12 COCOA 



Note the high percentage of fat, the heat-giving 

 constituent of food, and of starch and albuminoids, the 

 flesh-forming constituents; theobromine, I should tell 

 you, is an alkaloid which has a similar property to 

 the stimulating power of theine in tea, and caffeine 

 in coffee. In cacao beans, therefore, as you will now 

 understand, we have a food product that combines 

 a very high proportion of nourishment with tonic 

 powei. To sum up its virtues, the bean is imbued 

 with special power for building up the bodies of growing 

 children, for making good the waste suffered by older 

 bodies through the wear and tear of life, for supplying 

 people of all ages with a reserve fund of energy, and for 

 giving them a fillip when they are physically or 

 mentally tired. 



Now that you know how large an amount of fat 

 enters into the composition of cacao beans, or, as 

 they are commonly called, cocoa beans, you will 

 understand why those chocolates you are eating have 

 to be kept in tins in a hot climate ; you can also ex- 

 plain to yourselves why chocolate goes soft at home 

 if it is exposed to the sun in a shop window, and why 

 your pocket gets messy if you have any chocolate in 

 it when you sit near the fire. 



I quite agree with you that in this Turkish bath 

 atmosphere of the part of the world where we now 

 find ourselves, it seems hardly possible to imagine 

 that we have ever enjoyed sitting near a fire, and that 

 our friends at home are now probably hugging the 

 hearth and trying to get warm. 



A damp, hot climate suits the cocoa tree. 



Gasping for breath and feeling as though you are 

 wearing clothes that have been dipped in hot water 

 and only half wrung out, you are thinking that this 



