HARVESTING AND PREPARATION 77 



PLANTER : Ha ! ha ! Then it's a very sinful practice. I don't think 

 that ever gets beyond the local tropical market. I know the 

 merchants judge largely by " the skin," but I thought the 

 London broker . 



MANUFACTURER : You see it's like this. Just as you associate a certaini 

 label with a particularly good brand of cigar so the planter's 

 mark on the bag and the external appearance of the beans 

 influence the broker by long association. But just as you cannot 

 truly judge a cigar by the picture on the box, so the broker has 

 to consider what is under the shell of the bean. One or two 

 manufacturers go further, but don't trust merely to " tasting 

 with their eyes " they only come to a conclusion when they 

 have roasted a sample. 



PLANTER : But a buyer can get a shrewd idea without roasting,, 

 surely ? You agree. Well, what exactly does he look for ? 



MANUFACTURER : Depends what nationality the bean is I mean 

 whether it was grown in Venezuela, Brazil, Trinidad, or the 

 Gold Coast. In general he likes beans with a good " break,"" 

 that is beans which, under the firm pressure of thumb and 

 forefinger, break into small crisp nibs. Closeness or cheesiness 

 are danger signals, warnings of lack of fermentation, so is a 

 slate-coloured interior. He prefers a pale, even-coloured in- 

 terior, cinnamon, chocolate, or cafe-au-lait colour and .. 



PLANTER : One moment ! I've heard before of planters being told 

 to ferment and cure until the bean is cinnamon colour. Why,, 

 man, you couldn't get a pale brown interior with beans of the 

 Forastero or Calabacillo type if you fermented them to rotten- 

 ness. 



MANUFACTURER : True ! Well, if the breed on your plantation is 

 purple Forastero, and more than half of the cacao in the world 

 is, you must develop as much brown in the beans as possible. 

 They should have the characteristic refreshing odour of raw 

 cacao, together with a faint vinegary odour. The buyers much 

 dislike any foreign smell, any mouldy, hammy, or cheesy 

 odour. 



PLANTER : And where do the foreign odours come from ? 



MANUFACTURER : That's debatable. Some come from bad fermenta- 

 tions, due to dirty fermentaries, abnormal temperatures, or 

 unripe cacao.* Some come from smoky or imperfect artificial 



* Cameroon cacao sometimes has an objectionable odour and 

 flavour, which may be due to its being fermented in an unripe con- 

 dition, for, as Dr. Fickendey says : " Cameroon cacao has to be- 

 harvested unripe to save the pods from brown rot." 



