INTRODUCTION 3 



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 distin- 

 guishing between cacao and cocoa were the accepted 

 practice, the perturbation which occurred in the public 

 mind during the war (in 19 16), as to whether manu- 

 facturers were exporting ' cocoa ' to neutral coun- 

 tries, 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 manu- 

 facturers 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 



