WE VISIT BOURNVILLE 75 



the machine starts testing the beans to judge when they 

 will be cooked to a " T." From a sample, which is 

 automatically discharged, he picks up a handful of 

 beans and tests them by smelling to see how far the 

 aroma has been developed. When sufficiently roasted, 

 the beans are transferred to trucks, or hoppers, the 

 bottom of which is perforated, and these receptacles 

 are wheeled into position over gratings served from 

 below with cold air. This operation not only cools 

 the beans, but prevents them being burnt in their own 

 heat. 



The roasted and cooled beans are carried by a sliding 

 band to an elevator and thence transferred to a 

 store. 



Now comes the very important operation of Blending. 

 In simple language, this merely means mixing ; such or 

 such a weight of beans from one part of the world is 

 mixed with a similar or proportionate weight of beans 

 from one or more of the other producing countries 

 thus, two portions of Trinidad with one of West African. 

 The actual variety and proportion of beans depend on 

 the particular brand of cocoa or chocolate for which 

 the mixture is to be used; every manufacturer has his 

 own recipes for his own specialities, and these recipes 

 vary with such details as quality and selling price of 

 brands to be manufactured. Naturally, manufacturers 

 do not publish particulars of their blending recipes. 



The blended beans, now thoroughly clean but still 

 in their shell, next undergo the process of Crushing and 

 .Shelling, or, as it is often called, Kibbling. The machine 

 which performs this operation is a tall and long monster, 

 consisting of numerous compartments equipped with 

 many sets of fans for winnowing the broken shell from 

 the crushed beans, and fitted with a Clapham Junction 



