150 The Fermentation of Cacao 
imparts to the cacao its irritating and bitter 
characteristics. 
So far the cacao-red has been considered to 
be the substance which gives the manufactured 
cacao its characteristic aroma and taste, and in 
order to ascertain whether this was correct, the 
cacao-red was prepared in the manner indicated 
by Hilger and Lazarus. On doing so, how- 
ever, it proved to be a perfectly odourless and 
tasteless powder, so that one cannot ascribe the 
aroma and taste of the manufactured cacao to 
this substance. . 
What did appear was that the aroma of the 
cacao was considerably increased by the process 
of fermentation. Fresh unfermented beans, 
when subjected to boiling, do not smell. It 
must, therefore, be concluded that the aroma 
is caused by a substance which, like the cacao- 
red, first originates with the fermentation process. 
The fact that fermented cacao, when sub- 
jected to boiling, smells strongly, led to the 
supposition that the substance in question was 
an ethereal oil, since ethereal oils have the 
peculiarity of evaporating with steam. 
In order to trace this, a large quantity of 
ground cacao that had been fermented was 
distilled by steam. The distillation was again 
distilled to a smaller volume, and this opera- 
tion was repeated several times. In_ this 
manner a drop of oil was obtained, which 
strongly resembled cacao in its peculiar smell 
and taste. 
