HOW THEY MAKE COCOA AND CHOCOLATE 79 



presses are set in motion the butter begins to ooze 

 through the cloths in the form of oil. The oil is col- 

 lected by a receptacle at the base of each press. The 

 oil in its raw state is, as you would expect, brown in 

 colour, tinged with the cocoa hue of the nibs in which 

 it has resided. It is taken belowstairs to a dairy -like 

 apartment, where it is refined and put into moulds to 

 cool; thus it is changed into slabs of cream-coloured 

 cocoa butter, which are used, as we shall see presently, 

 in the manufacture of chocolate. During the war, 

 when comparatively little chocolate was made, there 

 was a surplus of cocoa butter, which, as you know, 

 made its appearance for sale in the shops. Cocoa 

 butter is one of the richest of fats. 



In a few minutes the requisite amount of oil has been 

 removed from the cocoa paste by presses adjusted to 

 exert just the right degree of power for extracting so 

 much and no more of the fat. The packages are now 

 taken out of the presses, the cloths unfolded, and lo 

 and behold ! what went into them as a fluid paste has 

 become solid blocks of cocoa. 



Another type of hydraulic press is fitted with a 

 drum-like container for filter-cloths and cocoa paste; 

 in such the paste, after expression of part of its butter 

 ingredient, takes the form of a solid disc of cocoa. 



After leaving the press, each block of cocoa, round or 

 oblong, is weighed. The blocks are wheeled away to an 

 adjoining room, where other special machines grind 

 them to powder. The powder is put on trays and set 

 aside to cool. The cooled powder is reground and 

 conducted to sieves of very fine mesh; all of it which 

 comes through the sieves has passed the final test for 

 upholding the reputation of Bournville cocoa, and is 

 ready for packing. 



