CHAPTER V 



THE MANUFACTURE OF COCOA AND 

 CHOCOLATE. 



The Indians, from whom we borrow it, are not very nice 

 in doing it ; they roast the kernels in earthen pots, then free 

 them from their skins, and afterwards crush and grind 

 them between two stones, and so form cakes of it with 

 their hands. Natural History of Chocolate, 



R. Brookes, 1730. 



Early Methods in the Tropics. 



AS the cacao bean is grown in tropical countries, 

 it is there that we must look for the first attempts 

 at manufacturing from it a drink or a food- 

 stuff. The primitive method of preparation was very 

 simple, consisting in roasting the beans in a pot or on v ^ 

 a shovel to develop their flavour, winnowing in the 

 wind, and then rubbing the broken shelled beans be- 

 tween stones until quite fine. The curious thing is that 

 on grinding the cacao bean in the heat of a tropical day 

 we do not produce a powder but a paste. This is be- 

 cause half the cacao bean consists of a fat which is 

 liquid at 9<D F., a temperature which is reached in the 

 shade in tropical countries. This paste was then made 

 into small rolls and put in a cool place to set. Thus was 

 produced the primitive unsweetened drinking choco- 

 late. This" is the method, which Elizabethans, who 

 ventured into the tangled forests of equatorial America, 

 found in use ; and this is the method they brought 

 home to Europe. In the tropics these simple processes 

 are followed to this day, but in Europe they have 

 undergone many elaborations and refinements. 



