324 



COCOA 



COCOA-NUT 



By far the most important species of this genus is 

 T. cacao, to which the name cocoa-tree is often 

 exclusively appropriated. It is extensively culti- 

 vated in tropical America and the West Indies, 

 and its cultivation has been introduced into some 

 parts of Asia and Africa. The fruit is somewhat 

 like a cucumber in shape, is 6 or 8 inches long, 



Cocoa ( Theobroma cacao) : 

 a, branch with leaves ; b, fruit (partly in section). 



yellow, and red on the side next the sun ; the 

 rind is thick and warty, the pulp sweetish, and 

 not unpleasant ; the seeds numerous, compressed, 

 and not unlike almonds, with a thin, pale, reddish- 

 brown, fragile skin or shell, covering a dark-brown, 

 oily, aromatic, bitter kernel. These seeds are the 

 cocoa beans of commerce ; when bruised so as to 

 be reduced to small pieces, after being shelled or 

 decorticated, they become cocoa nibs. The cocoa- 

 tree produces larger seeds in cultivation than in a 

 wild state. The tree attains its full vigour and 

 productiveness in seven or eight years, and gener- 

 ally yields two principal crops in the year. When 

 gathered, the fruit is subjected to five days' fer- 

 mentation in earthen vessels or in heaps on the 

 ground, and then opened by the hand ; or it is 

 buried for a while in the earth till the pulp 

 becomes rotten. The latter method is said to 

 produce the best cocoa (earthed cocoa or cacao 

 terre ). The seeds are then roasted. 



The average composition of the shelled and 

 roasted bean is, in round numbers, about as follows. 

 There is considerable variation in different samples. 



(Hydrocarbon) Cocoa-butter 51 



( Nitrogenous food ) Gluten, albumen, &c 22 



( Carbo-hydrates ) Starch, gum, &c 13 



Water 5 



Mineral matter 3 



Indigestible woody matter ( cellulose ) 3 



Theobromine 2J 



100 



This expresses a very high nutritive value, as 

 will be understood by comparing it with the 

 follo\ying, which shows the proportion of corre- 

 sponding constituents in lean beef a beefsteak, 

 for example : 



(Hydrocarbon) Fat 4 



( Nitrogenous food ) Gelatin, albumen, &c 19 



(Carbo-hydrates) 



Mineral matter 5 



Water 72 



100 

 In order to render its large amount of nutritious 



matter digestible, the nut must be prepared. The 

 best mode of preparation is by crushing and con- 

 tinuous grinding under rollers until the whole is 

 reduced to an impalpable paste. This, when 

 dried, adheres, and forms a hard cake. In this 

 form it is now supplied to the navy and many mer- 

 chant ships, and forms a most valuable beverage- 

 food for sailors when scraped or pounded and boiled 

 for a short time in water. The large amount of 

 fatty matter and nitrogenous food renders it 

 especially suitable for men exposed to cold and 

 fatigue. It is a most valuable reserve food for 

 travellers, so much of both heat-giving and flesh- 

 forming nutriment being concentrated in a given 

 bulk and weight. It is thus used by Swiss and 

 Tyrolese mountaineers in the form of edible 

 chocolate. For the preparation of chocolate, see 

 CHOCOLATE. 



An infusion of the broken and roasted shells, 

 which are set aside in preparing the best qualities 

 of chocolate, is used in Italy, Spain, and other 

 countries as a cheap substitiite for coffee, and bears 

 the name of miserabile ( ' poverty stricken ' ). The 

 pulp of the fruit is eaten in the countries in which 

 the tree grows, and a kind of spirit is obtained 

 from it by fermentation and distillation. 



Cocoatina, cocoa essence, concentrated cocoa, are 

 names given to preparations from which some of 

 the cocoa-butter has been extracted to render the 

 beverage more digestible. These, when honestly 

 prepared, are excellent. Another mode of prepara- 

 tion consists in adding large quantities of cooked 

 farinaceous material to the ground cocoa, mixing 

 these when in a pasty condition, then drying and 

 selling the mixture under various names soluble 

 cocoa, &c. Some of them contain but a homeo- 

 pathic proportion of actual cocoa, producing, when 

 prepared by the addition of boiling water, merely 

 a gruel flavoured with cocoa. Those who prefer 

 such mixtures will find it economical to prepare 

 their gruel or porridge themselves, and add genuine 

 cocoa to it. The writer has done this by sprinkling 

 a little powdered cocoa into ordinary Sco'tch por- 

 ridge. By using whole or ground cocoa nibs, a 

 genuine cocoa beverage may be obtained, but for 

 this it is necessary to subject the nibs to very long 

 boiling ; a whole day is desirable. The full and 

 peculiar flavour of the nut comes out, and much of 

 the butter floats on top, while the cellulose and 

 other insoluble constituents remain as sediment. 



The Theobromine or special crystallisable alkaloid 

 of cocoa resembles that of tea and coffee, but con- 

 tains a larger proportion of nitrogen, and appears 

 to be less stimulating in its action on the nervous 

 system. Some regard it as highly nutritious. 



In South Carolina the earth-nut is roasted and 

 used as a spurious cocoa ; and in Spain the root of 

 the earth chestnut ( Cyperus esculenta ) is similarly 

 used. See ADULTERATION. 



Cocoa-nut is the current English form of what 

 was till Dr Johnson's time spelt Coco-nut ; coco, 

 'mask,' being the Portuguese name given to the 

 nut from the resemblance of its lower part to a 

 mask. It is the well-known fruit of a species of 

 palm, Cocos nucifera, perhaps originally a native 

 only of the Indian coasts and South Sea Islands, 

 but now diffused over all tropical regions, generally 

 succeeding best in sandy soils near the sea. It is 

 always one of the first of the larger plants to estab- 

 lish itself in the low islands of the Pacific Ocean, so 

 soon as there is soil enough, its. nuts being widely 

 distributed by marine currents, while the thick 

 husk protects the embryo from injury. It has a 

 cylindrical stem, about 1| feet in diameter, and 

 from 60 to 90 feet high, with many rings marking 

 the places of former leaves, and bearing at its 

 summit a crown of from sixteen to twenty leaves, 

 which generally curve downwards, and are from 10 



