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The World's Commercial Products 



nutritious, but too fatty to suit many people's taste. One of the first operations in the prepa- 

 ration of cacao is to get rid of the greater portion of this fat. It is not that the fat is harmful 

 or indigestible, but simply that there is too much- of it for ordinary purposes. 



The fat may be separated from the beans in two ways. In factories it -is effected by means 

 of hydraulic presses, and an important by-product is obtained, worth about double the mar- 

 ket-value of an equal weight of the raw beans. In this way only a portion of the contained 

 fat is extracted from the beans, but by chemical processes it is possible to extract it all. By 

 boiling the cacao wit 1 \ water or by grinding the beans to powder and treating them with 

 ether or carbon bisulphide, the whole of the fat can be removed. 



" DANCING CACAO BEANS IN TRINIDAD 



One method of lessening the proportion of fat is by adding starch, but whilst the fat 

 is relatively reduced in this way, the percentage of the other useful constituents of the cacao 

 is reduced also, with loss of its agreeable fragrance and stimulating properties. 



A Dutchman, Mr. C. J. van Houten, of Amsterdam (1801-1887), the founder of the 

 well-known firm bearing his name, endeavoured to solve this question of the excess of fat, 

 and after long searching he succeeded in not only freeing the beans from the superabundant 

 fat, but also in giving such a form to the mass which remained after the process that the cacao 

 retained all its nutritive power, and could be easily made into an agreeable beverage. 



At first he- called his product chocolate-powder, a name which was soon changed into Van 

 Houten's cocoa — to indicate that the product only contained the pure elements of the cacao- 

 beans, and was not mixed with starch or any other added substance. 



