Dr. Oscar Loew 57 



baking bread. The cacao butter is not re- 

 moved in Porto Rico, and therefore the 

 chocolate manufactured there has an exquisitely 

 fine aroma. 1 



SUMMARY. 



The fermentation process itself is due in the 

 first place to yeast cells, which multiply rapidly 

 in the saccharine juice oozing from the pulped 

 cacao, and produce alcohol and carbon dioxide. 

 In the second place bacteria participate, which 

 develop rapidly after a certain time, and change 

 the alcohol formed by the yeast by oxidation, 

 either wholly or partly, into acetic acid. These 

 processes cause a rise of temperature, and the 

 death of the cells of the seed and slime tissue, 

 whereby the juice of the slime tissue can 

 separate and, more or less altered, collect at 

 the bottom of the receptacles, together with 

 the acetic acid produced. 



The chief object of the fermentation is to 

 kill and shrink the slime tissue or pulp attached 

 to the testa of the seed, allowing the remnants 

 either to be washed away, as is done in Ceylon, 

 or dried upon the seed, forming an irregular 

 brown film upon the testa. The advantage of 

 thus changing the voluminous slime tissue lies 

 in the increased facility of quickly drying the 



1 I think it will be generally agreed that the English 

 term " chocolate " denotes an article for eating rather 

 than drinking, and in that case not only is all the 

 natural fat or butter left in the beans, but even extra 

 butter is added at times, I believe. H. H. S. 



