12 



CACAO OR COCOA. 



beans, arranged in j&ve regular rows with partitions between, and 

 which are surrounded with a rose-colored spongy substance, like 

 that of water melons. There are fruits^ however, so large as to 

 contain from forty to fifty beans. Those grown in the West 

 India islands, as well as Berbice and Demerara, are much smaller, 

 and have only from six to fifteen; their development being less 

 perfect than other parts of South America. After the matura- 

 tion of the fruit, when their green colour has changed to a dark 

 yellow, they are plucked, opened, their beans cleared of the 

 marrowy substance, and spread out to dry in the air. In the 

 "West Indies they are immediately packed up for the market when 

 they are dried ; but in Caraccas they are subjected to a species of 

 slight fermentation, by putting them into tubs or chests, covering 

 them with boards or stones, and turning them over every morning 

 to equalize the operation. They emit a good deal of moisture, 

 and lose the natural bitterness and acrimony of their taste by 

 this process, as well as some of their weight. Instead of wooden 

 tubs, pits or trenches dug in the ground are sometimes had 

 recourse to for curing the beans ; an operation called earthing. 

 They are, lastly, exposed to the sun and dried. According to 

 Lampadius, the kernels of the West India cacao beans contain 

 in 100 parts, besides water, 53.1 of fat or oil, 16.7 of an albu- 

 minous brown matter, vvhich contains all the aroma of the bean ; 

 10.91 of starch, 7|- of gum or mucilage, 0.9 of lignine, and 2.01 

 of a reddish dye-stufi", somewhat akm to the pigment of cochi- 

 neal. The husks form 12 per cent, of the weigLt of the beans. 

 The fatty matter is of the consistence of tallow, white, of a mild 

 agreeable taste, and not apt to turn rancid by keeping. It melts 

 only at 112 degrees Pahr., and should, therefore, make tolerable 

 candles. It is obtained by exposing the beans to strong pressure 

 in canvas bags, after they have been steamed or soaked in boiling 

 water for some time. Erom five to six ounces of butter may be . 

 thus obtained from a pound of cacao. It has a reddish tinge 

 when first expressed, but it becomes white by boiling with water. 



The beans, being freed from all spoded and mouldy portions, are 

 to be gently roasted over a tire in an iron cylinder, with holes in 

 its ends for allowing the vapors to escape, the apparatus being- 

 similar to a coffee -roaster. When the aroma begins to be well 

 developed, the roasting is known to be finished, and the beans 

 must be turned out, cooled, and freed by fanning and sifting from 

 their husks. The kernels are then to be converted into a paste, 

 either by trituration in a mortar heated to 130 degrees Fahr., or 

 by a pow^erful mill.* 



The cacao tree resembles our dwarf apple tree both in body 

 and branches, but the leaf, which is of a dai'k green, is consider- 

 ably broader and larger. The nuts are of the color and about 

 the size of an almond, and hang eighteen to thirty together by a 

 slender stringy film, enclosed in a pod. A ripe pod is of a beau- 

 tiful yellow, intermixed with crimson streaks ; when dried, it 

 * lire's Dictionary of Arts and Manufactures. 



