CHAPTER X 



COMMERCE 



SOME CHARACTERISTICS OF THE MARKETABLE BEAN 



THE chemical constitution of the marketable bean has 

 already been discussed in Chapter III. 



A few words may now be said about the general 

 and microscopical texture. 



In the marketable bean the seed-coat and the 

 kernel or embryo are easily recognisable. When well 

 prepared (fermented and dried) the seed-coat is quite 

 free from the kernel ; it surrounds it as a thin, very 

 brittle, free cover. 



In some kinds of cocoa, especially the varieties 



grown in Western Venezuela (" Caracas," " Porto 

 abello," " Maracaibo ") and sometimes also in the 

 Trinidad cocoa, the seed-coat is covered with a very thin 

 layer of red earth. In other kinds of cocoa the seed has 

 a very clean appearance, as in well-washed Java cocoa 

 and in good quality Ceylon. Of many sorts, however, 

 and among them the fine, high-priced Ecuador cocoa, 

 the appearance is not good, the colour is uneven, and 

 shows that little care has been taken in fermenting and 

 curing. 



The kernel in a well-prepared bean is always very 

 brittle. The colour is light brown in some of the finer 

 sorts, as in the cocoas of Western Venezuela, Ceylon, 

 and Java ; in most sorts, however, it is dark brown 

 or reddish brown, sometimes with a slight violet tinge. 



481 2 I 



