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COCOA AND CHOCOLATE
Their History from Plantation to Consumer
By
ARTHUR W. KNAPP
B. Sc. (B'ham.), F.I.C., B. Sc. (Lond.) Member of the Society of
Public Analysts; Member of the Society of Chemical Industry; Fellow
of the Institute of Hygiene. Research Chemist to Messrs. Cadbury
Bros., Ltd.
LONDON
CHAPMAN AND HALL, LTD.
1920
PREFACE
Although there are several excellent scientific works dealing in a
detailed manner with the cacao bean and its products from the various
view points of the technician, there is no comprehensive modern work
written for the general reader. Until that appears, I offer this little
book, which attempts to cover lightly but accurately the whole ground,
including the history of cacao, its cultivation and manufacture. This is
a small book in which to treat of so large a subject, and to avoid
prolixity I have had to generalise. This is a dangerous practice, for
what is gained in brevity is too often lost in accuracy: brevity may be
always the soul of wit, it is rarely the body of truth. The expert will
find that I have considered him in that I have given attention to recent
developments, and if I have talked of the methods peculiar to one place
as though they applied to the whole world, I ask him to consider me by
supplying the inevitable variations and exceptions himself.
The book, though short, has taken me a long time to write, having been
written in the brief breathing spaces of a busy life, and it would never
have been completed but for the encouragement I received from Messrs.
Cadbury Bros., Ltd., who aided me in every possible way. I am
particularly indebted to the present Lord Mayor of Birmingham, Mr. W.A.
Cadbury, for advice and criticism, and to Mr. Walter Barrow for reading
the proofs. The members of the staff to whom I am indebted are Mr. W.
Pickard, Mr. E.J. Organ, Mr. T.B. Rogers; also Mr. A. Hackett, for whom
the diagrams in the manufacturing section were originally made by Mr.
J.W. Richards. I am grateful to Messrs. J.S. Fry and Sons, Limited, for
information and photographs. In one or two cases I do not know whom to
thank for the photographs, which have been culled from many sources. I
have much pleasure in thanking the following: Mr. R. Whymper for a large
number of Trinidad photos; the Director of the Imperial Institute and
Mr. John Murray for permission to use three illustrations from the
Imperial Institute series of handbooks to the Commercial Resources of
the Tropics; M. Ed. Leplae, Director-General of Agriculture, Belgium,
for several photos, the blocks of which were kindly supplied by Mr. H.
Hamel Smith, of _Tropical Life_; Messrs. Macmillan and Co. for five
reproductions from C.J.J. van Hall's book on _Cocoa_; and _West Africa_
for four illustrations of the Gold Coast.
The photographs reproduced on pages 2, 23, 39, 47, 49 and 71 are by
Jacobson of Trinidad, on pages 85 and 86 by Underwood & Underwood of
London, and on page 41 by Mrs. Stanhope Lovell of Trinidad.
The industry with which this book deals is changing slowly from an art
to a science. It is in a transition period (it is one of the humours of
any live industry that it is always in a transition period). There are
many indications of scientific progress in cacao cultivation; and now
that, in addition to the experimental and research departments attached
to the principal firms, a Research Association has been formed for the
cocoa and chocolate industry, the increased amount of diffused
scientific knowledge of cocoa and chocolate manufacture should give rise
to interesting developments.
A.W. KNAPP.
Birmingham, _February, 1920._
CONTENTS
PAGE
PREFACE v
INTRODUCTION 1
CHAPTER I
COCOA AND CHOCOLATE--A SKETCH OF THEIR HISTORY 5
CHAPTER II
CACAO AND ITS CULTIVATION 17
CHAPTER III
HARVESTING AND PREPARATION FOR THE MARKET 45
With a dialogue on "The Kind of Cacao the Manufacturers Like."
CHAPTER IV
CACAO PRODUCTION AND SALE 81
With notes on the chief producing areas, cacao markets, and the
planter's life
CHAPTER V
THE MANUFACTURE OF COCOA AND CHOCOLATE 119
CHAPTER VI
THE MANUFACTURE OF CHOCOLATE 139
CHAPTER VII
BY-PRODUCTS OF THE COCOA AND CHOCOLATE INDUSTRY 157
(_a_) Cacao Butter, (_b_) Cacao Shell
CHAPTER VIII
THE COMPOSITION AND FOOD VALUE OF COCOA AND CHOCOLATE 165
(including Milk Chocolate)
CHAPTER IX
ADULTERATION, AND THE NEED FOR DEFINITIONS 179
CHAPTER X
THE CONSUMPTION OF CACAO 183
BIBLIOGRAPHY 191
A List of the Important Books on Cocoa and Chocolate
from the earliest times to the present day.
INDEX 207
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Cacao Pods
Old Drawing of an American Indian, with Chocolate Whisk, etc.
Native American Indians Roasting the Beans, etc.
Ancient Mexican Drinking Cups
Cacao Tree, with Pods and Leaves
Cacao Tree, shewing Pods Growing from Trunk
Flowers and Fruits on main branches of a Cacao Tree
Cacao Pods
Cut Pod, revealing the White Pulp round the Beans
Cacao Pods, shewing Beans inside
Drawing of Typical Pods illustrating varieties
Tropical Forest, Trinidad
Characteristic Root System of the Cacao Tree
Nursery with the Young Cacao Plants in Baskets, Java
Planting Cacao from Young Seedlings in Bamboo Pots, Trinidad
Cacao in its Fourth Year
Copy of an Old Engraving shewing the Cacao Tree, and a tree shading it
Cacao Trees shaded by Kapok, Java
Cacao Trees shaded by Bois Immortel, Trinidad
Cacao Tree with Suckers
Cutlassing
Common Types of Cacao Pickers
Gathering Cacao Pods, Trinidad
Collecting Cacao Pods into a Heap
Men Breaking Pods, etc.
Sweating Boxes, Trinidad
Fermenting Boxes, Java
Charging Cacao on to Trucks in the Plantation, San Thome
Cacao in the Fermenting Trucks, San Thome
Tray-barrow for Drying Small Quantities
Spreading the Cacao Beans on mats to dry, Ceylon
Drying Trays, Grenada
"Hamel Smith" Rotary Dryer
Drying Platforms with Sliding Roofs, Trinidad
Cacao Drying Platforms, San Thome
Washing the Beans, Ceylon
Claying Cacao Beans, Trinidad
Sorting Cacao Beans, Java
Diagram: World's Cacao Production
MAP of the World, with only Cacao-Producing Areas marked
Raking Cacao Beans on the Driers, Ecuador
Gathering Cacao Pods, Ecuador
Sorting Cacao for Shipment, Ecuador
MAP of South America and the West Indies
Workers on a Cacao Plantation
MAP of Africa, with only Cacao-Producing Areas marked
Foreshore at Accra, with Stacks of Cacao ready for Shipment
Carriers conveying Bags of Cacao to Surf Boats, Accra
Crossing the River, Gold Coast
Drying Cacao Beans, Gold Coast
Shooting Cacao from the Road to the Beach, Accra
Rolling Cacao, Gold Coast
Rolling Cacao, Gold Coast
Carrying Cacao to the Railway Station, Gold Coast
Wagon Loads of Cacao being taken from Depot to the Beach, Accra
The Buildings of the Boa Entrada Cacao Estate, San Thome
Drying Cacao, San Thome
Barrel Rolling, Gold Coast
Bagging Cacao, Gold Coast
Surf Boats by the Side of the Ocean Liner, Accra
Bagging Cacao Beans for Shipment, Trinidad
Transferring Bags of Cacao to Lighters, Trinidad
Diagram showing Variation in Price of Cacao Beans, 1913-1919
Group of Workers on Cacao Estate
Carting Cacao to Railway Station, Ceylon
The Carenage, Grenada
Early Factory Methods
Women Grinding Chocolate
Cacao Bean Warehouse
Cacao Bean Sorting and Cleaning Machine
Diagram of Cacao Bean Cleaning Machine
Section through Gas Heated Cacao Roaster
Roasting Cacao Beans
Cacao Bean, Shell and Germ
Section through Kibbling Cones and Germ Screens
Section through Winnowing Machine
Cacao Grinding
Section through Grinding Stones
A Cacao Press
Section through Cacao Press-pot and Ram-plate
Chocolate Melangeur
Plan of Chocolate Melangeur
Chocolate Refining Machine
Grinding Cacao Nib and Sugar
Section through Chocolate Grinding Rolls
"Conche" Machines
Section through "Conche" Machine
Machines for Mixing or "Conching" Chocolate
Chocolate Shaking Table
Girls Covering or Dipping Cremes, etc.
The Enrober
A Confectionery Room
Factory at which Milk is Evaporated for Milk Chocolate Manufacture
Cocoa and Chocolate Despatch Deck
Boxing Chocolates
Packing Chocolates
Factory at which Milk is Evaporated for Milk Chocolate Manufacture
Cacao Pods, Leaves and Flowers
INTRODUCTION
In a few short chapters I propose to give a plain account of the
production of cocoa and chocolate. I assume that the reader is not a
specialist and knows little or nothing of the subject, and hence both
the style of writing and the treatment of the subject will be simple. At
the same time, I assume that the reader desires a full and accurate
account, and not a vague story in which the difficulties are ignored. I
hope that, as a result of this method of dealing with my subject, even
experts will find much in the book that is of interest and value. After
a brief survey of the history of cocoa and chocolate, I shall begin with
the growing of the cacao bean, and follow the _cacao_ in its career
until it becomes the finished product ready for consumption.
_Cacao or Cocoa?_
The reader will have noted above the spelling "cacao," and to those who
think it curious, I would say that I do not use this spelling from
pedantry. It is an imitation of the word which the Mexicans used for
this commodity as early as 1500, and when spoken by Europeans is apt to
sound like the howl of a dog. The Mexicans called the tree from which
cacao is obtained _cacauatl_. When the great Swedish scientist Linnaeus,
the father of botany, was naming and classifying (about 1735) the trees
and plants known in his time, he christened it _Theobroma Cacao_, by
which name it is called by botanists to this day. Theo-broma is Greek
for "Food of the Gods." Why Linnaeus paid this extraordinary compliment
to cacao is obscure, but it has been suggested that he was inordinately
fond of the beverage prepared from it--the cup which both cheers and
satisfies. It will be seen from the above that the species-name is
cacao, and one can understand that Englishmen, finding it difficult to
get their insular lips round this outlandish word, lazily called it
cocoa.
[Illustration: CACAO PODS (Amelonado type) in various states of growth
and ripeness.]
In this book I shall use the words cacao, cocoa, and chocolate as
follows:
_Cacao_, when I refer to the cacao tree, the cacao pod, or the cacao
bean or seed. By the single word, cacao, I imply the raw product, cacao
beans, in bulk.
_Cocoa_, when I refer to the powder manufactured from the roasted bean
by pressing out part of the butter. The word is too well established to
be changed, even if one wished it. As we shall see later (in the
chapter on adulteration) it has come legally to have a very definite
significance. If this method of distinguishing between cacao and cocoa
were the accepted practice, the perturbation which occurred in the
public mind during the war (in 1916), as to whether manufacturers were
exporting "cocoa" to neutral countries, would not have arisen. It should
have been spelled "cacao," for the statements referred to the raw beans
and not to the manufactured beverage. Had this been done, it would have
been unnecessary for the manufacturers to point out that cocoa powder
was not being so exported, and that they naturally did not sell the raw
cacao bean.
_Chocolate._--This word is given a somewhat wider meaning. It signifies
any preparation of roasted cacao beans without abstraction of butter. It
practically always contains sugar and added cacao butter, and is
generally prepared in moulded form. It is used either for eating or
drinking.
_Cacao Beans and Coconuts._
In old manuscripts the word cacao is spelled in all manner of ways, but
_cocoa_ survived them all. This curious inversion, _cocoa_, is to be
regretted, for it has led to a confusion which could not otherwise have
arisen. But for this spelling no one would have dreamed of confusing the
totally unrelated bodies, cacao and the milky coconut. (You note that I
spell it "coconut," not "cocoanut," for the name is derived from the
Spanish "coco," "grinning face," or bugbear for frightening children,
and was given to the nut because the three scars at the broad end of the
nut resemble a grotesque face). To make confusion worse confounded the
old writers referred to cacao _seeds_ as cocoa _nuts_ (as for example,
in _The Humble Memorial of Joseph Fry_, quoted in the chapter on
history), but, as in appearance cacao seeds resemble _beans_, they are
now usually spoken of as beans. The distinction between cacao and the
coconut may be summarised thus:
Cacao. Coconut.
Botanical Name Theobroma Cacao Cocos nucifera Palm
Tree Palm
Fruit Cacao pod, containing Coconut, which with outer
many seeds (cacao beans) fibre is as large as a
man's head
Products Cocoa Broken coconut (copra)
Chocolate Coconut matting
Fatty Constituent Cacao butter Coconut oil
CHAPTER I
COCOA AND CHOCOLATE--A SKETCH OF THEIR HISTORY
Did time and space allow, there is much to be told on the
romantic side of chocolate, of its divine origin, of the
bloody wars and brave exploits of the Spaniards who conquered
Mexico and were the first to introduce cacao into Europe,
tales almost too thrilling to be believed, of the intrigues
of the Spanish Court, and of celebrities who met and sipped
their chocolate in the parlours of the coffee and chocolate
houses so fashionable in the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries.
_Cocoa and Chocolate_ (Whymper).
On opening a cacao pod, it is seen to be full of beans surrounded by a
fruity pulp, and whilst the pulp is very pleasant to taste, the beans
themselves are uninviting, so that doubtless the beans were always
thrown away until ... someone tried roasting them. One pictures this
"someone," a pre-historic Aztec with swart skin, sniffing the aromatic
fume coming from the roasting beans, and thinking that beans which
smelled so appetising must be good to consume. The name of the man who
discovered the use of cacao must be written in some early chapter of the
history of man, but it is blurred and unreadable: all we know is that he
was an inhabitant of the New World and probably of Central America.
_Original Home of Cacao._
The corner of the earth where the cacao tree originally grew, and still
grows wild to-day, is the country watered by the mighty Amazon and the
Orinoco. This is the very region in which Orellano, the Spanish
adventurer, said that he had truly seen El Dorado, which he described as
a City of Gold, roofed with gold, and standing by a lake with golden
sands. In reality, El Dorado was nothing but a vision, a vision that for
a hundred years fascinated all manner of dreamers and adventurers from
Sir Walter Raleigh downwards, so that many braved great hardships in
search of it, groped through the forests where the cacao tree grew, and
returned to Europe feeling they had failed. To our eyes they were not
entirely unsuccessful, for whilst they failed to find a city of gold,
they discovered the home of the golden pod.
[Illustration: OLD DRAWING OF AN AMERICAN INDIAN; AT HIS FEET A
CHOCOLATE-CUP, CHOCOLATE-POT, AND CHOCOLATE WHISK OR "MOLINET."
(From _Traitez Nouveaux et Curieux du Cafe, du The, et du Chocolate_.
Dufour, 1693).]
_Montezuma--the First Great Patron of Chocolate._
When Columbus discovered the New World he brought back with him to
Europe many new and curious things, one of which was cacao. Some years
later, in 1519, the Spanish conquistador, Cortes, landed in Mexico,
marched into the interior and discovered to his surprise, not the huts
of savages, but a beautiful city, with palaces and museums. This city
was the capital of the Aztecs, a remarkable people, notable alike for
their ancient civilisation and their wealth. Their national drink was
chocolate, and Montezuma, their Emperor, who lived in a state of
luxurious magnificence, "took no other beverage than the chocolatl, a
potation of chocolate, flavoured with vanilla and other spices, and so
prepared as to be reduced to a froth of the consistency of honey, which
gradually dissolved in the mouth and was taken cold. This beverage if so
it could be called, was served in golden goblets, with spoons of the
same metal or tortoise-shell finely wrought. The Emperor was exceedingly
fond of it, to judge from the quantity--no less than fifty jars or
pitchers being prepared for his own daily consumption: two thousand more
were allowed for that of his household."[1] It is curious that Montezuma
took no other beverage than chocolate, especially if it be true that the
Aztecs also invented that fascinating drink, the cocktail (xoc-tl). How
long this ancient people, students of the mysteries of culinary science,
had known the art of preparing a drink from cacao, is not known, but it
is evident that the cultivation of cacao received great attention in
these parts, for if we read down the list of the tributes paid by
different cities to the Lords of Mexico, we find "20 chests of ground
chocolate, 20 bags of gold dust," again "80 loads of red chocolate, 20
lip-jewels of clear amber," and yet again "200 loads of chocolate."
[1] Prescott's _Conquest of Mexico_.
Another people that share with the Aztecs the honour of being the first
great cultivators of cacao are the Incas of Peru, that wonderful nation
that knew not poverty.
_The Fascination of Chocolate._
That chocolate charmed the ladies of Mexico in the seventeenth century
(even as it charms the ladies of England to-day) is shown by a story
which Gage relates in his _New Survey of the West Indias_ (1648). He
tells us that at Chiapa, southward from Mexico, the women used to
interrupt both sermon and mass by having their maids bring them a cup of
hot chocolate; and when the Bishop, after fair warning, excommunicated
them for this presumption, they changed their church. The Bishop, he
adds, was poisoned for his pains.
_Cacao Beans as Money._
Cacao was used by the Aztecs not only for the preparation of a beverage,
but also as a circulating medium of exchange. For example, one could
purchase a "tolerably good slave" for 100 beans. We read that: "Their
currency consisted of transparent quills of gold dust, of bits of tin
cut in the form of a T, and of bags of cacao containing a specified
number of grains." "Blessed money," exclaims Peter Martyr, "which
exempts its possessor from avarice, since it cannot be long hoarded, nor
hidden underground!"
_Derivation of Chocolate._
The word was derived from the Mexican _chocolatl_. The Mexicans used to
froth their chocolatl with curious whisks made specially for the purpose
(see page 6). Thomas Gage suggests that _choco, choco, choco_ is a
vocal representation of the sound made by stirring chocolate. The suffix
_atl_ means water. According to Mr. W.J. Gordon, we owe the name of
chocolate to a misprint. He states that Joseph Acosta, who wrote as
early as 1604 of chocolatl, was made by the printer to write
_chocolate_, from which the English eliminated the accent, and the
French the final letter.
[Illustration: NATIVE AMERICAN INDIANS ROASTING AND GRINDING THE BEANS,
AND MIXING THE CHOCOLATE IN A JUG WITH A WHISK. (From Ogilvy's
_America_, 1671)]
_First Cacao in Europe._
The Spanish discoverers of the New World brought home to Spain
quantities of cacao, which the curious tasted. We may conclude that they
drank the preparation cold, as Montezuma did, _hot_ chocolate being a
later invention. The new drink, eagerly sought by some, did not meet
with universal approval, and, as was natural, the most diverse opinions
existed as to the pleasantness and wholesomeness of the beverage when it
was first known. Thus Joseph Acosta (1604) wrote: "The chief use of this
cocoa is in a drincke which they call Chocholate, whereof they make
great account, foolishly and without reason; for it is loathsome to such
as are not acquainted with it, having a skumme or frothe that is very
unpleasant to taste, if they be not well conceited thereof. Yet it is a
drincke very much esteemed among the Indians, whereof they feast noble
men as they passe through their country. The Spaniards, both men and
women, that are accustomed to the country are very greedy of this
chocholate." It is not impossible that the English, with the defeat of
the Armada fresh in memory, were at first contemptuous of this "Spanish"
drink. Certain it is, that when British sea-rovers like Drake and
Frobisher, captured Spanish galleons on the high seas, and on searching
their holds for treasure, found bags of cacao, they flung them overboard
in scorn. In considering this scorn of cacao, shown alike by British
buccaneers and Dutch corsairs, together with the critical air of Joseph
Acosta, we should remember that the original chocolatl of the Mexicans
consisted of a mixture of maize and cacao with hot spices like chillies,
and contained no sugar. In this condition few inhabitants of the
temperate zone could relish it. It however only needed one thing, the
addition of sugar, and the introduction of this marked the beginning of
its European popularity. The Spaniards were the first to manufacture and
drink chocolate in any quantity. To this day they serve it in the old
style--thick as porridge and pungent with spices. They endeavoured to
keep secret the method of preparation, and, without success, to retain
the manufacture as a monopoly. Chocolate was introduced into Italy by
Carletti, who praised it and spread the method of its manufacture
abroad. The new drink was introduced by monks from Spain into Germany
and France, and when in 1660 Maria Theresa, Infanta of Spain, married
Louis XIV, she made chocolate well known at the Court of France. She it
was of whom a French historian wrote that Maria Theresa had only two
passions--the king and chocolate.
Chocolate was advocated by the learned physicians of those times as a
cure for many diseases, and it was stated that Cardinal Richelieu had
been cured of general atrophy by its use.
From France the use of chocolate spread into England, where it began to
be drunk as a luxury by the aristocracy about the time of the
Commonwealth. It must have made some progress in public favour by 1673,
for in that year "a Lover of his Country" wrote in the _Harleian
Miscellany_ demanding its prohibition (along with brandy, rum, and tea)
on the ground that this imported article did no good and hindered the
consumption of English-grown barley and wheat. New things appeal to the
imaginative, and the absence of authentic knowledge concerning them
allows free play to the imagination--so it happened that in the early
days, whilst many writers vied with one another in writing glowing
panegyrics on cacao, a few thought it an evil thing. Thus, whilst it was
praised by many for its "wonderful faculty of quenching thirst,
allaying hectic heats, of nourishing and fattening the body," it was
seriously condemned by others as an inflamer of the passions!
_Chocolate Houses and Clubs._
"The drinking here of chocolate
Can make a fool a sophie."
In the spacious days of Queen Elizabeth, tea, coffee, and chocolate were
unknown save to travellers and savants, and the handmaidens of the good
queen drank beer with their breakfast. When Shakespeare and Ben Jonson
forgathered at the Mermaid Tavern, their winged words passed over
tankards of ale, but later other drinks became the usual accompaniment
of news, story, and discussion. In the sixteen-sixties there were no
strident newspapers to destroy one's equanimity, and the gossip of the
day began to be circulated and discussed over cups of tea, coffee, or
chocolate. The humorists, ever stirred by novelty, tilted, pen in hand,
at these new drinks: thus one rhymster described coffee as
"Syrrop of soot or essence of old shoes."
The first coffee-house in London was started in St. Michael's Alley,
Cornhill, in 1652 (when coffee was seven shillings a pound); the first
tea-house was opened in Exchange Alley in 1657 (when tea was five
sovereigns a pound), and in the same year (with chocolate about ten to
fifteen shillings per pound) a Frenchman opened the first
chocolate-house in Queen's Head Alley, Bishopsgate Street. The rising
popularity of chocolate led to the starting of more of these chocolate
houses, at which one could sit and sip chocolate, or purchase the
commodity for preparation at home. Pepys' entry in his diary for 24th
November, 1664, contains: "To a coffee house to drink jocolatte, very
good." It is an artless entry, and yet one can almost hear him smacking
his lips. Silbermann says that "After the Restoration there were shops
in London for the sale of chocolate at ten shillings or fifteen
shillings per pound. Ozinda's chocolate house was full of aristocratic
consumers. Comedies, satirical essays, memoirs and private letters of
that age frequently mention it. The habit of using chocolate was deemed
a token of elegant and fashionable taste, and while the charms of this
beverage in the reigns of Queen Anne and George I. were so highly
esteemed by courtiers, by lords and ladies and fine gentlemen in the
polite world, the learned physicians extolled its medicinal virtues."
From the coffee house and its more aristocratic relative the chocolate
house, there developed a new feature in English social life--the Club.
As the years passed the Chocolate House remained a rendezvous, but the
character of its habitues changed from time to time. Thus one, famous in
the days of Queen Anne, and well known by its sign of the "Cocoa Tree,"
was at first the headquarters of the Jacobite party, and the resort of
Tories of the strictest school. It became later a noted gambling house
("The gamesters shook their elbows in White's and the chocolate houses
round Covent Garden," _National Review_, 1878), and ultimately developed
into a literary club, including amongst its members Gibbon, the
historian, and Byron, the poet.
_Tax on Cacao._
The growing consumption of chocolate did not escape the all-seeing eye
of the Chancellors of England. As early as 1660 we find amongst various
custom and excise duties granted to Charles II:
"For every gallon of chocolate, sherbet, and tea made and
sold, to be paid by the maker thereof ..... 8d."
Later the raw material was also made a source of revenue. In _The Humble
Memorial of Joseph Fry_, of Bristol, Maker of Chocolate, which was
addressed to the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury in 1776 (Messrs.
Fry and Sons are the oldest English firm of chocolate makers, having
been founded in 1728), we read that "Chocolate ... pays two shillings
and threepence per pound excise, besides about ten shillings per
hundredweight on the Cocoa Nuts from which it is made."
In 1784 a preferential customs rate was proposed in favour of our
Colonies. This they enjoyed for many years before 1853, when the uniform
rate, until recently in force, was introduced. This restrictive tariff
on foreign growths rose in 1803 to 5s. 10d. per pound, against 1s. 10d.
on cacao grown in British possessions. From this date it gradually
diminished. High duties hampered for many years the sale of cocoa, tea
and coffee, but in recent times these duties have been brought down to
more reasonable figures. For many years before 1915 the import duty was
1d. per pound on the raw cacao beans, 1d. per pound on cacao butter, and
2s. a hundredweight (less than a farthing a pound) on cacao shells or
husks. In the Budget of September, 1915, the above duties were increased
by fifty per cent. A further and greater increase was made in the Budget
of April, 1916, when cacao was made to pay a higher tax in Britain than
in any other country in the world. In 1919 Imperial preference was
introduced after a break of over sixty years, the duty on cocoa from
foreign countries being 3/4d. a pound more than that from British
Possessions.
_Duty on Cacao._
1855-1915. 1915. 1916. 1919.
Cacao beans per lb. 1d. 1-1/2d. 6d. 4-1/2d. foreign, 3-3/4d. British
Cacao butter per lb. 1d. 1-1/2d. 6d. 4-1/2d. foreign, 3-3/4d. British
Cacao shells per cwt. 2s. 3s. 12s. 6s. foreign, 5s. British
In considering this duty and its effect on the price of the finished
article, it should be remembered that there are substantial losses in
manufacture. Thus the beans are cleaned, which removes up to 0.5 per
cent.; roasted, which causes a loss by volatilisation of 7 per cent.;
and shelled, the husks being about 12 per cent. Therefore, the actual
yield of usable nib, which has to bear the whole duty, is about 80 per
cent. It may be well to add that the yield of cocoa powder is 48 per
cent. of the raw beans, or roughly, one pound of the raw product yields
half a pound of the finished article.
_Introduction of Cocoa Powder._
The drink "cocoa" as we know it to-day was not introduced until 1828.
Before this time the ground bean, mixed with sugar, was sold in cakes.
The beverage prepared from these chocolate cakes was very rich in
butter, and whilst the British Navy has always consumed it in this
condition (the sailors generally remove with a spoon the excess of
butter which floats to the top) it is a little heavy for less hardy
digestions. Van Houten (of the well-known Dutch house of that name) in
1828 invented a method of pressing out part of the butter, and thus
obtained a lighter, more appetising, and more easily assimilated
preparation. As the butter is useful in chocolate manufacture, this
process enabled the manufacturer to produce a less costly cocoa powder,
and thus the circle of consumers was widened. Messrs. Cadbury Bros., of
Birmingham, first sold their "cocoa essence" in 1866, and Messrs. Fry
and Sons, of Bristol, introduced a pure cocoa by pressing out part of
the butter in 1868.
_Growing Popularity of Cacao Preparations._
The incidence of import duties did not prevent the continuous increase
in the amount of cacao consumed in the British Isles. When Queen
Victoria came to the throne the cacao cleared for home consumption was
about four or five thousand tons, more than half of which was consumed
by the Navy. At the time of Queen Victoria's death it had increased to
four times this amount, and by 1915 it had reached nearly fifty
thousand tons. (For statistics of consumption, see p. 183).
* * * * *
This brief sketch of the history of cacao owes much to "Cocoa--all about
it," by Historicus (the pseudonym of the late Richard Cadbury). This
work is out of print, but those who are fortunate enough to be able to
consult it will find therein much that is curious and discursive.
[Illustration: ANCIENT MEXICAN DRINKING CUPS (British Museum)]
CHAPTER II
CACAO AND ITS CULTIVATION
O tree, upraised in far-off Mexico!
"_Ode to the Chocolate Tree_," 1664.
How seldom do we think, when we drink a cup of cocoa or eat some morsels
of chocolate, that our liking for these delicacies has set minds and
bodies at work all the world over! Many types of humanity have
contributed to their production. Picture in the mind's eye the graceful
coolie in the sun-saturated tropics, moving in the shade, cutting the
pods from the cacao tree; the deep-chested sailor helping to load from
lighters or surf-boats the precious bags of cacao into the hold of the
ocean liner; the skilful workman roasting the beans until they fill the
room with a fine aroma; and the girl with dexterous fingers packing the
cocoa or fashioning the chocolate in curious, and delicate forms. To the
black and brown races, the negroes and the East Indians, we owe a debt
for their work on tropical plantations, for the harder manual work would
be too arduous for Europeans unused to the heat of those regions.
_Climate Necessary._
Cacao can only grow at tropical temperatures, and when shielded from the
wind and unimpaired by drought. Enthusiasts, as a hobby, have grown the
tree under glass in England; it requires a warmer temperature than
either tea or coffee, and only after infinite care can one succeed in
getting the tree to flower and bear fruit. The mean temperature in the
countries in which it thrives is about 80 degrees F. in the shade, and
the average of the maximum temperatures is seldom more than 90 degrees
F., or the average of the minimum temperatures less than 70 degrees F.
The rainfall can be as low as 45 inches per annum, as in the Gold Coast,
or as high as 150 inches, as in Java, provided the fall is uniformly
distributed. The ideal spot is the secluded vale, and whilst in
Venezuela there are plantations up to 2000 feet above sea level, cacao
cannot generally be profitably cultivated above 1000 feet.
_Factors of Geographical Distribution._
Climate, soil, and manures determine the possible region of
cultivation--the extent to which the area is utilised depends on the
enterprise of man. The original home of cacao was the rich tropical
region, far-famed in Elizabethan days, that lies between the Amazon and
the Orinoco, and but for the enterprise of man it is doubtful if it
would have ever spread from this region. Monkeys often carry the beans
many miles--man, the master-monkey, has carried them round the world.
First the Indians spread cacao over the tropical belt of the American
continent and cultivated it as far North as Mexico. Then came the
Spanish explorers of the New World, who carried it from the mainland to
the adjacent West Indian islands. Cacao was planted by them in Trinidad
as early as 1525. Since that date it has been successfully introduced
into many a tropical island. It was an important day in the history of
Ceylon when Sir R. Horton, in 1834, had cacao plants brought to that
island from Trinidad. The carefully packed plants survived the ordeal of
a voyage of ten thousand miles. The most recent introduction is,
however, the most striking. About 1880 a native of the Gold Coast
obtained some beans, probably from Fernando Po. In 1891, the first bag
of cacao was exported; it weighed 80 pounds. In 1915, 24 years later,
the export from the Gold Coast was 120 million pounds.
[Illustration: CACAO TREE, WITH PODS AND LEAVES]
_The Cacao Tree._
Tropical vegetation appears so bizarre to the visitor from temperate
climes that in such surroundings the cacao tree seems almost
commonplace. It is in appearance as moderate and unpretentious as an
apple tree, though somewhat taller, being, when full grown, about
twenty feet high. It begins to bear in its fourth or fifth year. Smooth
in its early youth, as it gets older it becomes covered with little
bosses (cushions) from which many flowers spring. I saw one fellow, very
tall and gnarled, and with many pods on it; turning to the planter I
enquired "How old is that tree?" He replied, almost reverentially: "It's
a good deal older than I am; must be at least fifty years old." "It's
one of the tallest cacao trees I've seen. I wonder--." The planter
perceived my thought, and said: "I'll have it measured for you." It was
forty feet high. That was a tall one; usually they are not more than
half that height. The bark is reddish-grey, and may be partly hidden by
brown, grey and green patches of lichen. The bark is both beautiful and
quaint, but in the main the tree owes its beauty to its luxuriance of
prosperous leaves, and its quaintness to its pods.
[Illustration: CACAO TREE, SHOWING PODS GROWING FROM TRUNK.]
[Illustration: FLOWERS AND FRUITS ON MAIN BRANCHES OF A CACAO TREE.
(Reproduced from van Hall's _Cocoa_, by permission of Messrs. Macmillan
& Co.).]
_The Flowers, Leaves and Fruit._
Although cacao trees are not unlike the fruit trees of England, there
are differences which, when first one sees them, cause expressions of
surprise and pleasure to leap to the lips. One sees what one never saw
before, the fruit springing from the main trunk, quite close to the
ground. An old writer has explained that this is due to a wise
providence, because the pod is so heavy that if it hung from the end of
the branches it would fall off before it reached maturity. The old
writer talks of providence; a modern writer would see in the same facts
a simple example of evolution. On the same cacao tree every day of the
year may be found flowers, young podkins and mature pods side by side. I
say "found" advisedly--at the first glance one does not see the flowers
because they are so dainty and so small. The buds are the size of rice
grains, and the flowers are not more than half an inch across when the
petals are fully out. The flowers are pink or yellow, of wax-like
appearance, and have no odour. They were commonly stated to be
pollinated by thrips and other insects. Dr. von Faber of Java has
recently shown that whilst self-pollination is the rule, cross
fertilisation occurs between the flowers on adjacent or interlocking
trees. These graceful flowers are so small that one can walk through a
plantation without observing them, although an average tree will produce
six thousand blossoms in a year. Not more than one per cent. of these
will become fruit. Usually it takes six months for the bud to develop
into the mature fruit. The lovely mosses that grow on the stems and
branches are sometimes so thick that they have to be destroyed, or the
fragile cacao flower could not push its way through. Whilst the flowers
are small, the leaves are large, being as an average about a foot in
length and four inches in breadth. The cacao tree never appears naked,
save on the rare occasions when it is stripped by the wind, and the
leaves are green all the year round, save when they are red, if the
reader will pardon an Hibernianism. And indeed there is something
contrary in the crimson tint, for whilst we usually associate this with
old leaves about to fall, with the cacao, as with some rose trees, it is
the tint of the young leaves.
[Illustration: CACAO PODS.]
_The Cacao Pod._
The fruit, which hangs on a short thick stalk, may be anything in shape
from a melon to a stumpy, irregular cucumber, according to the botanic
variety. The intermediate shape is like a lemon, with furrows from end
to end. There are pods, called Calabacillo, smooth and ovate like a
calabash, and there are others, more rare, so "nobbly" that they are
well-named "Alligator." The pods vary in length from five to eleven
inches, "with here and there the great pod of all, the blood-red
_sangre-tora_." The colours of the pods are as brilliant as they are
various. They are rich and strong, and resemble those of the rind of the
pomegranate. One pod shows many shades of dull crimson, another grades
from gold to the yellow of leather, and yet another is all lack-lustre
pea-green. They may be likened to Chinese lanterns hanging in the woods.
One does not conclude from the appearance of the pod that the contents
are edible, any more than one would surmise that tea-leaves could be
used to produce a refreshing drink. I say as much to the planter, who
smiles. With one deft cut with his machete or cutlass, which hangs in a
leather scabbard by his side, the planter severs the pod from the tree,
and with another slash cuts the thick, almost woody rind and breaks open
the pod. There is disclosed a mass of some thirty or forty beans,
covered with juicy pulp. The inside of the rind and the mass of beans
are gleaming white, like melting snow. Sometimes the mass is pale
amethyst in colour. I perceive a pleasant odour resembling melon. Like
little Jack Horner, I put in my thumb and pull out a snow-white bean. It
is slippery to hold, so I put it in my mouth. The taste is sweet,
something between grape and melon. Inside this fruity coating is the
bean proper. From different pods we take beans and cut them in two, and
find that the colour of the bean varies from purple almost to white.
[Illustration: CUT POD, REVEALING THE WHITE PULP ROUND THE BEANS
(CEYLON.)]
[Illustration: CACAO PODS, SHEWING BEANS INSIDE.]
_Botanical Description._
Theobroma Cacao belongs to the family of the _Sterculiaceae_, and to the
same order as the Limes and Mallows. It is described in Strasburger's
admirable _Text-Book of Botany_ as follows:
"Family. _Sterculiaceae._
IMPORTANT GENERA. The most important plant is the Cocoa Tree
(_Theobroma Cacao_). It is a low tree with short-stalked,
firm, brittle, simple leaves of large size, oval shape, and
dark green colour. The young leaves are of a bright red
colour, and, as in many tropical trees, hang limply
downwards. The flowers are borne on the main stem or the
older branches, and arise from dormant axillary buds
(Cauliflory). Each petal is bulged up at the base, narrows
considerably above this, and ends in an expanded tip. The
form of the reddish flowers is thus somewhat urn-shaped with
five radiating points. The pentalocular ovary has numerous
ovules in each loculus. As the fruit develops, the soft
tissue of the septa extends between the single seeds; the
ripe fruit is thus unilocular and many-seeded. The seed-coat
is filled by the embryo, which has two large, folded, brittle
cotyledons."
The last sentence conveys an erroneous impression. The two cotyledons,
which form the seed, are not brittle when found in nature in the pod.
They are juicy and fleshy. And it is only after the seed has received
special treatment (fermentation and drying) to obtain the bean of
commerce, that it becomes brittle.
_Varieties of Theobroma Cacao._
As mentioned above, the pods and seeds of Theobroma Cacao trees show a
marked variation, and in every country the botanist has studied these
variations and classified the trees according to the shape and colour of
the pods and seeds. The existence of so many classifications has led to
a good deal of confusion, and we are indebted to Van Hall for the
simplest way of clearing up these difficulties. He accepts the
classification first given by Morris, dividing the trees into two
varieties--Criollo and Forastero:
[Illustration: DRAWINGS OF TYPICAL PODS, illustrating varieties.
CRIOLLO
FORASTERO
FORASTERO (CALABACILLO VARIETY)]
_Extremes of Characteristics._
_Criollo._ _Forastero._
(Old Red, Caracas, etc.) Grading from Cundeamor
(bottle-necked) to Calabacillo
(smooth).
_Pod walls._ Thin and warty. Thick and woody.
_Beans._ Large and plump. Small and flat.
White. Heliotrope to purple.
Sweet. Astringent.
The cacao of the criollo variety has pods the walls of which are thin
and warty, with ten distinct furrows. The seeds or beans are white as
ivory throughout, round and plump, and sweet to taste. The forastero
variety includes many sub-varieties, the kind most distinct from the
criollo having pods, the walls of which are thick and woody, the surface
smooth, the furrows indistinct, and the shape globular. The seeds in
these pods are purple in colour, flat in appearance, and bitter to
taste. This is a very convenient classification. Personally I believe it
would be possible to find pods varying by almost imperceptible
gradations from the finest, purest, criollo to the lowest form of
forastero (namely, calabacillo). The criollo yields the finest and
rarest kind of cacao, but as sometimes happens with refined types in
nature, it is a rather delicate tree, especially liable to canker and
bark diseases, and this accounts for the predominance of the forastero
in the cacao plantations of the world.
_The Cacao Plantation._
One can spend happy days on a cacao estate. "Are you going into the
cocoa?" they ask, just as in England we might enquire, "Are you going
into the corn?"
[Illustration: TROPICAL FOREST, TRINIDAD.
This has to be cleared before planting begins.]
Coconut plantations and sugar estates make a strong appeal to the
imagination, but for peaceful beauty they cannot compare with the cacao
plantation. True, coconut plantations are very lovely--the palms are so
graceful, the leaves against the sky so like a fine etching--but "the
slender coco's drooping crown of plumes" is altogether foreign to
English eyes. Sugar estates are generally marred by the prosaic factory
in the background. They are dead level plains, and the giant grass
affords no shade from the relentless sun. Whereas the leaves of the
cacao tree are large and numerous, so that even in the heat of the day,
it is comparatively cool and pleasant under the cacao.
Cacao plantations present in different countries every variety of
appearance--from that of a wild forest in which the greater portion of
the trees are cacao, to the tidy and orderly plantation. In some of the
Trinidad plantations the trees are planted in parallel lines twelve feet
apart, with a tree every twelve feet along the line; and as you push
your way through the plantation the apparently irregularly scattered
trees are seen to flash momentarily into long lines. In other parts of
the world, for example, in Grenada and Surinam, the ground may be kept
so tidy and free from weeds that they have the appearance of gardens.
_Clearing the Land._
When the planter has chosen a suitable site, an exercise requiring
skill, the forest has to be cleared. The felling of great trees and the
clearing of the wild tangle of undergrowth is arduous work. It is well
to leave the trees on the ridges for about sixty feet on either side,
and thus form a belt of trees to act as wind screen. Cacao trees are as
sensitive to a draught as some human beings, and these "_wind breaks_"
are often deliberately grown--Balata, Poui, Mango (Trinidad), Galba
(Grenada), Wild Pois Doux (Martinique), and other leafy trees being
suitable for this purpose.
_Suitable Soil._
It was for many years believed that if a tree were analysed the best
soil for its growth could at once be inferred and described, as it was
assumed that the best soil would be one containing the same elements in
similar proportions. This simple theory ignored the characteristic
powers of assimilation of the tree in question and the "digestibility"
of the soil constituents. However, it is agreed that soils rich in
potash and lime (e.g., those obtained by the decomposition of certain
volcanic rocks) are good for cacao. An open sandy or loamy alluvial soil
is considered ideal. The physical condition of the soil is equally
important: heavy clays or water-logged soils are bad. The depth of soil
required depends on its nature. A stiff soil discourages the growth of
the "tap" root, which in good porous soils is generally seven or eight
feet long.
[Illustration: CHARACTERISTIC ROOT SYSTEM OF THE CACAO TREE.
Note the long tap root.
(Reproduced from the Imperial Institute series of Handbooks to the
Commercial Resources of the Tropics, by permission.)]
_Manure._
The greater part of the world's cacao is produced without the use of
artificial manures. The soil, which is continually washed down by the
rains into the rivers, is continually renewed by decomposition of the
bed rock, and in the tropics this decomposition is more rapid than in
temperate climes. In Guayaquil, "notwithstanding the fact that the same
soil has been cropped consecutively for over a hundred years, there is
as yet no sign of decadence, nor does a necessity yet arise for
artificial manure."[1] However, manures are useful with all soils, and
necessary with many. Happy is the planter who is so placed that he can
obtain a plentiful supply of farmyard or pen manure, as this gives
excellent results. "Mulching" is also recommended. This consists of
covering the ground with decaying leaves, grasses, etc., which keep the
soil in a moist and open condition during the dry season. If artificial
manures are used they should vary according to the soil, and, although
he can obtain considerable help from the analyst, the planter's most
reliable guide will be experiment on the spot.
[1] _Bulletin_, Botanic Dept., Jamaica, February, 1900.
_Planting._
In the past insufficient care has been taken in _the selection of seed_.
The planter should choose the large plump beans with a pale interior, or
he should choose the nearest kind to this that is sufficiently hardy to
thrive in the particular environment. He can plant (1) direct from
seeds, or (2) from seedlings--plants raised in nurseries in bamboo pots,
or (3) by grafting or budding. It is usual to plant two or three seeds
in each hole, and destroy the weaker plants when about a foot high. The
seeds are planted from twelve to fifteen feet apart. The distance chosen
depends chiefly on the richness of the soil; the richer the soil, the
more ample room is allowed for the trees to spread without choking each
other. Interesting results have been obtained by Hart and others by
grafting the fine but tender criollo on to the hardy forastero, but
until yesterday the practice had not been tried on a large scale.
Experiments were begun in 1913 by Mr. W.G. Freeman in Trinidad which
promise interesting results. By 1919 the Department of Agriculture had
seven acres in grafted and budded cacao. In a few years it should be
possible to say whether it pays to form an estate of budded cacao in
preference to using seedlings.
[Illustration: NURSERY, WITH THE YOUNG CACAO PLANTS IN BASKETS, JAVA.
(Reproduced from van Hall's _Cocoa_, by permission of Messrs. Macmillan
& Co.).]
[Illustration: PLANTING CACAO, TRINIDAD, FROM YOUNG SEEDLINGS IN BAMBOO
POTS.]
[Illustration: CACAO IN ITS FOURTH YEAR (SAMOA).]
There are no longer any mystic rites performed before planting. In the
old days it was the custom to solemnize the planting, for example, by
sacrificing a cacao-coloured dog (see Bancroft's _Native Races of the
Pacific States_.)
_Shade: Temporary and Permanent._
[Illustration: COPY OF AN OLD ENGRAVING SHOWING THE CACAO TREE, AND A
TREE SHADING IT.
(From _Bontekoe's Works_.)]
When the seeds are planted, such small plants as cassava, chillies,
pigeon peas and the like are planted with them. The object of planting
these is to afford the young cacao plant shelter from the sun, and to
keep the ground in good condition. Incidentally the planter obtains
cassava (which gives tapioca), red peppers, etc., as a "catch crop"
whilst he is waiting for the cacao tree to begin to yield. Bananas and
plantains are planted with the same object, and these are allowed to
remain for a longer period. Such is the rapidity of plant growth in the
tropics that in three or four years the cacao tree is taller than a man,
and begins to bear fruit in its fourth or fifth year. Now it is agreed
that, as with men, the cacao tree needs protection in its youth, but
whether it needs shade trees when it is fully grown is one of the
controverted questions. When the planter is sitting after his day's work
is done, and no fresh topic comes to his mind, he often re-opens the
discussion on the question of shade. The idea that cacao trees need
shade is a very ancient one, as is shown in a very old drawing (possibly
the oldest drawing of cacao extant) beneath which it is written: "Of the
tree which bears cacao, which is money, and how the Indians obtained
fire with two pieces of wood." In this drawing you will observe how
lovingly the shade tree shelters the cacao. The intention in using shade
is to imitate the natural forest conditions in which the wild cacao
grew. Sometimes when clearing the forest certain large trees are left
standing, but more frequently and with better judgment, chosen kinds are
planted. Many trees have been used: the saman, bread fruit, mango,
mammet, sand box, pois doux, rubber, etc. In the illustration showing
kapok acting as a parasol for cacao in Java, we see that the proportion
of shade trees to cacao is high. Leguminous trees are preferred because
they conserve the nitrogen in the soil. Hence in Trinidad the favourite
shade tree is _Erythrina_ or Bois Immortel (so called, a humourist
suggests, because it is short-lived). It is also rather prettily named,
"Mother of Cacao." Usually the shade trees are planted about 40 feet
apart, but there are cacao plantations which might cause a stranger to
enquire, "Is this an Immortel plantation?" so closely are these
conspicuous trees planted. When looking down a Trinidad valley, richly
planted with cacao, one sees in every direction the silver-grey trunks
of the Immortel. In the early months of the year these trees have no
leaves, they are a mass of flame-coloured flowers, each "shafted like a
scimitar." It well repays the labour of climbing a hill to look down on
this vermilion glory. Some Trinidad planters believe that their trees
would die without shade, yet in Grenada, only a hundred miles North as
the steamer sails, there are whole plantations without a single shade
tree. The Grenadians say: "You cannot have pods without flowers, and you
cannot have good flowering without light and air." Shade trees are not
used on some estates in San Thome, and in Brazil there are cocoa kings
with 200,000 trees without one shade tree. It should be mentioned,
however, that in these countries the cacao trees are planted more
closely (about eight feet apart) and themselves shade the soil.
Professor Carmody, in reporting[2] recently on the result of a four
years' experiment with (1) shade, (2) no shade, (3) partial shade,
says that so far partial shade has given the best results. No general
solution has yet been found to the question of the advantage of shade,
and, as Shaw states for morality, so in agriculture, "the golden rule is
that there is no golden rule." Not only is there the personal factor,
but nature provides an infinite variety of environments, and the best
results are obtained by the use of methods appropriate to the local
conditions.
[2] _Bulletin_ Dept. of Agriculture, Trinidad, 1916.
[Illustration: CACAO TREES, SHADED BY KAPOK (_Eriodendron Anfractuosum_)
IN JAVA.
(reproduced from van Hall's _Cocoa_, by permission of Messrs. Macmillan
& Co.)]
[Illustration: CACAO TREES, SHADED BY BOIS IMMORTEL, TRINIDAD.]
_Form of Tree-growth Desired: Suckers._
Viscount Mountmorres, in a delightfully clear exposition of cacao
cultivation which he gave to the native farmers and chiefs of the Gold
Coast in 1906, said: "In pruning, it is necessary always to bear in mind
that the best shape for cacao trees is that of an enlarged open
umbrella," with a height under the umbrella not exceeding seven feet.
With this ideal in his mind, the planter should train up the tree in the
way it should go. Viscount Mountmorres also said that everything that
grows upwards, except the main stem, must be cut off.
This opens a question which is of great interest to planters as to
whether it is wise to allow shoots to grow out from the main trunk near
the ground. Some hold that the high yield on their plantation is due to
letting these upright shoots grow. "Mi Amigo Corsicano said: 'Diavolo,
let the cacao-trees grow, let them branch off like any other fruit-tree,
say the tamarind, the 'chupon' or sucker will in time bear more than its
mother.'"[3] There seems to be some evidence that _old_ trees profit
from the "chupons" because they continue to bear when the old trunk is
weary, but this is compensated for by the fact that the "chupons"
(Portuguese for suckers) were grown at the expense of the tree in its
youth. Hence other planters call them "thieves," and "gormandizers,"
saying that they suck the sap from the tree, turning all to wood. They
follow the advice given as early as 1730 by the author of _The Natural
History of Chocolate_, when he says: "Cut or lop off the suckers." In
Trinidad, experiments have been started, and after a five years' test,
Professor Carmody says that the indications are that it is a matter of
indifference whether "chupons" are allowed to grow or not.
[3] "_How Jose formed his Cocoa Estate._"
[Illustration: CACAO TREE, WITH SUCKERS, TRINIDAD.]
After hunting, agriculture is man's oldest industry, and improvements
come but slowly, for the proving of a theory often requires work on a
huge scale carried out for several decades. The husbandry of the earth
goes on from century to century with little change, and the methods
followed are the winnowings of experience, tempered with indolence. And
even with the bewildering progress of science in other directions, sound
improvements in this field are rare discoveries. There is great scope
for the application of physical and chemical knowledge to the production
of the raw materials of the tropics. In one or two instances notable
advances have been made, thus the direct production of a white sugar (as
now practised at Java) at the tropical factory will have far-reaching
effects, but with many tropical products the methods practised are as
ancient as they are haphazard. Like all methods founded on long
experience, they suit the environment and the temperament of the people
who use them, so that the work of the scientist in introducing
improvements requires intimate knowledge of the conditions if his
suggestions are to be adopted. The various Departments of Agriculture
are doing splendid pioneer work, but the full harvest of their sowing
will not be reaped until the number of tropically-educated
agriculturists has been increased by the founding of three or four
agricultural colleges and research laboratories in equatorial regions.
There is much research to be done. As yet, however, many planters are
ignorant of all that is already established, the facilities for
education in tropical agriculture being few and far between. There are
signs, however, of development in this direction. It is pleasant to note
that a start was made in Ceylon at the end of 1917 by opening an
agricultural school at Peradenija. Trinidad has for a number of years
had an agricultural school, and is eager to have a college devoted to
agriculture. In 1919, Messrs. Cadbury Bros. gave L5000 to form the
nucleus of a special educational fund for the Gold Coast. The scientists
attached to the several government agricultural departments in Java,
Ceylon, Trinidad, the Philippines, Africa, etc., have done splendid
work, but it is desirable that the number of workers should be
increased. When the world wakes up to the importance of tropical
produce, agricultural colleges will be scattered about the tropics, so
that every would-be planter can learn his subject on the spot.
[Illustration: CUTLASSING.]
_Diseases of the Cacao Tree._
Take, for example, the case of the diseases of plants. Everyone who
takes an interest in the garden knows how destructive the insect pests
and vegetable parasites can be. In the tropics their power for
destruction is very great, and they are a constant menace to economic
products like cacao. The importance of understanding their habits, and
of studying methods of keeping them in check, is readily appreciated;
the planter may be ruined by lacking this knowledge.
The cacao tree has been improved and "domesticated" to satisfy human
requirements, a process which has rendered it weaker to resist attacks
from pests and parasites. It is usual to classify man amongst the pests,
as either from ignorance or by careless handling he can do the tree much
harm. Other animal pests are the wanton thieves: monkeys, squirrels and
rats, who destroy more fruit than they consume. The insect pests include
varieties of beetles, thrips, aphides, scale insects and ants, whilst
fungi are the cause of the "Canker" in the stem and branches, the
"Witch-broom" disease in twigs and leaves, and the "Black Rot" of pods.
The subject is too immense to be summarised in a few lines, and I
recommend readers who wish to know more of this or other division of the
science of cacao cultivation, to consult one or more of the four
classics in English on this subject:
_Cocoa_, by Herbert Wright (Ceylon), 1907.
_Cacao_, by J. Hinchley Hart (Trinidad), 1911.
_Cocoa_, by W.H. Johnson (Nigeria), 1912.
_Cocoa_, by C.J.J. van Hall (Java), 1914.
CHAPTER III
HARVESTING AND PREPARATION FOR THE MARKET
The picking, gathering, and breaking of the cacao are the
easiest jobs on the plantation.
"_How Jose formed his Cocoa Estate._"
_Gathering and Heaping._
[Illustration]
In the last chapter I gave a brief account of the cultivation of cacao.
I did not deal with forking, spraying, cutlassing, weeding, and so
forth, as it would lead us too far into purely technical discussions. I
propose we assume that the planter has managed his estate well, and that
the plantation is before us looking very healthy and full of fruit
waiting to be picked. The question arises: How shall we gather it? Shall
we shake the tree? Cacao pods do not fall off the tree even when
over-ripe. Shall we knock off or pluck the pods? To do so would make a
scar on the trunk of the tree, and these wounds are dangerous in
tropical climates, as they are often attacked by canker. A sharp machete
or cutlass is used to cut off the pods which grow on the lower part of
the trunk. As the tree is not often strong enough to bear a man,
climbing is out of the question, and a knife on a pole is used for
cutting off the pods on the upper branches. Various shaped knives are
used by different planters, a common and efficient kind (see drawing),
resembles a hand of steel, with the thumb as a hook, so that the
pod-stalk can be cut either by a push or a pull. A good deal of
ingenuity has been expended in devising a "foolproof" picker which shall
render easy the cutting of the pod-stalk and yet not cut or damage the
bark of the tree. A good example is the Agostini picker, which was
approved by Hart.
[Illustration:
(1) COMMON TYPE OF CACAO PICKER.
(2) AGOSTINI CACAO PICKER.]
The gathering of the fruits of one's labour is a pleasant task, which
occurs generally only at rare intervals. Cacao is gathered the whole
year round. There is, however, in most districts one principal harvest
period, and a subsidiary harvest.
[Illustration: GATHERING CACAO PODS, TRINIDAD.]
With cacao in the tropics, as with corn in England, the gathering of the
harvest is a delight to lovers of the beautiful. It is a great charm of
the cacao plantation that the trees are so closely planted that nowhere
does the sunlight find between the foliage a space larger than a man's
hand. After the universal glare outside, it seems dark under the cacao,
although the ground is bright with dappled sunshine. You hear a noise of
talking, of rustling leaves, and falling pods. You come upon a band of
coolies or negroes. One near you carries a long bamboo--as long as a
fishing rod--with a knife at the end. With a lithe movement he inserts
it between the boughs, and, by giving it a sharp jerk, neatly cuts the
stalk of a pod, which falls from the tree to the ground. Only the ripe
pods must be picked. To do this, not only must the picker's aim be true,
but he must also have a good eye for colour. Whether the pods be red or
green, as soon as the colour begins to be tinted with yellow it is ripe
for picking. This change occurs first along the furrows in the pod.
Fewer unripe pods would be gathered if only one kind of pod were grown
on one plantation. The confusion of kinds and colours which is often
found makes sound judgment very difficult. That the men generally judge
correctly the ripeness of pods high in the trees is something to wonder
at. The pickers pass on, strewing the earth with ripe pods. They are
followed by the graceful, dark-skinned girls, who gather one by one the
fallen pods from the greenery, until their baskets are full. Sometimes a
basketful is too heavy and the girl cannot comfortably lift it on to her
head, but when one of the men has helped her to place it there, she
carries it lightly enough. She trips through the trees, her bracelets
jingling, and tumbles the pods on to the heap. Once one has seen a great
heap of cacao pods it glows in one's memory: anything more rich, more
daring in the way of colour one's eye is unlikely to light on. The
artist, seeking only an aesthetic effect would be content with this for
the consummation and would wish the pods to remain unbroken.
[Illustration: COLLECTING CACAO PODS INTO A HEAP PRIOR TO BREAKING.]
_Breaking and Extracting._
There are planters who believe that the product is improved by leaving
the gathered pods several days before breaking; and they would follow
the practice, but for the risk of losses by theft. Hence the pods are
generally broken on the same day as they are gathered. The primitive
methods of breaking with a club or by banging on a hard surface are
happily little used. Masson of New York made pod-breaking machines, and
Sir George Watt has recently invented an ingenious machine for squeezing
the beans out of the pod, but at present the extraction is done almost
universally by hand, either by men or women. A knife which would cut the
husk of the pod and was so constructed that it could not injure the
beans within, would be a useful invention. The human extractor has the
advantage that he or she can distinguish the diseased, unripe or
germinated beans and separate them from the good ones. Picture the men
sitting round the heap of pods and, farther out, in a larger circle,
twice as many girls with baskets. The man breaks the pod and the girls
extract the beans. The man takes the pod in his left hand and gives it a
sharp slash with a small cutlass, just cutting through the tough shell
of the pod, but not into the beans inside; and then gives the blade,
which he has embedded in the shell, a twisting jerk, so that the pod
breaks in two with a crisp crack. The girls take the broken pods and
scoop out the snow-like beans with a flat wooden spoon or a piece of
rib-bone, the beans being pulled off the stringy core (or placenta)
which holds them together. The beans are put preferably into baskets or,
failing these, on to broad banana leaves, which are used as trays.
Practice renders these processes cheerful and easy work, often performed
to an accompaniment of laughing and chattering.
[Illustration: MEN BREAKING PODS, GIRLS SCOOPING OUT BEANS, AND MULES
WAITING WITH BASKETS TO CONVEY THE CACAO TO THE FERMENTARY.]
_Fermenting._
I allow myself the pleasure of thinking that I am causing some of my
readers a little surprise when I tell them that cacao is fermented, and
that the fermentation produces alcohol. As I mentioned above, the cacao
bean is covered with a fruity pulp. The bean as it comes from the pod is
moist, whilst the pulp is full of juice. It would be impossible to
convey it to Europe in this condition; it would decompose, and, when it
reached its destination, would be worthless. In order that a product can
be handled commercially it is desirable to have it in such a condition
that it does not change, and thus with cacao it becomes necessary to get
rid of the pulp, and, whilst this may be done by washing or simply by
drying, experience has shown that the finest and driest product is
obtained when the drying is preceded by fermentation. Just as broken
grapes will ferment, so will the fruity pulp of the cacao bean. Present
day fermentaries are simply convenient places for storing the cacao
whilst the process goes on. In the process of fermentation, Dr.
Chittenden says the beans are "stewed in their own juice." This may be
expressed less picturesquely but more accurately by saying the beans are
warmed by the heat of their own fermenting pulp, from which they absorb
liquid.
In Trinidad the cacao which the girls have scooped out into the baskets
is emptied into larger baskets, two of which are "crooked" on a mule's
back, and carried thus to the fermentary. In Surinam it is conveyed by
boat, and in San Thome by trucks, which run on Decauville railways.
The period of fermentation and the receptacle to hold the cacao vary
from country to country. With cacao of the criollo type only one or two
days fermentation is required, and as a result, in Ecuador and Ceylon,
the cacao is simply put in heaps on a suitable floor. In Trinidad and
the majority of other cacao-producing areas, where the forastero
variety predominates, from five to nine days are required. The cacao is
put into the "sweat" boxes and covered with banana or plantain leaves to
keep in the heat. The boxes may measure four feet each way and be made
of sweet-smelling cedar wood. As is usual with fermentation, the
temperature begins to rise, and if you thrust your hands into the
fermenting beans you find they are as hot and mucilaginous as a
poultice.
[Illustration: "SWEATING" BOXES, TRINIDAD.
The man is holding the wooden spade used for turning the beans.]
_Time._ _Temperature._
When put in 25 deg. C. or 77 deg. F.
After 1 day 30 deg. C. or 89 deg. F.
After 2 days 37 deg. C. or 98 deg. F.
After 3 days 47 deg. C. or 115 deg. F.
(After the third day the heat is maintained, but the temperature rises
very little.)
The temperature is the simplest guide to the amount of fermentation
taking place, and the uniformity of the temperature in all parts of the
mass is desirable, as showing that all parts are fermenting evenly. The
cacao is usually shovelled from one box to another every one or two
days. The chief object of this operation is to mix the cacao and prevent
merely local fermentation. To make mixing easy one ingenious planter
uses a cylindrical vessel which can be turned about on its axis.
[Illustration: FERMENTING BOXES, JAVA.
From the last box the beans are shovelled into the washing basin.
(Reproduced from van Hall's _Cocoa_, by permission of Messrs. Macmillan
& Co.)]
In other places, for example in Java, the boxes are arranged as a series
of steps, so that the cacao is transferred with little labour from the
higher to the lower. In San Thome the cacao is placed on the plantation
direct into trucks, which are covered with plaintain leaves, and run on
rails through the plantation right into the fermentary. Some day some
enterprising firm will build a fermentary in portable sections easily
erected, and with some simple mechanical mixer to replace the present
laborious method of turning the beans by manual labour.
The general conditions[1] for a good fermentation are:
(1) The mass of beans must be kept warm.
(2) The mass of beans must be moist, but not sodden.
(3) In the later stages there must be sufficient air.
(4) The boxes must be kept clean.
[1] For full details see the pamphlet by the author on _The
Practice of Fermentation in Trinidad_.
_Changes during Fermentation._
No entirely satisfactory theory of the changes in cacao due to
fermentation has yet been established. It is known that the sugary pulp
outside the beans ferments in a similar way to other fruit pulp, save
that for a yeast fermentation the temperature rises unusually high (in
three days to 47 degrees C.), and also that there are parallel and more
important changes in the interior of the bean. The difficulty of
establishing a complete theory of fermentation of cacao has not daunted
the scientists, for they know that the roses of philosophy are gathered
by just those who can grasp the thorniest problems. Success, however, is
so far only partial, as can be seen by consulting the best introduction
on the subject, the admirable collection of essays on _The Fermentation
of Cacao_, edited by H. Hamel Smith. Here the reader will find the
valuable contributions of Fickendey, Loew, Nicholls, Preyer, Schulte im
Hofe, and Sack.
The obvious changes which occur in the breaking down of the fruity
exterior of the bean should be carefully distinguished from the subtle
changes in the bean itself. Let us consider them separately:--
(_a_) _Changes in the Pulp._--Just as grape-pulp ferments and changes to
wine, and just as weak wine if left exposed becomes sour; so the fruity
sugary pulp outside the cacao bean on exposure gives off bubbles of
carbon dioxide, becomes alcoholic, and later becomes acid. The acid
produced is generally the pleasant vinegar acid (acetic acid), but under
some circumstances it may be lactic acid, or the rancid-smelling butyric
acid. Kismet! The planter trusts to nature to provide the right kind of
fermentation. This fermentation is set up and carried on by the minute
organisms (yeasts, bacteria, etc.), which chance to fall on the beans
from the air or come from the sides of the receptacle. One yeast-cell
does not make a fermentation, and as no yeast is added a day is wasted
whilst any yeasts which happen to be present are multiplying to an army
large enough to produce a visible effect on the pulp. _Any_ organism
which happens to be on the pod, in the air, or on the inside of the
fermentary will multiply in the pulp, if the pulp contains suitable
nourishment. Each kind of organism produces its own characteristic
changes. It would thus appear a miracle if the same substances were
always produced. Yet, just as grape-juice left exposed to every
micro-organism of the air, generally changes in the direction of wine
more or less good, so the pulp of cacao tends, broadly speaking, to
ferment in one way. It would, however, be a serious error to assume that
exactly the same kind of fermentation takes place in any two
fermentaries in the world, and the maximum variation must be
considerable. As the pulp ferments, it is destroyed; it gradually
changes from white to brown, and a liquid ("sweatings") flows away from
it. The "_sweatings_" taste like sweet cider. At present this is allowed
to run away through holes in the bottom of the box, and no care is taken
to preserve what may yet become a valuable by-product. I found by
experiment that in the preparation of one cwt. of dry beans about 1-1/2
gallons of this unstable liquid are produced. In other words, some seven
or eight million gallons of "sweatings" run to waste every year. In most
cases only small quantities are produced in one place at one time. This,
and the lack of knowledge of scientifically controlled fermentation,
and the difficulty of bottling, prevent the starting of an industry
producing either a new drink or a vinegar. The cacao juice or
"sweatings" contains about fifteen per cent. of solids, about half of
which consists of sugars. If the fermentation of the cacao were
centralised in the various districts, and conducted on a large scale
under a chemist's control, the sugars could be obtained, or an alcoholic
liquid or a vinegar could easily be prepared.
[Illustration: CHARGING THE CACAO ON TO TRUCKS IN THE PLANTATION, SAN
THOME.]
[Illustration: CACAO IN THE FERMENTING TRUCKS, SAN THOME.
The covering of banana leaves keeps the beans warm.]
The planter decides when the beans are fermented by simply looking at
them; he judges their condition by the colour of the pulp. When they are
ready to be removed from the fermentary they are plump, and brown
without, and juicy within.
(_b_) _Changes in the Interior of the Bean._--What is the relation
between the comparatively simple fermentation of the pulp and the
changes in the interior of the bean? This important question has not yet
been answered, although a number of attempts have been made.
As far as is known, the living ferments (micro-organisms) do not
penetrate the skin of the bean, so that any fermentation which takes
place must be promoted by unorganised ferments (or enzymes). Mr. H.C.
Brill[2] found raffinase, invertase, casease and protease in the pulp;
oxidase, raffinase, casease and emulsinlike enzymes in the fresh bean;
and all these six, together with diastase, in the fermented bean. Dr.
Fickendey says: "The object of fermentation is, in the main, to kill the
germ of the bean in such a manner that the efficiency of the unorganised
ferment is in no way impaired."
[2] _Philippine Journal of Science_, 1917.
From my own observations I believe that forastero beans are killed at 47
degrees C. (which is commonly reached when they have been fermenting 60
hours), for a remarkable change takes place at this temperature and
time. Whilst the micro-organisms remain outside, the juice of the pulp
appears to penetrate not only the skin, but the flesh of the bean, and
the brilliant violet in the isolated pigment cells becomes diffused more
or less evenly throughout the entire bean, including the "germ." It is
certain that the bean absorbs liquid from the outside, for it becomes so
plump that its skin is stretched to the utmost. The following changes
occur:
(1) _Taste._ An astringent colourless substance (a tannin or
a body possessing many properties of a tannin) changes to a
tasteless brown substance. The bean begins to taste less
astringent as the "tannin" is destroyed. With white (criollo)
beans this change is sufficiently advanced in two days, but
with purple (forastero) beans it may take seven days.
(2) _Colour._ The change in the tannin results in the white
(criollo) beans becoming brown and the purple (forastero)
beans becoming tinged with brown. The action resembles the
browning of a freshly-cut apple, and has been shown to be due
to oxygen (activated by an oxidase, a ferment encouraging
combination with oxygen) acting on the astringent
colourless substance, which, like the photographic developer,
pyrogallic acid, becomes brown on oxidation.
(3) _Aroma._ A notable change is that substances are created
within the bean, which _on roasting_ produce the fine
aromatic odour characteristic of cocoa and chocolate, and
which Messrs. Bainbridge and Davies have shown is due to a
trace (0.001 per cent.) of an essential oil over half of
which consists of linalool.[3]
(4) _Stimulating Effect._ It is commonly stated that during
fermentation there is generated theobromine, the alkaloid
which gives cacao its stimulating properties, but the
estimation of theobromine in fermented and unfermented beans
does not support this.
(5) _Consistency._ Fermented beans become crisp on drying.
This development may be due to the "tannins" encountering, in
their dispersion through the bean, proteins, which are thus
converted into bodies which are brittle solids on drying
(compare tanning of hides). The "hide" of the bean may be
similarly "tanned"--the shell certainly becomes leathery
(unless washed)--but a far more probable explanation, in both
cases, is that the gummy bodies in bean and shell set hard on
drying.
[3] _Journal of the Chemical Society_, 1912.
We see, then, that although fermentation was probably originally
followed as the best method of getting rid of the pulp, it has other
effects which are entirely good. It enables the planter to produce a
drier bean, and one which has, when roasted, a finer flavour, colour,
and aroma, than the unfermented. Fermentation is generally considered to
produce so many desirable results that M. Perrot's suggestion[4] of
removing the pulp by treatment with alkali, and thus avoiding
fermentation, has not been enthusiastically received.
[4] _Comptes Rendus_, 1913.
Beans which have been dried direct and those which have been fermented
may be distinguished as follows:
CACAO BEANS
DRIED DIRECT. FERMENTED AND DRIED.
_Shape of bean_ Flat Plumper
_Shell_ Soft and close fitting Crisp and more or
less free.
_Interior: colour_ Slate-blue or mud-brown Bright browns and
purples
" _consistence_ Leather to cheese Crisp
" _appearance_ Solid Open-grained
" _taste_ More or less bitter Less astringent
or astringent
Whilst several effects of fermentation have not been satisfactorily
accounted for, I think all are agreed that to obtain one of the chief
effects of fermentation, namely the brown colour, oxidation is
necessary. All recognise that for this oxidation the presence of three
substances is essential:
(1) The tannin to be oxidised.
(2) Oxygen.
(3) An enzyme which encourages the oxidation.
All these occur in the cacao bean as it comes from the pod, but why
oxidation occurs so much better in a fermented bean than in a bean which
is simply dried is not very clear. If you cut an apple it goes brown
owing to the action of oxygen absorbed from the air, but as long as the
apple is uncut and unbruised it remains white. If you take a cacao bean
from the pod and cut it, the exposed surface goes brown, but if you
ferment the bean the whole of it gradually goes brown without being cut.
My observations lead me to believe that the bean does not become
oxidised until it is killed, that is, until it is no longer capable of
germination. It can be killed by raising the temperature, by
fermentation or otherwise, or as Dr. Fickendey has shown, by cooling to
almost freezing temperatures. It may be that killing the bean makes its
skin and cell walls more permeable to oxygen, but my theory is that when
the bean is killed disintegration or weakening of the cell walls, etc.,
occurs, and, as a result, the enzyme and tannin, _hitherto separate_,
become mixed, and hence able actively to absorb oxygen. The action of
oxygen on the tannin also accounts for the loss of astringency on
fermentation, and it may be well to point out that fermentation
increases the internal surface of the bean exposed to air and oxygen.
The bean, during fermentation, actually sucks in liquid from the
surrounding pulp and becomes plumper and fuller. On drying, however, the
skin, which has been expanded to its utmost, wrinkles up as the interior
contracts and no longer fits tightly to the bean, and the cotyledons
having been thrust apart by the liquid, no longer hold together so
closely. This accounts for the open appearance of a fermented bean. As
on drying large interspaces are produced, these allow the air to
circulate more freely and expose a greater surface of the bean to the
action of oxygen. Since the liquids in all living matter presumably
contain some dissolved oxygen, the problem is to account for the fact
that the tannin in the unfermented bean remains unoxidised, whilst that
in the fermented bean is easily oxidised. The above affords a partial
explanation, and seems fairly satisfactory when taken with my previous
suggestion, namely, that during fermentation the bean is rendered
pervious to water, which, on distributing itself throughout the bean,
dissolves the isolated masses of tannin and diffuses it evenly, so that
it encounters and becomes mixed with the enzymes. From this it will be
evident that the major part of the oxidation of the tannin occurs during
drying, and hence the importance of this, both from the point of view of
the keeping properties of the cacao, and its colour, taste and aroma.
It will be realised from the above that there is still a vast amount of
work to be done before the chemist will be in a position to obtain the
more desirable aromas and flavours. Having found the necessary
conditions, scientifically trained overseers will be required to produce
them, and for this they will need to have under their direction
arrangements for fermentation designed on correct principles and
allowing some degree of control. Whilst improvements are always possible
in the approach to perfection, it must be admitted that, considering the
means at their disposal, the planters produce a remarkably fine product.
[Illustration: FOR DRYING SMALL QUANTITIES.
A simple tray-barrow, which can be run under the house when rain comes
on.]
_Loss on Fermenting and Drying._
The fermented cacao is conveyed from the fermentary to the drying trays
or floors. The planter often has some rough check-weighing system. Thus,
for example, he notes the number of standard baskets of wet cacao put
into the fermentary, and he measures the fermented cacao produced with
the help of a bottomless barrel. By this means he finds that on
fermentation the beans lose weight by the draining away of the
"sweatings," according to the amount and juiciness of the pulp round
them. The beans are still very wet, and on drying lose a high percentage
of their moisture by evaporation before the cacao bean of commerce is
obtained.
The average losses may be tabulated thus:
Weight of wet cacao from pod 100
Loss on fermentation 20 to 25
Loss on drying 40
--------
Cacao beans of commerce obtained 35 to 40
[Illustration: SPREADING THE CACAO BEANS ON MATS TO DRY IN THE SUN,
CEYLON.]
The drying of cacao is an art. On the one hand it is necessary to get
the beans quite dry (that is, in a condition in which they hold only
their normal amount of water--5 to 7 per cent.) or they will be liable
to go mouldy. On the other hand, the husk or shell of the bean must not
be allowed to become burned or brittle. Brittle shells produce waste in
packing and handling, and broken shells allow grubs and mould to enter
the beans when the cacao is stored. The method of drying varies in
different countries according to the climate. Jose says: "In the wet
season when 'Father Sol' chooses to lie low behind the clouds for days
and your cocoa house is full, your curing house full, your trees
loaded, then is the time to put on his mettle the energetic and
practical planter. In such tight corners, _amigo_, I have known a friend
to set a fire under his cocoa house to keep the cocoa on the top
somewhat warm. Another friend's plan (and he recommended it) was to
address his patron saint on such occasions. He never addressed that
saint at other times."
[Illustration: DRYING TRAYS, GRENADA.
The trays slide on rails. The corrugated iron roofs will slide over the
whole to protect from rain.]
In most producing areas sun-drying is preferred, but in countries where
much rain falls, artificial dryers are slowly but surely coming into
vogue. These vary in pattern from simple heated rooms, with shelves, to
vacuum stoves and revolving drums. The sellers of these machines will
agree with me when I say that every progressive planter ought to have
one of these artificial aids to use during those depressing periods when
the rain continually streams from the sky. On fine days it is difficult
to prevent mildew appearing on the cacao, but at such times it is
impossible. However, whenever available, the sun's heat is preferable,
for it encourages a slow and even drying, which lasts over a period of
about three days. As Dr. Paul Preuss says: "II faut eviter une
dessiccation trop rapide. Le cacao ne peut etre seche en moins de trois
jours."[5] Further, most observers agree with Dr. Sack that the valuable
changes, which occur during fermentation, continue during drying,
especially those in which oxygen assists. The full advantage of these is
lost if the temperature used is high enough to kill the enzymes, or if
the drying is too rapid, both of which may occur with artificial drying.
[5] Dr. Paul Preuss, _Le cacao. Culture et Preparation_.
Sun-drying is done on cement or brick floors, on coir mats or trays, or
on wooden platforms. In order to dry the cacao uniformly it is raked
over and over in the sun. It must be tenderly treated, carefully
"watched and caressed," until the interior becomes quite crisp and in
colour a beautiful brown.
Sometimes the platforms are built on the top of the fermentaries, the
cacao being conveyed through a hole in the roof of the fermentary to the
drying platform.
[Illustration: "HAMEL-SMITH" ROTARY DRYER.
(Made by Messrs. David Bridge and Co., Manchester).
The receiving cylinders, six in number, are filled approximately
three-quarters full with the cacao to be dried. These are then placed in
position on the revolving framework, which is enclosed in the casing and
slowly revolved. The cylinders are fitted with baffle plates, which
gently turn over the cacao beans at each revolution so that even drying
throughout is the result. The casing is heated to the requisite
temperature by means of a special stove, the arrangement of which is
such as to allow the air drawn from the outside to circulate around the
stove and to pass into the interior of the casing containing the drying
cylinders. The fumes from the fuel do not in any way come in contact
with the material during drying.]
[Illustration: DRYING PLATFORMS, TRINIDAD, WITH SLIDING ROOFS.]
In Trinidad the platform always has a sliding roof, which can be pulled
over the cacao in the blaze of noon or when a rainstorm comes on. In
other places, sliding platforms are used which can be pushed under cover
in wet weather.
_The Washing of Cacao._
In Java, Ceylon and Madagascar before the cacao is dried, it is first
washed to remove all traces of pulp. This removal of pulp enables the
beans to be more rapidly dried, and is considered almost a necessity in
Ceylon, where sun-drying is difficult. The practice appears at first
sight wholly good and sanitary, but although beans so treated have a
very clean and bright appearance, looking not unlike almonds, the
practice cannot be recommended. There is a loss of from 2 to 10 per
cent. in weight, which is a disadvantage to the planter, whilst from the
manufacturer's point of view, washing is objectionable because,
according to Dr. Paul Preuss, the aroma suffers. Whilst this may be
questioned, there is no doubt that washing renders the shells more
brittle and friable, and less able to bear carriage and handling; and
when the shell is broken, the cacao is more liable to attack by grubs
and mould. Therein lies the chief danger of washing.
[Illustration: CACAO DRYING PLATFORMS, SAN THOME. Three tiers of trays
on rails.
(Reproduced by permission from the Imperial Institute series of
Handbooks to the Commercial Resources of the Tropics).]
[Illustration: WASHING THE BEANS IN A VAT TO CLEAN OFF THE PULP,
CEYLON.]
_Claying, Colouring, and Polishing Cacao._
[Illustration: CLAYING CACAO BEANS IN TRINIDAD.]
Just as in Java and Ceylon, to assist drying, they wash off the pulp, so
in Venezuela and often in Trinidad, with the same object, they put earth
or clay on the beans. In Venezuela it is a heavy, rough coat, and in
Trinidad a film so thin that usually it is not visible. In Venezuela,
where fermentation is often only allowed to proceed for one day, the use
of fine red earth may possibly be of value. It certainly gives the beans
a very pretty appearance; they look as though they have been moistened
and rolled in cocoa powder. But in Trinidad, where the fermentation is a
lengthy one, the use of clay, though hallowed by custom, is quite
unnecessary. In the report of the Commission of Enquiry (Trinidad, 1915)
we read concerning claying that "It is said to prevent the bean from
becoming mouldy in wet weather, to improve its marketable value by
giving it a bright and uniform appearance, and to help to preserve its
aroma." In the appendix to this report the following recommendation
occurs: "The claying of cacao ought to be avoided as much as possible,
and when necessary only sufficient to give a uniform colour ought to be
used." In my opinion manufacturers would do well to discourage entirely
the claying of cacao either in Trinidad or Venezuela, for from their
point of view it has nothing to recommend it. One per cent. of clay is
sufficient to give a uniform colour, but occasionally considerably more
than this is used. If we are to believe reports, deliberate adulteration
is sometimes practised. Thus in _How Jose formed his Cocoa Estate_ we
read: "A cocoa dealer of our day to give a uniform colour to the
miscellaneous brands he has purchased from Pedro, Dick, or Sammy will
wash the beans in a heap, with a mixture of starch, sour oranges, gum
arabic and red ochre. This mixture is always boiled. I can recommend the
'Chinos' in this dodge, who are all adepts in all sorts of
'adulteration' schemes. They even add some grease to this mixture so as
to give the beans that brilliant gloss which you see sometimes." In
Trinidad the usual way of obtaining a gloss is by the curious operation
known as "dancing," which is performed on the moistened beans after the
clay has been sprinkled on them. It is a quaint sight to see a circle of
seven or eight coloured folk slowly treading a heap of beans. The
dancing may proceed for any period up to an hour, and as they tread they
sing some weird native chant. Somewhat impressed, I remarked to the
planter that it had all the appearance of an incantation. He replied
that the process cost 2d. per cwt. Dancing makes the beans look smooth,
shiny, and even, and it separates any beans that may be stuck together
in clusters. It may make the beans rounder, and it is said to improve
their keeping properties, but this remains to be proved. On the whole,
if it is considered desirable to produce a glossy appearance, it is
better to use a polishing machine.
_The Weight of the Cured Cacao Bean._
[Illustration: SORTING CACAO BEANS IN JAVA.
(Reproduced from van Hall's _Cocoa_, by permission of Messrs. Macmillan
& Co.).]
Planters and others may be interested to know the comparative sizes of
the beans from the various producing areas of the world. Some idea of
these can be gained by considering the relative weights of the beans
as purchased in England.
Average weight Number of Beans
Kind. of one Bean. to the lb.
Grenada 1.0 grammes 450
Para 1.0 " 450
Bahia 1.1 " 410
Accra 1.2 " 380
Trinidad 1.2 " 380
Cameroons 1.2 " 380
Ceylon 1.2 " 380
Caracas 1.3 " 350
Machala 1.4 " 330
Arriba 1.5 " 300
Carupano 1.6 " 280
_The Yield of the Cacao Tree._
The average yield of cacao has in the past generally been over-stated.
Whether this is because the planter is an optimist or because he wishes
others to think his efforts are crowned with exceptional success, or
because he takes a simple pride in his district, is hard to tell.
Probably the tendency has been to take the finer estates and put their
results down as the average.
Of the thousands of flowers that bloom on one tree during the year, on
an average only about twenty develop into mature pods, and each pod
yields about 1-1/3 ounces of dry cured cacao. Taking the healthy trees
with the neglected, the average yield is from 1-1/2 to 2 pounds of
commercial cacao per tree. This seems very small, and those who hear it
for the first time often make a rapid mental calculation of the amazing
number of trees that must be needed to produce the world's supply, at
least 250 million trees. Or again, taking the average yield per acre as
400 lbs., we find that there must be well over a million acres under
cacao cultivation. At the Government station at Aburi (Gold Coast) three
plots of cacao gave in 1914 an average yield of over 8 pounds of cacao
per tree, and in 1918 some 468 trees (_Amelonado_) gave as an average
7.8 pounds per tree. This suggests what might be done by thorough
cultivation. It suggests a great opportunity for the planters--that,
without planting one more tree, they might quadruple the world's
production.
The work which has been started by the Agricultural Department in
Trinidad of recording the yield of individual trees has shown that great
differences occur. Further, it has generally been observed that the
heavy bearing trees of the first year have continued to be heavy
bearers, and the poor-yielding trees have remained poor during
subsequent years. The report rightly concludes that: "The question of
detecting the poor-bearing trees on an estate and having them replaced
by trees raised from selected stock, or budded or grafted trees, of
known prolific and other good qualities is deserving of the most serious
consideration by planters."
_The Kind of Cacao that Manufacturers Like._[6]
[6] For further information read _The Qualities in Cacao
Desired by Manufacturers_, by N.P. Booth and A.W.
Knapp, International Congress of Tropical Agriculture,
1914.
Planters have suggested to me that if the users and producers of cacao
could be brought together it would be to their mutual advantage. Permit
me to conceive a meeting and report an imaginary conversation:
PLANTER: You know we planters work a little in the dark. We
don't know quite what to strive after. Tell me exactly what
kind of cacao the manufacturers want?
MANUFACTURER: Every buyer and manufacturer has his tastes and
preferences and----.
PLANTER: Don't hedge!
MANUFACTURER: The cacao of each producing area has its
special characters, even as the wine from a country, and part
of the good manufacturer's art is the art of blending.
PLANTER: What--good with bad?
MANUFACTURER: No! Good of one type with good of another type.
PLANTER: What do you mean exactly by good?
MANUFACTURER: By good I mean large, ripe, well-cured beans.
By indifferent I mean unripe and unfermented. By abominable I
mean germinated, mouldy, and grubby beans. Happily, the last
class is quite a small one.
PLANTER: You don't mean to tell me that only the good cacao
sells?
MANUFACTURER: Unfortunately, no! There are users of inferior
beans. Practically all the cacao produced--good and
indifferent--is bought by someone. Most manufacturers prefer
the fine, healthy, well fermented kinds.
PLANTER: Well fermented! They have a strange way of showing
their preference. Why, they often pay more for Guayaquil than
they do for Grenada cacao. Yet Guayaquil is never properly
fermented, whilst that from the Grenada estates is perfectly
fermented.
MANUFACTURER: Agreed. Just as you would pay more for a
badly-trained thoroughbred than for a well-trained mongrel.
It's breed they pay for. The Guayaquil breed is peculiar;
there is nothing else like it in the world. You might think
the tree had been grafted on to a spice tree. It has a fine
characteristic aroma, which is so powerful that it masks the
presence of a high percentage of unfermented beans. However,
if Guayaquil cacao was well-fermented it would (subject to
the iron laws of Supply and Demand) fetch a still higher
price, and there would not be the loss there is in a wet
season when the Guayaquil cacao, being unfermented, goes
mouldy. I think in Grenada they plant for high yield, and not
for quality, for the bean is small and approaches the
inferior Calabacillo breed. Its value is maintained by an
amazing evenness and an uniform excellence in curing. The way
in which it is prepared for the market does great credit to
the planters.
PLANTER: They don't clay there, do they?
MANUFACTURER: No! and yet it is practically impossible to
find a mouldy bean in Grenada estates cacao. Evidently
claying is not a necessity--in Grenada.
PLANTER: Ha! ha! By that I suppose you insinuate that it is
not a necessity in Trinidad, where the curing is also
excellent. Or in Venezuela? What's the buyer's objection to
claying?
MANUFACTURER: Simply that claying is camouflage. Actually the
buyer doesn't mind so long as the clay is not too generously
used. He objects to paying for beans and getting clay.
However, it's really too bad to colour up with clay the black
cacao from diseased pods; it might deceive even experienced
brokers.
PLANTER: Ha! ha! Then it's a very sinful practice. I don't
think that ever gets beyond the local tropical market. I know
the merchants judge largely by "the skin," but I thought the
London broker----.
MANUFACTURER: You see it's like this. Just as you associate a
certain label with a particularly good brand of cigar so the
planter's mark on the bag and the external appearance of the
beans influence the broker by long association. But just as
you cannot truly judge a cigar by the picture on the box, so
the broker has to consider what is under the shell of the
bean. One or two manufacturers go further, but don't trust
merely to "tasting with their eyes"--they only come to a
conclusion when they have roasted a sample.
PLANTER: But a buyer can get a shrewd idea without roasting,
surely? You agree. Well, what exactly does he look for?
MANUFACTURER: Depends what nationality the bean is--I mean
whether it was grown in Venezuela, Brazil, Trinidad, or the
Gold Coast. In general he likes beans with a good "break,"
that is beans which, under the firm pressure of thumb and
forefinger, break into small crisp nibs. Closeness or
cheesiness are danger signals, warnings of lack of
fermentation,--so is a slate-coloured interior. He prefers a
pale, even-coloured interior,--cinnamon, chocolate, or
cafe-au-lait colour and----.
PLANTER: One moment! I've heard before of planters being told
to ferment and cure until the bean is cinnamon colour. Why,
man, you couldn't get a pale brown interior with beans of the
Forastero or Calabacillo type if you fermented them to
rottenness.
MANUFACTURER: True! Well, if the breed on your plantation is
purple Forastero, and more than half of the cacao in the
world is, you must develop as much brown in the beans as
possible. They should have the characteristic refreshing
odour of raw cacao, together with a faint vinegary odour. The
buyers much dislike any foreign smell, any mouldy, hammy, or
cheesy odour.
PLANTER: And where do the foreign odours come from?
MANUFACTURER: That's debatable. Some come from bad
fermentations, due to dirty fermentaries, abnormal
temperatures, or unripe cacao.[7] Some come from smoky or
imperfect artificial drying. Some come from mould.
Unfermented cacao is liable to go mouldy, so is germinated or
over-ripe cacao with broken shells. Some cacao unfortunately
gets wet with sea water. There always seems to me something
pathetic in the thought of finely-cured cacao being drowned
in sea water as it goes out in open boats to the steamer.
PLANTER: You see, we haven't piers and jetties everywhere,
and often it's a long journey to them. Well, you've told me
the buyers note break, colour and aroma. Anything else?
MANUFACTURER: They like large beans, partly because largeness
suggests fineness, and partly because with large beans the
percentage of shell is less. Small flat beans are very
wasteful and unsatisfactory; they are nearly all shell and
very difficult to separate from the shell.
PLANTER: When there's a drought we can't help ourselves; we
produce quantities of small flat beans.
MANUFACTURER: It must be trying to be at the mercy of the
weather. However, the weather doesn't prevent the dirt being
picked out of the beans. Buyers don't like more than half a
per cent. of rubbish; I mean stones, dried twig-like pieces
of pulp, dust, etc., left in the cacao, neither do they like
to see "cobs," that is, two or more beans stuck together,
nor----.
PLANTER: How about gloss?
MANUFACTURER: The beauty of a polished bean attracts,
although they know the beauty is less than skin deep.
PLANTER: And washing?
MANUFACTURER: In my opinion washing is bad, leaves the shell
too fragile. I believe in Hamburg they used to pay more for
washed beans; although very little, I suppose less than five
per cent., of the world's cacao is washed, but in London many
buyers prefer "the great unwashed." However, brokers are
conservative, and would probably look on unwashed Ceylon with
suspicion.
PLANTER: Well, I have been very interested in everything that
you have said, and I think every planter should strive to
produce the very best he can, but he does not get much
encouragement.
MANUFACTURER: How is that?
PLANTER: There is insufficient difference between the price
of the best and the common.
MANUFACTURER: Unfortunately that is beyond any individual
manufacturer's control. The price is controlled by the
European and New York markets. I am afraid that as long as
there is so large a demand by the public for cheap cocoas so
long will there be keen competition amongst buyers for the
commoner kinds of beans.
PLANTER: The manufacturer should keep some of his own men on
the spot to do his buying. They would discriminate carefully,
and the differences in price offered would soon educate the
planters!
MANUFACTURER: True, but as each manufacturer requires cacao
from many countries and districts, this would be a very
costly enterprise. Several manufacturers have had their own
buyers in certain places in the Tropics for some years, and
it is generally agreed that this has acted as an incentive to
the growers to improve the quality.[8] But in the main we
have to look to the various Government Agricultural
Departments to instruct and encourage the planters in the use
of the best methods.
[7] Cameroon cacao sometimes has an objectionable odour and
flavour, which may be due to its being fermented in an
unripe condition, for, as Dr. Fickendey says: "Cameroon
cacao has to be harvested unripe to save the pods from
brown rot."
[8] The Director of Agriculture, in a paper on _The Gold
Coast Cocoa Industry_, says: "We are indebted to Messrs.
Cadbury Bros., of Bournville, for a lead in this
direction. They have several agents in the colony who
purchase on their behalf only the best qualities at an
enhanced price, and reject all that falls below the
standard of their requirements."
[Illustration: THE WORLD'S CACAO PRODUCTION.
(Mean of 5 years, 1914-1918. Average world production 295,600 tons per
annum.) Diagram showing relative amounts produced by various countries.
The shaded parts show production of British Possessions.]
CHAPTER IV
CACAO PRODUCTION AND SALE
When the English Commander, Thomas Candish, coming into the
Haven Guatulco, burnt two hundred thousand tun of cacao, it
proved no small loss to all New Spain, the provinces
Guatimala and Nicaragua not producing so much in a whole
year.
John Ogilvy's _America_, 1671.
When one starts to discuss, however briefly, the producing areas, one
ought first to take off one's hat to Ecuador, for so long the principal
producer, and then to Venezuela the land of the original cacao, and
producer of the finest criollo type. Having done this, one ought to say
words of praise to Trinidad, Grenada and Ceylon for their scientific
methods of culture and preparation; and, last but not least, the newest
and greatest producer, the Gold Coast, should receive honourable
mention. It is interesting to note that in 1918 British Possessions
produced nearly half (44 per cent.) of the world's supply.
Whilst the war has not very materially hindered the increase of cacao
production in the tropics, the shortage of shipping has prevented the
amount exported from maintaining a steady rise. The table below, taken
mainly from the "Gordian," illustrates this:
WORLD PRODUCTION OF CACAO.
Total in tons (1 ton = 1000 kilogrammes)
1908 194,000 1914 277,000
1909 206,000 1915 298,000
1910 220,000 1916 297,000
1911 241,000 1917 343,000
1912 234,000 1918 273,000
1913 258,000 1919 431,000
The following table is compiled chiefly from Messrs. Theo. Vasmer &
Co.'s reports in the _Confectioners' Union_.
CACAO PRODUCTION OF THE CHIEF PRODUCING AREAS OF THE WORLD.
(1 ton = 1000 kilogrammes).
Country. 1914 1915 1916 1917 1918
Tons. Tons. Tons. Tons. Tons.
Gold Coast[1] 53,000 77,300 72,200 91,000 66,300
Brazil 40,800 45,000 43,700 55,600 41,900
Ecuador 47,200 37,000 42,700 47,200 38,000
San Thome 31,400 29,900 33,200 31,900 26,600
Trinidad[1] 28,400 24,100 24,000 31,800 26,200
San Domingo 20,700 20,200 21,000 23,700 18,800
Venezuela 16,900 18,300 15,200 13,100 13,000
Lagos[1] 4,900 9,100 9,000 15,400 10,200
Grenada[1] 6,100 6,500 5,500 5,500 6,700
Fernando Po 3,100 3,900 3,800 3,700 4,200
Ceylon[1] 2,900 3,900 3,500 3,700 4,000
Jamaica[1] 3,800 3,600 3,400 2,800 3,000
Surinam 1,900 1,700 2,000 1,900 2,500
Cameroons 1,200 2,400 3,000 2,800 1,300
Haiti 2,100 1,800 1,900 1,500 2,300
French Cols. 1,800 1,900 1,600 2,200 1,700
Cuba 1,800 1,700 1,500 1,500 1,000
Java 1,600 1,500 1,500 1,600 800
Samoa 1,100 900 900 1,200 800
Togo 200 300 400 1,600 1,000
St. Lucia[1] 700 800 700 600 500
Belgian Congo 500 600 800 800 900
Dominica[1] 450 550 300 300 300
St. Vincent[1] 100 100 75 50 75
Other countries 3,200 3,000 3,500 3,500 3,500
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