HARVESTING AND PREPARATION 

 CACAO BEANS 



61 



Whilst several effects of fermentation have not been 

 satisfactorily accounted for, I think all are agreed that 

 to obtain one of the chief effects of fermentation, 

 namely the brown colour, oxidation is necessary. All 

 recognise that for this oxidation the presence of three 

 substances is essential : 



(1) The tannin to be oxidised. 



(2) Oxygen. 



(3) An enzyme which encourages the oxidation. 



All these occur in the cacao bean as it comes from the 

 pod, but why oxidation occurs so much better in a 

 fermented bean than in a bean which is simply dried 

 is not very clear. If you cut an apple it goes brown 

 owing to the action of oxygen absorbed from the air, 

 but as long as the apple is uncut and unbruised it 

 remains white. If you take a cacao bean from the pod 

 and cut it, the exposed surface goes brown, but if you 

 ferment the bean the whole of it gradually goes brown 

 without being cut. My observations lead me to believe 

 that the bean does not become oxidised until it is 

 killed, that is, until it is no longer capable of germin- 

 ation. It can be killed by raising the temperature, by 

 fermentation or otherwise, or as Dr. Fickendey has 

 shown, by cooling to almost freezing temperatures. It 

 may be that killing the bean makes its skin and cell 

 walls more permeable to oxygen, but my theory is 

 that when the bean is killed disintegration or weaken- 

 ing of the cell walls, etc., occurs, and, as a result, the 



