CACAO OR COCOA. 



31 



pounds of sugar, seven pods of vainlla, one-and-a-half pounds of 

 corn meal (maize ground), liilf-a-poniid of cinnamon, six cloves, 

 one draclim of capsicums (bird pepper), and as mucli of the rocou 

 or arnatto as is sufficient to color it, together with ambergris or 

 musk, to enforce (as he says) the flavor, but in reaUty to stimu- 

 late the system. There is another chocolate made of filberts and 

 almonds, but this is not considered genuine. In old Spain it is 

 somewhat diiferently made ; t^vo or three kinds of flovrers, also 

 the pods of Campeche, almonds, and hazel-nuts, being mixed up 

 with it, while the paste is worked witli orange-water. 



AYith regard to the manner in which chocolate is prepared in 

 England nothing need be said, as it is too well known to require 

 description. That which has appeared to me the best is Fry's 

 Chocolate,^' which requires only to-be rubbed up with a little boil- 

 ing water, and scalded milk added to it with sugar, according to 

 the taste of the drinker; there is a flavour, however, in this 

 chocolate sometimes of suet, which is probably added to give it a 

 richness vdiich the cacao em.ployed may not possess of itself. In 

 t?ie West Indies they rarely add anything to cacoa but arnatto 

 (sometimes a little fresh butter), though it is often scented and 

 sweetened, and sold in little rolls at five-pence and ten-pence 

 each, currency. It is always boiled with milk, which, though 

 very indigestible when boiled and taken alone, seems to lose this 

 quality when taken with chocolate. Chocolate thus made is much 

 drank, when cold, in the middle of the day, and is considered, both 

 by the negroes and the old settlers, as a most nutritive and 

 salutarj^ beverage. 



The signs by which good cliocolate or cacao is known are these: — 

 It should dissolve entirely in water, and be without sediment ; it 

 should be oily, and yet melt in the mouth ; and if genuine, and 

 carefully prepared, should deposit no grits or groimds. That 

 made in the West Indies, and in some parts of Cuba, is dark ; 

 but that manufactured in Jamaica is of a bright brick colour, owing 

 to the greater quantity of arnatto which is used in the preparation, 

 and which, I think, gives it a richer and more agTceable flavor. 



In an economical point of view, chocolate is a very important 

 article of diet, as it may be literally termed meat and drink ; and 

 were our lialf-starved artisans, over-T\Tought factory children, and 

 ricketty millinery gnds, induced to drink it instead of the in- 

 nutritions beverage called "tea," its nutritive qualities would soon 

 develop themselves in their improved looks and more robust con- 

 stitution. The price, too, is in its favour, cacao being eight-pence 

 per pound ; while the cheapest black tea, such as even the Chinese 

 beggar would despise, drank by milliners, washerwomen, and the 

 poorer class in the metropolis, is three shillings a pound, or tirree 

 hundred and fifty per cent, dearer, while it is decic edly injurious 

 to health. 



The heads of the naval and military medical departments in 

 England have been so impressed with the wholesomeness and 

 superior nutriment of cocao, that they have iudiciously directed 



