138 



COCOA FERMENTATION 



of these organisms and the fermentative activity generate 

 heat and gradually a considerable elevation of tempera- 

 ture is reached. 



If the pulp be removed no fermentation of cocoa beans 

 takes place, when they are placed in a heap or in a fer- 

 menting-box ; but if such beans be soaked in a sugar 

 solution, fermentative activity is soon set up. The 

 fermentation of freshly shelled beans, which have been 

 heavily rain- washed in the plantation, is sometimes in- 

 duced by planters by the application of saccharine liquids 

 or by the admixture of normally fermenting cocoa beans. 



Cured cocoa beans usually possess a slight aromatic 

 odour, but the characteristic aroma of cocoa is not 

 properly developed until the beans are roasted in the 

 process of manufacture. This aroma is associated with 

 the fat of the cocoa bean, so that it is possible that 

 its development commences with the heat generated in 

 the fermenting heap and is further developed during 

 the drying process. 



According to Loew only beans in which the oxydising 

 enzymes have produced changes can yield the true aroma 

 by roasting, not the fresh beans. 



Characters of Beans with White and Purple Cotyledons. 

 One of the primary objects of cocoa fermentation is to 

 remove the bitter and astringent property of the raw 

 beans. The white beans of the Criollo varieties and 

 Theobroma pentagona are far less bitter and astringent 

 than the purple beans of the Forastero varieties and 

 T. sphcerocarpa. This is one of the reasons why the 

 former require less fermentation than the latter ; another 

 reason is that the integument or seed-coat of the beans 

 with white cotyledons is almost invariably thinner than 

 that of the beans with purple cotyledons. Wright (loc. cit.) 

 gives the following table showing the average proportion- 

 ate weights of the integuments and kernels of different 

 varieties of 100 cured cocoa beans at Peradeniya : 



