10 COCOA 



as to keep you wide awake. Here is a tin of mixed 



chocolates for you; I have just bought them at the 



barber's shop, to show you how chocolates must be 



packed if they are coming to the tropics, and also to 



help put life into the information I am about to give you. 



The correct name, botanically speaking, for the tree 



which yields the vast commercial supply of the world's 



cocoa, is cacao. It is the most important member of 



the family called Theobroma, a name which, as you 



may remember, I have already told you means " food 



of the gods "; that name was given to the family 



by Linnaeus as a lasting record of appreciation for 



it as the source of a most delicious food. Several 



of the Theobromas yield beans from which cocoa is 



prepared, but the one most generally cultivated for 



commercial supplies is distinguished by the name of 



cacao. Theobroma cacao being the full designation of 



this most important branch of the family, the short but 



botanically correct name for the trees belonging 



thereto is cacao ; hence, the edible beans yielded by 



such trees are cacao beans. Strictly speaking, the 



name cocoa should only be used for a pure product 



prepared from the beans to distinguish it from the raw 



product, cacao ; cocoa becomes chocolate by the addition 



of sugar, with, maybe, some flavouring ingredient. 



In everyday language, however, that word cocoa 

 has come to be used indiscriminately in talking of the 

 tree, the fruit, and the powder that is prepared from 

 the beans as the basis of a beverage. Thus, ninety-nine 

 people out of a hundred who are interested in the 

 industry planters, merchants, shippers, and manu- 

 facturers speak of cocoa farms, cocoa plantations, 

 cocoa beans, cocoa bags, cocoa stores, the cocoa 

 market, and cocoa factories. The hundredth, being a 



