212 COCOA 



CHAP. 



produced, it has been suggested that the method of fer- 

 mentation is to blame and should be improved. As yet, 

 however, there is no indication that the quality of cocoa 

 would be changed to any great extent by adopting 

 another method of fermentation. It is of course true 

 that when inferior varieties of cocoa, which need a long 

 fermentation, are insufficiently fermented, the quality 

 of the resulting product is poorer than it might be ; 

 and that, on the other hand, superior varieties o%cocoa, 

 which need only a short fermentation, can without 

 doubt be spoiled by being fermented too long. The 

 present author, however, considers it a mistake to think 

 that cocoa of mediocre quality can be improved to any 

 great extent by a change in the method of fermenta- 

 tion. The quality of cocoa is almost wholly dependent 

 upon the variety grown and upon unknown characters 

 of soil and climate. In some cocoa-growing countries 

 e.g. the west of Venezuela and the Arriba country 

 of Ecuador the quality of the cocoa is always good, 

 even when it is carelessly fermented ; but other countries 

 e.g. the Orinoco basin, Surinam, the Gold Coast, 

 Kamerun will probably never produce cocoa of superior 

 quality in spite of the most careful fermentation. 



Washing. In only a few countries are the fer- 

 mented seeds washed. In Java (Fig. 69) it is adopted 

 everywhere ; in Ceylon it is generally done ; in Mexico, 

 San Salvador and Guatemala often ; and sometimes in 

 Samoa and Kamerun. In all the other cocoa-growing 

 countries and these include the most important 

 Ecuador, San Thome*, Trinidad and the other Antilles, 

 Venezuela, the Gold Coast, etc.^no washing is done. 



The advantage of washing the fermented beans is, of 

 course, that it cleans the seeds of the remaining pulp. 

 But this effect is in most kinds of cocoa very little 

 appreciated by the merchants, and the price paid for 

 washed Ecuador, Trinidad or Surinam cocoa is very 

 little higher than the price paid for unwashed. 



In the case of the more ordinary kinds of cocoa 

 the disadvantage of washing the fermented seeds is 



