42 The Fermentation of Cacao 
In many parts of Central America, however, 
the shrunken pulp is dried with, 2.2. on, the 
beans, which are shipped in this condition to 
other countries. 
Cacao beans, when fermented and_ well- 
washed, show a uniform yellowish or brownish 
colouration of their testa. The testa of un- 
washed fermented beans do not show a uniform 
colouration on account of the adhering films 
of fermented and shrunken pulp, which has 
turned from the original colourless condition 
to a violet brown colour, and which is reduced 
from the original thickness of o'1 to o'2 cm, 
to a mere film. An advantage of removing 
the remaining films by washing consists doubt- 
less in the greater rapidity of drying, where- 
by the danger of attack by mould fungi is 
diminished. Eugene Lange’ holds that the 
extra trouble is not compensated by the addi- 
tional price obtained for washed cacao. Never- 
theless, the washing of the cacao has been 
recently introduced in Trinidad.’ 
When pulped cacao is not fermented, but 
simply dried in the sun, the slimy layer around 
the testa shrinks considerably, but not to such 
insignificant thin films as after fermentation. 
When the entire juice of the slimy layer is 
simply dried up instead of being removed, a 
hygroscopic conditton. of the product results, 
which in moist weather becomes sticky and 
1 Agr. Record. Trinidad, 4 (1891), pp. 105-107. 
2 Tt is, however, very seldom used to-day.—H. H.S. 
