136 



COCOA AND CHOCOLATE 



hardy seamen, 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 potsare placed 

 one above another, and then 

 rammed together by a power- 

 ful hydraulic ram. They look 

 like the parts of a slowly col- 

 lapsing telescope. 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 a 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 liquified cacao bean put 

 into the pots contains 54 to 55 per cent, of butter, 

 whilst the cocoa press-cake taken out usually contains 

 only 25 to 30 per cent. The expressed butter flows 

 away and is filtered and solidified (see page 158). All 



A Cacao Press. 



Reproduced by permission ot Messrs. 

 Lake, Orr & Co., Ltd. 



