4. Caracas Cocoa.—From Venezuela. Color pale brown, with a mild,
agreeable flavor. Usually coated with a film of soil due to their being
buried in the earth during the sweating process. A very highly priced
variety.
5. Guayaquil Cocoa.—From Ecuador. Seeds flattened, somewhat
wedge-shaped, wrinkled, reddish brown. An excellent variety.
6. Berbice Cocoa.—From British Guiana. Seeds small, externally gray,
internally reddish brown.
7. Surinam and Essequibo Cocoa.—Seeds rather large and more firm;
externally a loamy gray, internally deep reddish brown. Taste somewhat
bitter.
The unfermented cocoa, also known as sun cocoa and island cocoa, is
dried rapidly without fermenting. It is of a beautiful reddish brown
color and a bitter astringent taste. The following are the principal
varieties:
1. Brazilian (Para, Bahia) Cocoa.—Seeds smooth, wedge-shaped, flattened.
One edge nearly straight, the other convex.
2. Cayenne Cocoa.—Quite hard, externally grayish brown, internally
purplish red.
3. Antilles Cocoa (Island Cocoa).—Of this there are the following
varieties: a, Trinidad cocoa, with large, flat, almost black brown
seeds; b, Martinique cocoa, with elongated, flattened, reddish brown
seeds; c, St. Domingo cocoa, with small, flattened, dark purplish brown
seeds.
Cocoa requires considerable care in cultivation. A moist atmosphere and
uniform temperature of about 24 to 28 degrees C., with considerable
shade, is best suited. The tall variety of banana and the tree-like
Erythrina Corallodendron are the more common shade plants. The plants
are grown from seeds which begin to germinate in eight days. The trees
begin to bear fruit in about four years. More usually eight to ten years
elapse before any considerable fruit is borne. Two crops are collected
annually. It is stated that there is on an average only one fruit to
every 3,000 flowers.
Chocolate and cocoa are prepared by roasting the seeds, removing the
husks and crushing between hot rollers, which liquefies the solid fat
and forms a paste. To make chocolate sugar is added and flavored with
vanilla and cinnamon. Sometimes a coloring substance is added. The paste
is finally moulded into cakes varying in size and form. Chocolate is
frequently adulterated with lard, starches, rice flour and other
substances. Cheap grades are usually flavored with sassafras nuts,
cloves and other spices. In the manufacture of cocoa the husks are
usually included and mixed with a variable quantity of sugar, starch,
flavoring substances, etc. The roasted, hulled and coarsely broken seeds
are known as cocoa nibs, and this is the purest kind of cocoa. The
powder made from the seeds after the oil has been thoroughly expressed
is known as broma.
The seeds contain about 50 per cent of fat. In the manufacture of broma
and common cocoa most of this is removed and is placed upon the market
as cocoa butter. The more or less broken hulls are sold as cocoa shells,
from which a chocolate-like drink is made by boiling in water and
sweetening with sugar.
There is perhaps no food substance which is more universally liked than
chocolate. Mothers have no small amount of trouble in hiding the
household chocolate from the children. With the omnipresent
penny-in-the-slot machine more pennies are credited to it than to the
chewing gum. The housewife and baker use it very extensively with
chocolate cake. The confectioner uses it very freely, to the great
delight of children.
The principal use to which cocoa is put is in the preparation of a
beverage. For this purpose enormous quantities of chocolate, cocoa,
broma and hulls are consumed annually. The word “Theobroma” is derived
from the Greek, meaning drink for the gods. The drink is prepared by
thoroughly triturating the desired amount of chocolate, cocoa or broma
with a small quantity of water, then stirring this into the necessary
quantity of boiling milk or water and boiling for a few minutes with
constant stirring. The oil present gives the drink great nutritive
value. It is also slightly stimulating, owing to the presence of an
alkaloid theobromine which is closely similar in its properties to
theine and caffeine, the active constituents of tea and coffee. The
drink does not agree with some individuals, because the large amount of
oil present causes indigestion. It is also highly probable that the
indigestion or dyspepsia is due to the minute fragments of roasted
cell-walls of the seeds, which are not only indigestible, but irritate
the secreting mucous cells lining the inner surface of the stomach.
Cocoa butter, which resembles tallow in consistency and appearance, is
used in medical and pharmaceutical practice as a salve, or pomade, for
external application in eruptive diseases, as scarlet fever, etc., etc.
Cocoa also finds extensive use in medical practice, though it has no
marked curative properties. Cocoa from which the oil has been thoroughly
expressed (broma) makes an excellent drink for convalescents. It is used
to disguise the taste of disagreeable medicines, etc.
Albert Schneider.