vii FERMENTATION AND DRYING 215 



not only is mould avoided, but the cleaner the cocoa 

 the more suitable it is for mixing with darker kinds 

 in order to make a light-coloured chocolate. 



In Ecuador, where again cocoa is fermented very 

 slightly, no special process is adopted in order to get 

 rid of the adhering pulp. The result, however, is that 

 Ecuador cocoa is more subject to mould than any other, 

 and it would be most advisable for the planters in this 

 country to try some method of avoiding this drawback. 



Drying or curing. Formerly it was considered 

 advisable to dry the cocoa slowly. In Surinam drying 

 was by preference effected in spacious and airy drying- 

 houses, which were not provided with any heating 

 apparatus. Sometimes, however, it was necessary to 

 dry the cocoa in the sun on large floors. It was, 

 however, always preferred to dry it slowly, because it 

 was believed that in this way a product of better 

 quality was obtained ; and in the West Indies and 

 Surinam it was on some plantations customary to cover 

 the sun-dried cocoa when the heat of the sun was 

 considered to be too strong. 



Nowadays, planters and merchants are no longer so 

 particular as to the way in which cocoa is dried, but 

 there is still a slight preference for sun-dried cocoa above 

 cocoa dried by means of artificial drying apparatus. 



(a) Sun-drying. Slow drying in the sun has the 

 advantage of allowing the internal fermentation to 

 proceed a little farther in those beans, or in those parts 

 of beans, where it was not yet quite accomplished. 

 This makes the colour more uniform, and slightly more 

 light-reddish than when dried artificially. Secondly, 

 the drying is uniform ; no beans are dried too quickly 

 so as to get too brittle, which often happens in the 

 quick-drying artificial apparatus, especially when the 

 cocoa has been washed. 



In several countries where the rainfall is not very 

 heavy and the number of bright, sunny days great 

 enough, cocoa is dried only by sun, and artificial driers 

 are never used. 



