Cocoa and Chocolate: Their History From Plantation to Consumer

CHAPTER X

THE CONSUMPTION OF CACAO 183

BIBLIOGRAPHY 191 A List of the Important Books on Cocoa and Chocolate from the earliest times to the present day.

INDEX 207

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Cacao Pods Old Drawing of an American Indian, with Chocolate Whisk, etc. Native American Indians Roasting the Beans, etc. Ancient Mexican Drinking Cups Cacao Tree, with Pods and Leaves Cacao Tree, shewing Pods Growing from Trunk Flowers and Fruits on main branches of a Cacao Tree Cacao Pods Cut Pod, revealing the White Pulp round the Beans Cacao Pods, shewing Beans inside Drawing of Typical Pods illustrating varieties Tropical Forest, Trinidad Characteristic Root System of the Cacao Tree Nursery with the Young Cacao Plants in Baskets, Java Planting Cacao from Young Seedlings in Bamboo Pots, Trinidad Cacao in its Fourth Year Copy of an Old Engraving shewing the Cacao Tree, and a tree shading it Cacao Trees shaded by Kapok, Java Cacao Trees shaded by Bois Immortel, Trinidad Cacao Tree with Suckers Cutlassing Common Types of Cacao Pickers Gathering Cacao Pods, Trinidad Collecting Cacao Pods into a Heap Men Breaking Pods, etc. Sweating Boxes, Trinidad Fermenting Boxes, Java Charging Cacao on to Trucks in the Plantation, San Thome Cacao in the Fermenting Trucks, San Thome Tray-barrow for Drying Small Quantities Spreading the Cacao Beans on mats to dry, Ceylon Drying Trays, Grenada "Hamel Smith" Rotary Dryer Drying Platforms with Sliding Roofs, Trinidad Cacao Drying Platforms, San Thome Washing the Beans, Ceylon Claying Cacao Beans, Trinidad Sorting Cacao Beans, Java Diagram: World's Cacao Production MAP of the World, with only Cacao-Producing Areas marked Raking Cacao Beans on the Driers, Ecuador Gathering Cacao Pods, Ecuador Sorting Cacao for Shipment, Ecuador MAP of South America and the West Indies Workers on a Cacao Plantation MAP of Africa, with only Cacao-Producing Areas marked Foreshore at Accra, with Stacks of Cacao ready for Shipment Carriers conveying Bags of Cacao to Surf Boats, Accra Crossing the River, Gold Coast Drying Cacao Beans, Gold Coast Shooting Cacao from the Road to the Beach, Accra Rolling Cacao, Gold Coast Rolling Cacao, Gold Coast Carrying Cacao to the Railway Station, Gold Coast Wagon Loads of Cacao being taken from Depot to the Beach, Accra The Buildings of the Boa Entrada Cacao Estate, San Thome Drying Cacao, San Thome Barrel Rolling, Gold Coast Bagging Cacao, Gold Coast Surf Boats by the Side of the Ocean Liner, Accra Bagging Cacao Beans for Shipment, Trinidad Transferring Bags of Cacao to Lighters, Trinidad Diagram showing Variation in Price of Cacao Beans, 1913-1919 Group of Workers on Cacao Estate Carting Cacao to Railway Station, Ceylon The Carenage, Grenada Early Factory Methods Women Grinding Chocolate Cacao Bean Warehouse Cacao Bean Sorting and Cleaning Machine Diagram of Cacao Bean Cleaning Machine Section through Gas Heated Cacao Roaster Roasting Cacao Beans Cacao Bean, Shell and Germ Section through Kibbling Cones and Germ Screens Section through Winnowing Machine Cacao Grinding Section through Grinding Stones A Cacao Press Section through Cacao Press-pot and Ram-plate Chocolate Melangeur Plan of Chocolate Melangeur Chocolate Refining Machine Grinding Cacao Nib and Sugar Section through Chocolate Grinding Rolls "Conche" Machines Section through "Conche" Machine Machines for Mixing or "Conching" Chocolate Chocolate Shaking Table Girls Covering or Dipping Cremes, etc. The Enrober A Confectionery Room Factory at which Milk is Evaporated for Milk Chocolate Manufacture Cocoa and Chocolate Despatch Deck Boxing Chocolates Packing Chocolates Factory at which Milk is Evaporated for Milk Chocolate Manufacture Cacao Pods, Leaves and Flowers

INTRODUCTION

In a few short chapters I propose to give a plain account of the production of cocoa and chocolate. I assume that the reader is not a specialist and knows little or nothing of the subject, and hence both the style of writing and the treatment of the subject will be simple. At the same time, I assume that the reader desires a full and accurate account, and not a vague story in which the difficulties are ignored. I hope that, as a result of this method of dealing with my subject, even experts will find much in the book that is of interest and value. After a brief survey of the history of cocoa and chocolate, I shall begin with the growing of the cacao bean, and follow the cacao in its career until it becomes the finished product ready for consumption.

Cacao or Cocoa?

The reader will have noted above the spelling "cacao," and to those who think it curious, I would say that I do not use this spelling from pedantry. It is an imitation of the word which the Mexicans used for this commodity as early as 1500, and when spoken by Europeans is apt to sound like the howl of a dog. The Mexicans called the tree from which cacao is obtained cacauatl. When the great Swedish scientist Linnaeus, the father of botany, was naming and classifying (about 1735) the trees and plants known in his time, he christened it Theobroma Cacao, by which name it is called by botanists to this day. Theo-broma is Greek for "Food of the Gods." Why Linnaeus paid this extraordinary compliment to cacao is obscure, but it has been suggested that he was inordinately fond of the beverage prepared from it--the cup which both cheers and satisfies. It will be seen from the above that the species-name is cacao, and one can understand that Englishmen, finding it difficult to get their insular lips round this outlandish word, lazily called it cocoa.

In this book I shall use the words cacao, cocoa, and chocolate as follows:

Cacao, when I refer to the cacao tree, the cacao pod, or the cacao bean or seed. By the single word, cacao, I imply the raw product, cacao beans, in bulk.

Cocoa, when I refer to the powder manufactured from the roasted bean by pressing out part of the butter. The word is too well established to be changed, even if one wished it. As we shall see later (in the chapter on adulteration) it has come legally to have a very definite significance. If this method of distinguishing between cacao and cocoa were the accepted practice, the perturbation which occurred in the public mind during the war (in 1916), as to whether manufacturers were exporting "cocoa" to neutral countries, would not have arisen. It should have been spelled "cacao," for the statements referred to the raw beans and not to the manufactured beverage. Had this been done, it would have been unnecessary for the manufacturers to point out that cocoa powder was not being so exported, and that they naturally did not sell the raw cacao bean.

Chocolate.--This word is given a somewhat wider meaning. It signifies any preparation of roasted cacao beans without abstraction of butter. It practically always contains sugar and added cacao butter, and is generally prepared in moulded form. It is used either for eating or drinking.

Cacao Beans and Coconuts.

In old manuscripts the word cacao is spelled in all manner of ways, but cocoa survived them all. This curious inversion, cocoa, is to be regretted, for it has led to a confusion which could not otherwise have arisen. But for this spelling no one would have dreamed of confusing the totally unrelated bodies, cacao and the milky coconut. (You note that I spell it "coconut," not "cocoanut," for the name is derived from the Spanish "coco," "grinning face," or bugbear for frightening children, and was given to the nut because the three scars at the broad end of the nut resemble a grotesque face). To make confusion worse confounded the old writers referred to cacao seeds as cocoa nuts (as for example, in The Humble Memorial of Joseph Fry, quoted in the chapter on history), but, as in appearance cacao seeds resemble beans, they are now usually spoken of as beans. The distinction between cacao and the coconut may be summarised thus:

Cacao. Coconut.

Botanical Name Theobroma Cacao Cocos nucifera Palm Tree Palm

Fruit Cacao pod, containing Coconut, which with outer many seeds (cacao beans) fibre is as large as a man's head

Products Cocoa Broken coconut (copra) Chocolate Coconut matting

Fatty Constituent Cacao butter Coconut oil

CHAPTER I. Cocoa and Chocolate--a Sketch of Their History

COCOA AND CHOCOLATE--A SKETCH OF THEIR HISTORY

Did time and space allow, there is much to be told on the romantic side of chocolate, of its divine origin, of the bloody wars and brave exploits of the Spaniards who conquered Mexico and were the first to introduce cacao into Europe, tales almost too thrilling to be believed, of the intrigues of the Spanish Court, and of celebrities who met and sipped their chocolate in the parlours of the coffee and chocolate houses so fashionable in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

Cocoa and Chocolate (Whymper).

On opening a cacao pod, it is seen to be full of beans surrounded by a fruity pulp, and whilst the pulp is very pleasant to taste, the beans themselves are uninviting, so that doubtless the beans were always thrown away until ... someone tried roasting them. One pictures this "someone," a pre-historic Aztec with swart skin, sniffing the aromatic fume coming from the roasting beans, and thinking that beans which smelled so appetising must be good to consume. The name of the man who discovered the use of cacao must be written in some early chapter of the history of man, but it is blurred and unreadable: all we know is that he was an inhabitant of the New World and probably of Central America.

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