Dr. Oscar Loew as 
similar to that of coffee, and-is different from 
that of tea. With tea the aroma is the result 
of the action of a hydrolizing enzyme, yielding 
the volatile tea oil, as was shown by Katayama. 
That the aroma of the cacao is chiefly pro- 
duced during the gentle roasting process is the 
opinion of manufacturers of chocolate from the 
fermented beans. The fermentation seems,: 
indeed, to have nothing at all to do with the 
production of aroma. Seeds simply dried in 
the sun and then gently roasted may yield 
an especially rich and aromatic chocolate, as‘ 
Safford’ has also indicated. Hart says: 
“No adulterdtion . . . is equal to the 
flavour of the virgin cacao, provided the 
essential oil has not been destroyed during 
the process of roasting, during which process 
it appears to be developed.” 
The question now arises: which compound 
yields the aroma in the cautious roasting of 
the fermented cacao beans? It is certainly 
not a glucoside, for neither the testa nor the 
cotyledons of the beans develop anything like 
a cacao flavour upon being boiled for some 
time with dilute sulphuric acid (3 to 6 per cent.). 
The same negative result was obtained by 
1 Compare the quotation in the introductory remarks 
to this article on p. 34. 
2 ¢ Cacao.” Trinidad, 1900, 2nd ed., p. 111. These 
words, however, contradict his previous opinion already 
quoted in regard to the influence of fermentation on: 
aroma. 
