and Magazine of the Ceylon Agricultural Society,— March, 1910. 27? 



THE GERMAN METHOD OF MANUFAC- 

 TURING CACAO BUTTER. 



By Robert P. Skinner, United States 



Consul-General at Hamburg. 

 An inquirer who contemplates the establish- 

 ment of a cacao butter manufacturing plant in 

 Michigan wrongly inferred from a report for- 

 warded from Hamburg on March 19th, 1909, that 

 there was no cacao manufacturing industry in 

 the United States. As a matter of fact, this 

 industry has increased in importance in America 

 by leaps and bounds during the last ten years, 

 and in the report referred to it was merely 

 stated as economically extraordinary that large 

 quantities of imported cacao butter should still 

 find a market in the United States. In 1880 

 there were seven firms manufacturing cacao 

 products in the United States, and this number 

 had increased to twenty-four in 1900. I have 

 now before me a private list of 109 firms manu- 

 facturing chocolate, and, without doubt, a num- 

 ber of them are also producing cacao butter. 

 The importations of cacao into the United States 

 in 190-2 were 56,744,545 pounds, and they in- 

 creased regularly year by year, the total reaching 

 97,419,700 in 1908. Remarkable as is this in- 

 crease, it must be remembered that the expor- 

 tations of raw cacao from the producing markets 

 amount to 260,000,000 pounds per annum and 

 that America is still regarded as a fertile field 

 for European manufacturers to cultivate. It 

 seems fairly certain that the annual consump- 

 tion of cacao products in the United States will 

 continue to increase, as a tendency in this direc- 

 tion is noted throughout the world. 



From being objects of occasional consumption 

 cacao beverages are now competing actively with 

 tea and coffee, and whereas the latter are merely 

 infusions, without nutritive value, cacao con- 

 tains nitrogenous and oleaginous elements, all 

 of which form a part of the beverage and give it 



AN IMPORTANT I'OO D VALUE. 



All of our insular possessions are cacao gro- 

 wing countries, and the product, characteristi- 

 cally American, is obtaining, as is its due, a more 

 and more important place in national dietetics. 

 Although chocolate and "cocoa'' as table beve- 

 rages, and chocolate bon-bons of thousands of 

 descriptions are popular in the United States, 

 the consumption of the dry cake cacao as food 

 is almost unknown. In Europe, on the other 

 hand, and particularly in France, the consump- 

 tion of cake cacao as an ordinary and palatable 

 food is quite common. Probably nine-tenths of 

 the school children of France leave their homes 

 in the morning with a slice of bread and a bit of 

 chocolate, which they eat together at lunch 

 time with entirely satisfactory results. 



The three cacao products known to commerce 

 are : cacao butter, cacao powder and cake choco- 

 late, the manufacture of chocolate requiring 

 skill and knowledge in special degree. The 

 butter is merely the oil or grease of the kernel, 

 usually extracted by pressure and leaving a re- 

 sidue still containing a certain amount of vege- 

 table fat, which, being ground, as will be ex- 

 plained later, is used in making the beverage 

 commonly known as cocoa. When chocolate is 



intended to be produced, the carefully cleaned 

 kernels are crushed into a mass, flavoured and 

 manipulated according to many methods and 

 then, after an addition of pure cacao butter has 

 been made to the natural content of the mass, 

 it is pressed into small cakes and thus sold. 



The cacao bean is composed in weight of 88 

 per cent of kernel and husk and 12 per cent of 

 shell. The shells and husks are treated chemi- 

 cally in Holland for the production of a low- 

 grade butter, the reduction being effected by 

 means of ether or benzine. The kernel, which 

 contains from 50 to 55 per cent of oil, was for- 

 merly treated, when the extraction of butter 

 was contemplated, by boiling, roasting and 

 crushing in ten times its weight in water ; the 

 oil then rising to the surface was decanted 

 and the residue pressed mechanically for the 

 elimination of such butter as it still contained. 

 This method has been abandoned and the 

 kernels, freed from their envelopes, are now 

 ground to a mass, brought to a temperature 

 of from 60 to 70 degrees Centigrade, placed 

 in coarse linen sacks and finally pressed 

 in steam-heated machines. After this first ap- 

 plication of pressure 



THE CACAO (JAKE 



contains from 20 to 35 per cent of fat ; it is then 

 ground and repressed until not more than 15 per 

 cent of the fatty matter remains. The oil, or 

 grease, which has been extracted is called cacao 

 butter and is used chiefly by chocolate manu- 

 facturers, as heretofore explained, in smaller 

 quantities, in the soap, perfumery and pharma- 

 ceutical industries in which, owing to its neutral 

 qualities, it is especially valuable. 



Fresh cacao butter is yellowish white, but if 

 exposed to light becomes entirely white, and 

 possesses a mild odour of the cacao and a 

 sweet agreeable taste. Both taste and 

 odour are eliminated by boiling the fat 

 with absolute alcohol, and in this condition it 

 keeps a long time without becoming raucid. 

 It is firm in consistency and melts at from 32 

 to 35 degrees Centigrade according to quality. 

 Its density varies from 0.890 to 0.900 at 15 de- 

 grees Centigrade. It is very soluble in ether, 

 acetic ether, chloroform and essence of tur- 

 pentine. It is sometimes falsified with a mix- 

 ture of stearine, paraffin and beef tat. If it 

 is mixed with fatty oils it melts at a temper- 

 ature of less than 25 degrees, and if it is mixed 

 with paraffin and beef fat it melts at a tem- 

 perature in excess of 35 degrees. If pure, the 

 point of fusion should not be less than 25 de 

 grees nor more than 30 degrees centrigrade. 



The butter having now been withdrawn from 

 the mass there remains 



AN OILY CAKE, WHICH IS GROUND INTO FINE POW- 

 DER AND COMMANDS A VERY WIDE SALE. 



The powder is usually prepared according 

 to the Dutch method by the addition of a 

 solution of chemically pure potash. Less fre- 

 quently soda is used instead, or perhaps a 

 solution of carbonate of ammonium. In 

 ordinary practice the raw beans with their shell 

 might be expected to yield from 40 to 45 per 

 cent of their weight in butter and 30 per cent 

 of cacao powder, 



