as there are of apples. Cacao showing as marked differences as exhibited by Crabs and Blenheims, not to mention James Greaves, Russets, Worcester Par mains, Newton Wonders, Lord Derby's, Belle des Bascoupes, and so forth. Further whilst the bulk of the Cacao is good in sound a little of the Cacao grown in any district is liable to have suffered from drought or from attacks by molds or insect pests. It will be realized from these fragmentary remarks that the buyer must exercise perpetual vigilance. Cacao sells. Before the cocoa prices orders were published, March 1918, the manner of conducting the sale of Cacao in London was as follows. Brokers lists giving the kinds of Cacao for sale and the number of bags of each were sent together with samples to the buyers some days beforehand so that they were able to decide what they wished to purchase and the price they were willing to pay. The sales always took place at 11 o'clock on Tuesdays in the commercial sale room in Mincing Lane, that narrow street off Finchurch Street where the air is so highly charged with expert knowledge of the world's produce that it would illuminate the prosaic surroundings with brilliant flashes if it could become visible. On the morning of the sale samples of the Cacao's are on exhibit at the principal brokers. The man in the street brought into the broker's office would ask what these strange beans might be. A new kind of almond? He might ask. And then on being told they were Cacao, he would see nothing to choose between all the various lots and wonder why so much fuss was made over discriminating amongst the similar and distinguishing the identical. He might even marvel a little at the expert knowledge of the buyers, yet frankly the pertinent facts concerning quality known by the buyer are fewer and no more difficult to learn than the thousand and one facts a lad must have at his finger ends to pass the London matriculation. They are valued because they are inaccessible to the multitude. Only a few people have the opportunity of learning them and their use may make or mar fortunes. The judgment of quality is, however, only one side of the art of buying. We have to add to these a knowledge of the conditions prevailing in the various markets of the world, a knowledge of stocks and probable supplies, and given this knowledge an ability to estimate their effect together with other conditions, agricultural, political and social, on the price of the commodity. The room in which the sales are conducted is not a large one and usually not more than a hundred people, buyers, pressmen, etc. are present. Not a single Cacao bean is visible and it might be an auction sale of property for all the uninitiated could tell. The Cacao is put up in lots. Usually the sales proceed quietly and it is difficult to realize that many thousands of bags of Cacao are changing hands. The buyers have perfect trust in the broker's descriptions. They know the invariable fair play of the British broker, which is a byword the world over. The machinery of the proceedings is lubricated by an easy flow of humor. Sometimes a few bags of C damaged Cacao or of Cacao sweepings are put up and a good deal of keenness is shown by the individuals who buy this stuff. It is curious that a whole crowd of busy people will allow their time to be taken up whilst there is a spirited fight between two or three buyers for a single bag. Whilst the London auction sales are of importance as fixing the prices for the various markets and reflecting to a certain extent the position of supply and demand, only a fraction of the world's Cacao changes hands at the auction sales. The greater part of it being bought privately for forward delivery. The price of Cacao is liable to fluctuations like every other product. Thus in 1907 Trinidad Cacao rose to one shilling a pound whilst there have been periods when it has only fetched six pence per pound. On April 2, 1918 the food controller fixed the prices of the finest qualities of the different varieties of raw Cacao as follows. British West, Africa, Acra, 65 S per 100 weight. Bahia, Cameroons, Santomay, Congo and Granada, 85 S per 100 weight. Trinidad, Demerara, Guayaquil, Suriname, 90 S per 100 weight. Ceylon, Java and Samoa, 100 S per 100 weight. The diagram on page 113 shows the average market price in the United Kingdom of some of the more important Cacayos before, during and after the war. The most striking change is the sudden rise when the government control was removed. All Cacayos showed a substantial advance varying from 80 to 150 percent on pre-war values. Further, large advances have taken place in the early months of 1920. The Call of the Tropics Many a young man reading in some delightful book of travel has longed to go to the tropics and see the wonders for himself. There can be no doubt that a sojourn in equatorial regions is one of the most educative of experiences. In support of this, I cannot do better than to quote Grant Allen, who regarded the tropics as the best of all universities. But above all, in educational importance, I rank the advantage of seeing human nature in its primitive surroundings far from the squalid and chilly influences of the tail end of the glacial epoch. We must forget all this formal modern life. We must break away from this cramped, cold northern world. We must find ourselves face-to-face at last in Pacific Isles or African forests with underlying truths of simple naked nature. Many will recall how Charles Kingsley's longing to see the tropics was ultimately satisfied. In his book, in which he describes how he at last visited the West Indies, we read that he encountered a happy Scotchman living a quiet life in the dear little island of Monos. I looked at the natural beauty and repose at the human vigor and happiness and I said to myself and said it often afterwards in the West Indies, why do not other people copy this? Why, Scott? Why should not many a young couple who have education, refinement, resources in themselves, but are happily or unhappily for them, unable to keep a Roman and go to London balls, retreat to some such paradise as this? And there are hundreds like it to be found in the West Indies, leaving behind them a false civilization and vain desires and useless show and there live in simplicity and content the gentle life, the planter's life. Few who go to the tropics escape their fascination and of those that are young few return to colder climes. Some become overseers, others, more fortunate, own the estates they manage. It is inadvisable for the inexperienced to start on the enterprise of buying and planting an estate with less capital than two or three thousand pounds, but once established a cacaio plantation may be looked upon as a permanent investment which will continue to bear and give a good yield as long as it receives proper attention. In the recently published, Letters of Anthony Farley, the writer tells how Farley encounters in South America an old college friend of his who in his early days was on the high road to a brilliant political career. Here he is, a planter, he explains, My mother was Spanish, her brother owned this place. When he died it came to me. How did your uncle hold it through the various revolutions? Nothing simpler. He became an American citizen. When trouble threatened he made a beeline for the United States Consulate. I'm British of course. Well, just when I had decided upon a political life I found it necessary to come here to straighten things out. One month lengthened itself into a year. I grew fascinated. Here I felt a sense of immense usefulness. On the mountain side my coffee trees flourished. Down in the valley grew cacaio. I grow mine on undulations. You need it, you know, so long as you drain. Yes, but draining on the flat is the devil. Anyhow, I always liked animals. You haven't seen my pigs yet and horses and mules need careful tending. A cable arrived one morning announcing an impending dissolution.  I invited my soul. Here thought I to myself, are animals and foodstuffs. Good, honest food, that. If I go back it is only to fill people's bellies with political east wind. To come to the point I decided to grow coffee and cacaio. I cabled infinite regrets. The decision once made I was as happy as a sandboy. Jesuit, g'rest, I said to myself, said I, nor have I ever cast one longing look behind. This is fiction, but I think it is true that very few, if any, who become planters in the tropics, ever return permanently to England. The hospitality of the planters is proverbial. There must be something good and free about the planter's life to produce so many men and so genial and generous. There is a picture that I often recall and never without pleasure. A young planter and I had, with the help of more or less willing mules, climbed over the hills from one valley to the next. The valley we had left is noted for its beauty, but to me it had become familiar. The other valley I saw now for the first time. The sides were steep and covered with trees, and I could only see one dwelling in the valley. We reached this by a circuitous path through the cacaio trees. Approaching it, as we did, the bungalow seemed completely cut off from the rest of the world. We were welcomed by the planter and his wife, and by those of the children who were not shy. I have never seen more chubby or jolly kitties, and I know from the sweetness of the children that their mother must have given them unremitting attention. I wondered indeed if she ever left them for a moment. I knew, too, from the situation of the bungalow in the heart of the hills that visitors were not likely to be frequent. The planter's life is splendid for a man who likes open air and nature, but I had sometimes thought that their wives would not find the life so good. I was mistaken. When we came away after riding some distance through a gap in the cacaio, we saw across the valley a group of happy children. They saw us and all of them. Even the shy ones waved us, I do. End of Chapter 4 Chapter 5 of Cocoa and Chocolate. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. This reading by Alice and Hester of Athens, Georgia. Cocoa and Chocolate. Their history from plantation to consumer. By Arthur W. Knapp. Chapter 5 The Manufacturer of Cocoa and Chocolate. Early methods in the tropics. As the cacaio bean is grown in tropical countries, it is there that we must look for the first attempts at manufacturing from it a drink or a foodstuff. The primitive method of preparation was very simple, consisting in roasting the beans in a pot or on a shovel to develop their flavor. Winnowing in the wind and then rubbing the broken shelled beans between stones until quite fine. The curious thing is that on grinding the cacaio bean in the heat of a tropical day, we do not produce a powder but a paste. This is because half the cacaio bean consists of a fat, which is liquid at 90 degrees Fahrenheit, a temperature which is reached in the shade in tropical countries. This paste was then made into small rolls and put in a cool place to set. Thus was produced the primitive unsweetened drinking chocolate. This is the method which Elizabethians who ventured into the tangled forests of equatorial America found in use. And this is the method they brought home to Europe. In the tropics these simple processes are followed to this day, but in Europe they have undergone many elaborations and refinements. If the reader will look at the illustration entitled Women Grinding Chocolate, he will see how the brittle roasted bean is reduced to a paste in primitive manufacture. A stone shaped like a rolling pin is being pushed to and fro over a concave slab on which the smashed beans have already been reduced to a paste of doughy consistency. Early European Manufacture The conversion of these small scale operations into the early factory process is well shown in the plate which I reproduce above from Arts & Sciences published in 1768. A certain atmosphere of dreamy intellectuality is associated with coffee so that the roasting of it is felt to be a romantic occupation. The same poetic atmosphere surrounded the manufacture of drinking chocolate in the early days. The writers who revealed the secrets of its preparation were conscious that they were giving man a new aesthetic delight and the subject is treated lovingly and lingeringly. One Pietro metastasio went so far as to write a cantata describing its manufacture. He describes the grinding as being done by a vigorous man and truly, to grind by hand, is a very laborious operation which happily in more recent times has been performed by the use of power-driven mills. Operations on a large scale followed the founding of Frey and Sons at Bristol in 1728 and of Lombard. La plus ancienne chocolataria de France in Paris in 1760. In Germany the first chocolat factory was erected at Steinhund in 1756 under the patronage of Prince Wilhelm whilst in America the well-known firm of Walter Baker & Company began in a small way in 1765. From the methods adopted in these factories have gradually developed the modern processes which I am about to describe. Modern practice As the early stages in the manufacture of cocoa and chocolate are often identical the processes which are common to both are first described and then some individual consideration is given to each. A. Arrival at the factory The cacao is largely stored in warehouses from which it is removed as required. It has remarkable keeping properties and can be kept in a good store for several years without loss of quality Samples of cacao beans and glass bottles have been found to be in perfect condition after 30 years. Some factories have stores in which stand thousands of bags of cacao drawn from many ports around the equator. There is something very pleasing about huge stacks of bags of cacao seen against the luminous white walls of a well-lighted store. The symmetry of their construction and the continued repetition of the same form are never better shown than when the men, climbing up the sides of a stack against which they look small, unbilled the mighty heap, the bags falling onto a continuous band which carries them jauntily out of the store. B. Sorting the beans As all cacao is liable to contain a little free shell, dried pulp, often taken for twigs, threads of sacking and other foreign matter, it is carefully sieved and sorted before passing on to the roasting shop. In this process, curios are occasionally separated such as palm kernels, cowry shells, shea butternuts, good luck seeds and crab's eyes. The essential part of one type of machine which accomplishes this sorting is an inclined revolving cylinder of wire galls along which the beans pass. The cylinder forms a continuous set of sieves of different sized mesh, one sieve allowing only sand to pass, another only very small beans or fragments of beans, and finally one holding back anything larger than a single bean, e.g. cobs, that is, a collection of two or more beans stuck together. Another type of cleaning machine is illustrated by the diagram on the opposite page. This machine, with its shaking sieves and a blast of air, makes a great clatter and fuss. It produces, however, what the manufacturers desire, a clean bean sorted to size. C. Roasting the beans As with coffee, so with cacao, the characteristic flavor and aroma are only developed on roasting. Monture's Bainbridge and Davies, chemists to Monture's Roundtree, have shown that the aroma of cacao is chiefly due to an amazingly minute quantity, 0.0006% of Linalool, a colorless liquid with a powerful fragrant odor, a modification of which occurs in Bergamot, Coriander, and Lavender. Everyone notices the aromatic odor which permeates the atmosphere around the chocolate factory. This odor is a byproduct of the roasting shop. Possibly some day an enterprising chemist will prevent its escape or capture it and sell it in bottles for flavoring confectionery. But for the present, it serves only to announce, in an appetizing way, the presence of cocoa or chocolate works. Roasting is a delicate operation requiring experience and discretion. Even in these days of scientific management, it remains as much an art as a science. It is conducted in revolving drums to ensure constant agitation, the drums being heated either over coke fires or by gas. Less frequently, the heating is affected by a hot blast of air or by having inside the drum a number of pipes containing superheated steam. The diagram and the photo show one of the types of roasting machines used at Bourneville. It resembles an ordinary coffee roaster, the beans being fed in through a hopper and heated by gas in the slowly revolving cylinder. The beans can be heard lightly tumbling one over the other and the aroma around the roaster increases in fullness as they get hotter and hotter. The temperature which the beans reach in an ordinary roasting is not very high, varying around 135 degrees Celsius, 275 degrees Fahrenheit, and the average period of roasting is about one hour. The amount of loss of weight on roasting is considerable, some seven or eight percent, and varies with the amount of moisture present in the raw beans. There have been attempts to replace the aesthetic judgment of man, as to the point at which to stop roasting by scientific machinery. One rather interesting machine was so devised that the kakaya roasting drum was fitted with a sort of steel yard, and this, when the loss of weight due to roasting had reached a certain amount, swung over and rang a bell, indicating dramatically that the roasting was finished. As beans vary amongst other things in the percentage of moisture which they contain, the machine has not replaced the experienced operator. He takes samples from the drum from time to time, and when the aroma has the character desired, the beans are rapidly discharged into a trolley with a perforated bottom, which is brought over a cold current of air. The object of this refinement is to stop the roasting instantly, and prevent even a suspicion of burning. After the roasting, the shell is brittle and quite free from the coddledons or kernel. The kernel has become glossy and frayable and chocolate brown in color, and it crushes readily between the fingers into small angular fragments, the nibs of commerce giving off during the breaking down a rich warm odor of chocolate. D. Removing the shells. It has been stated that it was formally the practice not to remove the shell. This is incorrect. The more usual practice from the earliest times has been to remove the shells, though not so completely as they are removed by the efficient machinery of today. In A Curious Treaty on the Nature and Quality of Chocolate by Antonio Colmenero de Desma 1685, we read, quote, and if you peel the cacao and take it out of its little shell, the drink thereof will be more dainty and delicious, end quote. Willoughby in his Travels in Spain 1664 writes, quote, they first toast the berries to get off the husk. And our Brooks in the Natural History of Chocolate 1730 says, quote, the Indians roast the kernels and earthen pots, then free them from their skins and afterwards crush and grind them between two stones, end quote. He further definitely recommends that the beans, quote, be roasted enough to have their skins come off easily, which should be done one by one, layering them apart. For these skins being left among the chocolate will not dissolve in any liquor, nor even in the stomach, and fall to the bottom of the chocolate cups, as if the kernels had not been cleaned, end quote. That the Indian practice of removing the shells was followed from the commencement of the industry in England is shown by the old plate which we have reproduced on page 120 from Arts and Sciences. The removal of the shell, which in the raw condition is tough and adheres to the kernel, is greatly facilitated by roasting. If we place a roasted bean in the palm of the hand and press it with the thumb, the whole cracks up into crisp pieces. It is now quite easy to blow away the thin pieces of shell because they offer a greater surface to the air and are lighter than the little compact lumps or nibs which are left behind. This illustrates the principle of all shelling or husking machines. E. Breaking the bean into fragments The problem is to break down the bean to just the right size. The pieces must be sufficiently small to allow the nib and shell readily to part company. But it is important to remember that the smaller the pieces of shell and nib, the less efficient will the winnowing be. And it is usual to break the beans whilst they are still warm to avoid producing particles of extreme bindness. The breaking down may be accomplished by passing the beans through a pair of rollers at such a distance apart that the bean is cracked without being crushed. Or it may be affected in other ways, e.g. by the use of an adjustable serrated cone revolving in a serrated conical case. In the diagram they are called kibbling cones. F. Separating the germs About 1% of the cacao bean fragments consist of germs. The germ is the radical of the cacao seed or that part of the cacao seed which on germination forms the root. The germs are small and rod shaped and being very hard are generally assumed to be less digestible than the nib. They are separated by being passed through revolving galls drums, the holes in which are the same size and shape as the germs, so that the germs pass through whilst the nib is retained. If a freakish carpenter were to try separating shop floor sweepings consisting of a jumble of chunks of wood, nib, shavings, shell, and nails germ by sieving through a gridiron, he would find that not only the nails passed through, but also some sawdust and fine shavings. So in the above machine the finer nib and shell pass through with the germ. This germ mixture, known as smalls, is dealt with in a special machine whilst the larger nib and shell are conveyed to the chief winnowing machine. In this machine the mixture is first sorted according to size and then the nib and shell separated from one another. The mixture is passed down long revolving cylindrical sieves and encounters a larger and larger mesh as it proceeds and thus becomes sieved into various sizes. The separation of the shell from the nib is now affected by a powerful current of air, the large nib balling against the current whilst the shell is carried with it and drops into another compartment. It is amusing to stand and watch the continuous stream of nibs rushing down like hail in a storm into the screw conveyor. This is the process, in essence, to follow the various partially separated mixtures of shell and nib through the several further separating machines would be tedious. It is sufficient for the reader to know that after the most elaborate precautions have been taken, the nib still contains about 1% of shell and that the nib obtained is only 78.5% of the weight of raw beams originally taken. Most of the larger makers of cocoa produce nib containing less than 2% of shell, a standard which can only be maintained by continuous vigilance. The shell, the only waste material of any importance produced in a chocolate factory, goes straight into sacks ready for sale. The pure cacao nibs, once an important article of commerce, proceed to the blenders and thence to the grinding mill. G. Blending. We have seen that the beans are roasted separately according to their kind and country, so as to develop in each its characteristic flavor. The pure nib is now blended in proportions which are carefully chosen to attain the result desired. H. Grinding the cacao nibs to produce mass. In this process, by the mere act of grinding, the miracle is performed of converting the brittle fragments of the cacao bean into a chocolate colored fluid. Half of the cacao bean is fat and the grinding breaks up the cells and liberates the fat, which at blood heat melts to an oil. Any of the various machines used in the industries for grinding might be used, but a special type of mill has been devised for the purpose. In the grinding room of a cocoa factory, one becomes almost hypnotized by a hundred of these circular mill stones that rotate incessantly day and night. In Monsour fries factory, the giddy motion of the whirling mill is very much increased by a number of magnificent horizontal driving wheels, each some 20 feet in diameter, which form, as it were, a revolving ceiling to the room. Your fascinated gaze beholds two or three vast circles that have their revolving satellites like moons, each on its own axis, and each governed by master wheels. Watch them for any length of time and you might find yourself presently going round and round with them until you whirled yourself out of existence, like the gyrating maiden in the fairy tale. In this type of grinding machine, one mill stone rotates on a fixed stone. The cacao nib falls from a hopper through a hole in the center of the upper stone and, owing to the manner in which grooves are cut in the two surfaces in contact, is gradually dragged between the stones. The grooves are so cut in the two stones that they point in opposite directions, and as the one stone revolves on the other, a slicing or shearing action is produced. The friction due to the slicing and shearing of the nib keeps the stones hot and they become sufficiently warm to melt the fat in the ground nib, so that their oozes from the outer edge of the bottom, or fixed stone, a more or less viscous liquid or paste. The finely ground nib is known as mass. It is simply liquefied cacao bean and solidifies on cooling to a chocolate colored block. This mass may be used for the production of either cocoa or chocolate. When part of the fat, cacao butter, is taken away, the residue may be made to yield cocoa. When sugar and cacao butter are added, it yields eating chocolate. Thus, the two industries are seen to be interdependent. The cacao butter, which is pressed out of the mass in the manufacture of cocoa, being used up in the production of chocolate. The manufacture of cocoa will first be considered. I. Pressing out the excess of butter. The liquefied cacao bean, or mass, simply mixed with sugar and cooled until it becomes a hard cake, has been used by the British Navy for a hundred years or more for the preparation of Jack's cup of cocoa. It produces a fine, rich drink much appreciated by our hearty semen, but it is somewhat too fatty to mix evenly with water and too rich to be suitable for those with delicate digestions. Hence, for the ordinary cocoa of commerce, it is usual to remove a portion of this fat. If mass be put into a cloth and pressed, a golden oil, melted cacao butter, oozes through the cloth. In practice, this extraction of the butter is done in various types of presses. In one of the most frequently used types, the mass is poured into circular steel pots, the top and bottom of which are loose perforated plates lined with felt pads. A number of such pots are placed one above another and then rammed together by a powerful hydraulic ram.  The mass is only gently pressed at first, but as the butter flows away and the material in the pot becomes stiffer, it is subjected to a gradually increasing pressure. The ram, being under pressure supplied by pumps, pushes up with enormous force. The steel pots have to be sufficiently strong to bear great strain as the ram often exerts a pressure of 6,000 pounds per square inch. When the required amount of butter has been pressed out, the pot is found to contain not a paste, but a hard, dry cake of compressed cocoa. The liquefied cacao bean put into the pots contains 54 to 55% of butter, whilst the cocoa pressed cake taken out usually contains only 25 to 30%. The expressed butter flows away and is filtered and solidified. All that it is necessary to do to obtain cocoa from the pressed cake is to powder it. J. Breaking down the pressed cake to cocoa powder. The slabs of pressed cake are so hard and tough that if one were banged on a man's head, it would probably stun him.  K. Seaving. As fineness is a very important quality of cocoa, the powder so obtained is very carefully sieved. This is affected by shaking the powder into an inclined rotating drum which is covered with silk gauze. In the cocoa which passes through this fine silk sieve, the average length of the individual particles is about 1 1,000th of an inch, whilst in first class productions the size of larger particles in the cocoa does not average more than 2,000th of an inch. Indeed, the cocoa powder is so fine that in spite of all precautions, a certain amount always floats about in the air of sieving rooms and covers everything with a brown film. L. Packing. The cocoa powder is taken to the packing rooms. Here the tedious weighing by hand has been replaced by ingenious machines which deliver with remarkable accuracy, a definite weight of cocoa into the paper bag which lines the tin. The tins are then labeled and packed in cases ready for the grocer. End of Chapter 5. Chapter 6 of Cocoa and Chocolate. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. This reading by Alice and Hester of Athens, Georgia. Cocoa and Chocolate. Their history from plantation to consumer by Arthur W. Knapp. Chapter 6. The Manufacture of Chocolate. What I am about to write under this heading will only be of a general character. Those who require a more detailed exposition are referred to the standard works given at the end of the chapter. In these, full and accurate information will be found. The information published in modern encyclopedias, etc. concerning the manufacture of chocolate is not always as reliable as one might expect. Thus, it states in Jack's excellent reference book, 1914, that, quote, chocolate is made by the addition of water and sugar, end quote. The use of water in the manufacture of chocolate is contrary to all usual practice, so much so that great interest was aroused in the trade some years ago by the statement that water was being used by a firm in Germany. Specimen Outline Recipe. Ingredients required for plain eating chocolate. Cacao nib or mass. 33 parts. Cacao butter. 13 parts. Sugar. 53 and 3 quarter parts. Flavoring. 1 quarter parts. Total. 100 parts. Since eating chocolate is produced by mixing sugar and cacao nib with or without flavoring materials and reducing to a fine homogenous mass, the principles underlying its manufacture are obviously simple. Yet, when we come to consider the production of a modern high class chocolate, we find the processes involved are somewhat elaborate. A. Preparing the nib or mass. The nib is obtained in exactly the same way as in the manufacture of cocoa, the beans being cleaned, roasted, and shelled. The roasting, however, is generally somewhat lighter for chocolate than for cocoa. The nibs produced may be used as they are, or they may be first ground to mass by means of millstones as described above. B. Mixing in the sugar. Some makers use clear crystalline granulated sugar. Others disintegrate loaf sugar to a beautiful snow white flour. The nib, coarse, or finely ground is mixed with the sugar in a kind of edge runner or grinding mixer called a melenguer. As seen in the photo, the melenguer consists of two heavy millstones which are supported on a granite floor. The granite floor revolves and causes the stationary millstones to rotate on their axis so that although they run rapidly, like a man on a joy wheel, they make no headway. The material is prevented from accumulating at the sides by curved scrapers which gracefully deflect the stream of material to the part of the revolving floor which runs under the millstones. Thus, the sugar and nib are mixed and crushed. As the mixture usually becomes like dough and consistency, it can be neatly removed from the melenguer with a shovel. The operator rests a shovel lightly on the revolving floor and the material mounts into a heap upon it. C. Grinding the mixture. The mixture is now passed through a mill which has been described as looking like a multiple mangle. The object of this is to break down the sugar and cacao to smaller particles. The rolls may be made either of granite, more strictly speaking, of quartz, deorite, or of polished chilled cast iron. Chilled cast iron rolls have the advantage that they can be kept cool by having water flowing through them. A skilled operator is required to set the rolls in order that they may give a large and satisfactory output. The cylinders in contact run at different speeds and, as will be seen in the diagram, the chocolate always clings to the roll which is revolving with the greater velocity and is delivered from the rolls either as a curtain of chocolate or as a spray of chocolate powder. It is very striking to see the soft chocolate color dough become, after merely passing between the rolls, a dry powder. The explanation is that the sugar, having been more finely crushed, now requires a greater quantity of cacao butter to lubricate it before the mixture can again become plastic. The chocolate, in its various stages of manufacture, should be kept warm or it will solidify and much time and heat, and possibly temper, will be absorbed in remelting it. For this and other reasons, most chocolate factories have a number of hot rooms in which the chocolate is stored whilst waiting to pass on to the next operation. The dry powder coming from the rolls is either taken to a hot room or at once mixed in a warm melangor where, curiously enough, the whole becomes, once again, the consistency of dough. The grinding between the rolls and the mixing in the melangor are repeated any number of times until the chocolate is of desired fineness. Whilst there are a few people who like the clean, hard feel of sugar crystals between the teeth, the present day taste is all for very smooth and highly refined chocolate. Hence, the grinding operation is one of the most important in the factory and is checked at the works at Bourneville by measuring with a microscope the size of the particles. The cost of fine grinding is considerable. For whilst the first breaking down of the cacao nibs and sugar crystals is comparatively easy, it is found that as the particles of chocolate get finer, the cost of further reduction increases by leaps and bounds. The chocolate may now proceed direct to the molding rooms or it may first be conched. D. Conching We now come to an extraordinary process which is said to have been originally introduced to satisfy a fastidious taste that demanded a chocolate which readily melted in the mouth and yet had not the cloying effect which is produced by excess of cacao butter. In this process the chocolate is put in a vessel shaped something like a shell, hence called a conch, and a heavy roller is pushed to and fro in the chocolate. Although the conch is considered to have revolutionized the chocolate industry, it will remain to the uninitiated a curious sight to see a room full of machines engaged in pummeling chocolate day and night. There is no general agreement as to exactly how the conch produces its effects. From the scientific point of view the changes are complex and elusive and too technical to explain here. But it is well known that if this process is continued for periods varying according to the result desired from a few hours to a week, characteristic changes occur which make the chocolate a more mellow and finished confection, or less the velvet feel of chocolate fondant. E. Flavoring Art is shown not only in the choice of the cacao beans but also in the selection of spices and essences. Four, whilst the fundamental flavor of a chocolate is determined by the blend of beans and the method of manufacture, the pecansi and special character are often obtained by the addition of minute quantities of flavorings. The point in the manufacture at which the flavor is added is as late as possible so as to avoid the possible loss of aroma in handling. The flavors used include cardamom, cassia, cinnamon, cloves, coriander, lemon, mace, and last but most popular of all, the vanilla pod or vanilla. Some makers use the choice spices themselves. Others prefer their essential oils. Many other nutty, fragrant, and aromatic substances have been used. Of these we may mention almonds, coffee, musk, ambergris, gum, benzoin, and balsam of Peru. The English like delicately flavored confections, whilst the Spanish follow the old custom of heavily spicing the chocolate. In ancient recipes we read of the use of white and red peppers and the addition of hot spices was defended and even recommended on purely philosophical grounds. It was given in the strange jargon of the peripatetics as a dictum that chocolate is by nature cold and dry and therefore ought to be mixed with things which are hot. F. Molding Small quantities of cacao butter will have been added to the chocolate at various stages and hence the finished product is quite plastic. It is now brought from the hotroom, or the melinguir, or the conch, to the molding rooms. Before molding the chocolate is passed through a machine known as a compressor which removes air bubbles. This is a necessary process as people would not care to purchase chocolate full of holes. As in the previous operations every effort has been made to produce a chocolate of smooth texture and fine flavor. So in the molding rooms skill is exercised in converting the plastic mass into hard bars and cakes which snap when broken and which have a pleasant appearance. Well molded chocolate has a good gloss, a rich color, and a correct shape. The most important factor in obtaining a good appearance is the temperature. And chocolate is frequently passed through a machine called a tempering machine merely to give it the desired temperature. A suitable temperature for molding, according to Zipperer, varies from 28°C on a hot summer's day to 32°C on a winter's day. As the melting point of cacao butter is about 32°C it will be realized that the butter is super cooled and is ready to crystallize on the slightest provocation. Each mold has to contain the same quantity of chocolate. Weighing by hand has been abandoned in favor of a machine which automatically deposits a definite weight such as a quarter or half a pound of the chocolate paste on each mold. The chocolate stands up like a lump of dough and has to be persuaded to lie down and fill the mold. This can be most effectively accomplished by banging the mold up and down on a table. In the factory the method used is to place the molds on rocking tables which rise gradually and fall with a bump. The diagram will make clear how these vibrating tables are worked by means of ratchet wheels. Rocking tables are made which are silent in action but the molds jerkily dancing about on the table make a very lively clatter.  During the shaking up the chocolate fills every crevice of the mold and any bubbles which, if left in, would spoil the appearance of the chocolate rise to the top. The chocolate then passes on to an endless band which conducts the mold through a chamber in which cold air is moving. As the chocolate cools it solidifies and contracts so that it comes out of the mold clean and bright. In this way are produced the familiar sticks and cakes of chocolate. A similar method is used in producing croquettes and the small tablets known as Neapolitan. Other forms require more elaborate molds. Thus the chocolate eggs which fill the confectioner's windows just before Easter are generally hollow unless they are very small and are made in two halves by pressing chocolate in egg shaped molds and then uniting the two halves. Chocolate creams, caramels, almonds, and in fact fancy chocolates generally are produced in quite a different manner. For these chocolates de fantasie a rather liquid chocolate is required known as covering chocolate. Specimen Outline Recipe Ingredients required for chocolate covering creams, etc. Cacao nib or mass, 30 parts. Cacao butter, 20 parts. Sugar, 49 and 3 quarter parts. Flavoring, 1 quarter parts. Total, 100 parts. It is prepared in exactly the same way as ordinary eating chocolate. Save that more butter is added to make it flow readily so that in the melted condition it has about the same consistency as cream. The operations so far described are conducted by men but the covering of creams and the packing of the finished chocolates into boxes are performed by girls. Covering is light work requiring a delicate touch. And if, as is usual, it is done in bright airy rooms, it is a pleasant occupation. The girl sits with a small bowl of warm liquid chocolate in front of her and on one side the centers, creams, caramels, ginger, nuts, etc. ready for covering with chocolate. The chocolate must be at just the right temperature which is 88 degrees Fahrenheit or 31 degrees Celsius. She takes one of the centers, say a vanilla cream, on her fork and dips it beneath the chocolate. When she draws it out, the white cream is completely covered in brown chocolate. And without touching it with her finger, she deftly places it on a piece of smooth paper. A little twirl of the fork or drawing a prong across the chocolate will give the characteristic marking on the top of the chocolate cream. The chocolate rapidly sets to a crisp film enveloping the soft cream. There are in use in many chocolate factories some very ingenious covering machines invented in 1903 as they clothe creams in a robe of chocolate are known as enrobers. It is doubtful, however, if the chocolates so produced have even quite so good an appearance as when the covering is done by hand. It would be agreeable at this point to describe the making of creams, which, by the way, contrary to the opinion of most writers, contain no cream or butter, and other products of the confectioner's art, but it would take us beyond the scope of the present book. We will only remind our readers of the great variety of comestibles and confections which are covered in chocolate, pistachio nut, roasted almonds, pralines, biscuits, walnuts, nougat, montélémore, fruits, fruit creams, jellies, Turkish delight, marshmallows, caramels, pineapple, noisette, and other delicacies. Milk chocolate. We owe the introduction of this excellent food and confection to the researchers of M.D. Petey of Feve in Switzerland who produced milk chocolate as early as 1876. Many of our older readers will remember their delight when in the 1890s they first tasted Peter's milk chocolate. Later, the then little firm of Keiler, realizing the importance of having the factory on the very spot where rich milk was produced in abundance, established a work near Gruyar. This grew rapidly and soon became the largest factory in Switzerland. The sound principle of having your factory in the heart of a milk-producing area was adopted by Cadbury's, who built milk-condensing factories at the ancient village of Frampton-en-Severne in Gloucestershire and at Knighten near Newport, Salup. Before the war, these two factories together condensed from two to three million gallons of milk a year. Whilst the amount of milk used in England for making milk chocolate appears very great when expressed in gallons, it is seen to be very small, being only about one-half of one percent when expressed as a fraction of the total milk production. Milk chocolate is not made from milk produced in the winter when milk is scarce, but from milk produced in the spring and summer when there is milk in excess of the usual household requirements and when it is rich and creamy. The importance of not interfering with the normal milk supply to local customers is appreciated by the chocolate makers who take steps to prevent this. It will interest public analysts and others to know that Cadbury's have had no difficulty in making it a stipulation in their contracts with the vendors that the milk supply to them shall contain at least 3.5% of butterfat, a 17% increase on the minimum fixed by the government. Specimen Outline Recipe Ingredients required for milk chocolate Cacaio nib or mass from 10 to 20% say 10 parts, cacaio butter 20 parts, sugar 44 and 3 quarter parts, milk solids from 15 to 25% say 25 parts equals 200 parts of milk. Flavoring 1 quarter parts, total 100 parts. Milk chocolate consists of an intimate mixture of cacaio nib, sugar and milk condensed by evaporation. The manner in which the milk is mixed with the cacaio nib is a matter of taste and the art of combining milk with chocolate so as to retain the full flavor of each has engaged the attention of many experts. At present there is no general method of manufacture. Each maker has his own secret processes which generally include the use of grinding mills, melangours, conches, molding machines, etc. as with plain chocolate. We cannot do better than refer those who wish to know more of this or other branch of the chocolate industry to the following English, French and German standard works on chocolate manufacture. Cocoa and chocolate, their chemistry in manufacture by R. Wimper, Churchill. Fabrication due chocolate by Fritz, Scientific 8, Industrial. The manufacture of chocolate by Dr. Paul Zipperer, Spahn. And of Chapter 6. Chapter 7 of Cocoa and Chocolate. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org. This reading by Allison Hester of Athens, Georgia. Cocoa and Chocolate, their history from Plantation to Consumer by Arthur W. Knapp. Chapter 7. By Products of the Cocoa and the Chocolate Industry. Cacaio Butter. In that very able compilation, Allen's Organic Analysis. Mr. Leonard Archbutt States, in Volume 2, Page 176, that Cacaio Butter, quote, is obtained in large quantities as a byproduct in the manufacture of chocolate, end quote. This is repeated in the excellent book on oils by C. A. Mitchell, Common Commodities of Commerce Series. These statements are, of course, incorrect. We have seen that Cacaio Butter is obtained as a byproduct in the manufacture of cocoa and is consumed in large quantities in the manufacture of chocolate. When, during the war, the use of sugar for chocolate making was restricted and little chocolate was produced, the Cacaio Butter, formerly used in this industry, was freed for other purposes. Thus, there was plenty of Cacaio Butter available at a time when other fats were scarce. Cacaio Butter has a pleasant, bland taste resembling cocoa. The cocoa flavor is very persistent as many experimenters found to their regret in their efforts to produce a tasteless Cacaio Butter, which could be used as margarine or for general purposes in cooking. The scarcity of edible fats during the war forced the confectioners to try Cacaio Butter, which in normal times is too expensive for them to use. And as a result, a very large amount was employed in making biscuits and confectionery. Cacaio Butter runs hot from the presses as an amber colored oil and after-nitration sets to a pale golden yellow wax-like fat. The butter, which the pharmacist sells, is sometimes white and odorless, having been bleached and deodorized. The butter as produced is always pale yellow in color with a semi-crystalline or granular fracture and an agreeable taste and odor resembling cocoa or chocolate. Cacaio Butter has such remarkable keeping properties, which would appear to depend on the aromatic substances which it contains, that a myth has arisen that it will keep forever. The fable finds many believers, even in scientific circles. Thus, W.H. Johnson in the Imperial Institute Handbook on Cocoa states that, quote, when pure it has the peculiar property of not becoming rancid, however long it may be kept, end quote. Whilst this overstates the case, we find that under suitable conditions, Cacaio Butter will remain fresh and good for several years. Cacaio Butter has rather a low melting point, 90 degrees Fahrenheit, so that whilst it is a hard, almost brittle, solid at ordinary temperatures, it melts readily when in contact with the human body, blood heat 98 degrees Fahrenheit. This property, together with its remarkable stability, makes it useful for ointments, pomades, suppositories, pessories, and other pharmaceutical preparations. It also explains why actors have found it convenient for the removal of grease paint. The recognition of the value of Cacaio Butter for cosmetic purposes dates from very early days. Thus, in Colmenero de Ledesma's Curious Treaty on the Nature and Quality of Chocolate, printed at the Green Dragon 1685, we read, quote, that they draw from the Cacaio a great quantity of butter which they use to make their faces shine, which I have seen practiced in the Indies by the Spanish women born there. This evidently was one way of shining in society. Cacaio Butter has been put to many other uses, thus it has been employed in the preparation of perfumes, but the great bulk of the Cacaio Butter produced is used up by the chocolate maker. For making chocolate, it is ideal, and the demand for it for this purpose is so great that substitutes have been found and offered for sale. Until recently, these fats, coconut, stearin, and others could be ignored by the reputable chocolate makers as the confection produced by their use was inferior to true chocolate, both in taste and in keeping properties. In recent times, the oils and fats of tropical nuts and fruits have been thoroughly investigated in the eager search for new fats and new substitutes, such as ellipay butter, have been introduced, the properties of which closely resemble those of Cacaio Butter. For the information of chemists, we may state that the analytical figures for genuine Cacaio Butter, as obtained in the cocoa factory, are as follow. Analytical figures for Cacaio Butter Specific gravity at 99°C to water, 15.5°C, 0.858 to 0.865, melting point, 32°C to 34°C, tater, fatty acids, 49°C to 50°C, iodine absorbed, 34% to 38%. Refraction, butyro, refractometer at 40°C, 45.6°C to 46.5°C. Suponification value, 192 to 198. Valenta, 94°C to 96°C. Richard, mesil value, 1.0. Polinsky value, 0.5. Kirschner value, 0.5. Shrewsbury and Knapp value, 14 to 15. Unsapen-affiable matter, 0.3% to 0.8%. Mineral matter, 0.02% to 0.05%. Acidity, as oleic acid, 0.6% to 2.0%. Although the trade in Cacaio Butter is considerable, there were, before the war, only two countries that could really be considered as exporters of Cacaio Butter. In other words, there were only two countries, namely Holland and Germany, pressing out more Cacaio Butter in the production of cocoa than they absorbed in making chocolate. Export of Cacaio Butter, tons of 1,000 kilograms. Holland, 1911, 4,657, 1912, 5,472, 1913, 7,160 tons. Germany, 1911, 3,611, 1912, 3,581, 1913, 1,960 tons. Total, 1911, 8,268, 1912, 9,053, 1913, 9,120 tons. During the war, America appeared for the first time in her history as an exporter of Cacaio Butter. Heather, too, she was one of the principal importers, as will be seen in the following table. Imports of Cacaio Butter, tons of 1,000 kilograms. United States, 1912, 1,842, 1913, 1,634 tons. Switzerland, 1912, 1,821, 1913, 1,634 tons. Belgium, 1912, 1,127, 1913, 1,197 tons. Austria, Hungary, 1912, 1,062, 1913, 1,190 tons. Russia, 1912, 955, 1913, 1,197 tons. England, 1912, 495, 1913, 934 tons. The next table shows the imports expressed in English tons into the United Kingdom in more recent years. Imports of Cacaio Butter, year, 1912, tons, 477. In 1913, 912 tons. 1914, 1,512 tons. 1915, 599 tons. 1916, 962 tons. 1917, 675 tons. The wholesale price of Cacaio Butter has varied in the last six years from 1 and 3 per pound to 2 and 11 per pound. And was fixed in 1918 by the food controller at 1 and 6 per pound. Retail price, 2 shillings per pound. The control was removed in 1919 and immediately the wholesale price rose to 2 and 8 per pound. Cacaio Shell. Although I have described Cacaio Butter as a byproduct, the only true byproduct of the combined cocoa and chocolate industry is Cacaio Shell. I explained in the previous chapter how it is separated from the roasted bean. As they come from the husking or winnowing machine, the larger fragments of shell resemble the shell of monkey nuts, ground nuts, or peanuts. Except that the Cacaio shells are thinner, more brittle, and have a richer brown color. The shell has a pleasant odor in which a little true cocoa aroma can be detected. The small pieces of shell look like bran, and if the shell be powdered, the product is wonderfully like cocoa in appearance, though not in taste or smell. As the raw Cacaio bean contains on the average about 12.5% of shell, it is evident that the world production must be considerable, about 36,000 tons a year. And since it is not legitimately employed in cocoa, the brains of inventors have been busy trying to find a use for it. In some industries, the byproduct has proved on investigation to be of greater value than the principal product. A good instance of this is glycerin as a byproduct in soap manufacture, but no use for the husk or shell of Cacaio, which gives it any considerable commercial value, has yet been discovered. There are signs, however, that its possible uses are being considered and appreciated. For years, small quantities of Cacaio shell, under the name of miserables, have been used in Ireland and other countries for producing a dilute infusion for drinking. Although this cocoa tea is not unpleasant and has mild stimulating properties, it has never been popular, and even during the war when it was widely advertised and sold in England under fancy names at fancy prices, it never had a large or enthusiastic body of consumers. In normal times, the cocoa manufacturer has no difficulty in disposing of his shell to cattle food makers and others. But during 1915, when the train service was so defective and transport by any other means almost impossible, the manufacturers of cocoa and chocolate were unable to get the shell away from their factories and had large accumulations of it filling up valuable store space. In these circumstances, they attempted to find a use near at hand. It was tried with moderate success as a fuel, and a considerable quantity was burned in a special type of gas producer intended for wood. Cacaio shell has a high nitrogenous content, and if burned yields about 67 pounds of potassium carbonate per ton. In the annual report of the experimental farms in Canada, 1898, page 151 in 1899, page 851, accounts are given of the use of Cacaio shell as manure. The results given are encouraging, and experiments were made at Burnville. At first, these were only moderately successful, because the shell is extremely stable and decomposes in the ground very slowly indeed. Then the head gardener tried hastening the decomposition by placing the shell in a heap, soaking with water and turning several times before use. In this way, the shell was converted into a decomposing mass before being applied to the ground and gave excellent results both as a manure and a lightener of heavy soils. On the continent, the small amount of Cacaio butter, which the shell contains, is extracted from it by volatile solvents. The shell butter, so obtained, is very inferior to ordinary Cacaio butter, and as usually put on the market, has an unpleasant taste and an odor which reminds one faintly of an old tobacco pipe. In this unrefined condition, it is obviously unsuitable for edible purposes. Shell contains about 1% of theobromine, dimethylenxthine. This is a very valuable chemical substance, see remarks in chapter on food value of cocoa and chocolate. And the extraction of theobromine from shell is already practiced on a large scale and promises to be a profitable industry. Ordinary commercial samples of shell contain from 1.2% to 1.4% of theobromine. Those interested should study the very ingenious process of Montseur's Gruçal and Vincônier. Many other uses of Cacaio shell have been made and suggested. Thus, it has been used for the production of a good coffee substitute and also during the shortage of sawdust as a packing material. But its most important use at the present time is as cattle food and its most important abuse as an adulterant of cocoa. The value of Cacaio shell as cattle food has been known for a long time and is indicated in the following analysis by Smitham. In the Journal of Vincônier Agricultural Society 1914. Analysis of Cacaio shell. Water 9.30 Fat 3.83 Mineral matter 8.20 Albuminoids 18.81 Fiber 13.85 Digestible carbohydrates 46.01 Total 100% From these figures, Smitham calculates the food units as 102 so that it is evident that Cacaio shell occupies a good position when compared with other fodders. Food units Lenseed cake 133 Oatmeal 117 Bran 109 English wheat 106 Cacaio shells 102 Maze new crop 99 Meadow hay 68 Rice husks 43 Wheat straw 41 Mangles 12 These analytical results have been supported by practical feeding experiments in America and Germany. See full account in Zipperer's book The Manufacture of Chocolate. Professor Fielly and Turin obtained by giving Cacaio shell to cows an increase in both the quantity and quality of the milk. More recent experience seems to indicate that it is unwise to put a very high percentage of Cacaio shell in the cattle food. In small quantities in compound feeding cakes, etc., as an appetizer, it has been used for years with good results. Footnote Further particulars will be found in Cacaio shells as fodder by AWNAP, Tropical Life, 1916, page 154, and in The Separation and Uses of Cacaio Shell, Society of Chemical Industries Journal, 1918 to page 240. End of footnote The price of shell has shown great variation. The following figures are for the grade of shell which is almost entirely free from cocoa. Cacaio shell Average price per ton Year 1912 Price 65 shillings 1913 70 shillings 1914 70 shillings 1915 70 shillings 1916 90 shillings 1917 90 shillings Price per food unit July 1915 English oats Three shillings One and one-half pints January 1919 English oats Three shillings Eight pints Cotton seed cake July 1915 Two shillings Seven pints January 1919 Three shillings Eleven pints Lenseed cake July 1915 One shilling Seven pints January 1919 Three shillings Five pints Brewers grains Dried July 1915 One shilling Six and one-half pints January 1919 Three shillings Three and one-half pints Decardicated cotton cake July 1915 One shilling Six pints January 1919 Three shillings Three and one-half pints Kakao shell July 1915 Eight and one-fourth pints January 1919 One shilling Four and one-half pints The above table speaks for itself The figures are from the journal of the Board of Agriculture. I have added Kakao shell for comparison. End of chapter 7