iO4 The Fermentation of Cacao 



even sample or break cannot possibly be 

 obtained by such a process ; you had in fact 

 a mere mixture of brown, violet and slate- 

 coloured beans. The latter are often described 

 in the trade as "unripe"; to my mind a per- 

 fectly false designation, for they are beans that 

 have been completely excluded from fermenta- 

 tion. 



In all better managed plantations the beans 

 are turned over by being shovelled or emptied 

 from one box into another whilst the fermenta- 

 tion process is going on. In deciding when 

 this should be done the planter has to judge 

 how long should be allowed before changing 

 the cacao from one box to the other, whether 

 every day or every other day, and what tem- 

 perature should be maintained in the boxes ; 

 in either case the decisions arrived at are 

 purely empirical. 



In the Cameroons it was customary at first 

 to allow the cacao to sweat from three to 

 four days, but now the period has been pro- 

 longed. In San Thome the methods em- 

 ployed are more advanced, and the period of 

 fermentation (or sweating) is not always regu- 

 lated by time, but often by the appearance of 

 the bean, but even here the fermentation is 

 usually allowed to continue too long. 1 



As I have already pointed out, fermentation 



1 I cannot altogether agree with this ; at any rate the 

 San Thome cacao I am in the habit of valuing does not 

 give me the idea of being over-fermented. H. H. S. 



