The Manufacture of Chocolate and other Cacao Preparations. Paul Zipperer

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      The chief harvesting months are June and July; the April-May arrivals, however, are usually better, as the setting-in of the rainy season increases the difficulties of drying. The harvest in 1909 reached 3,000 tons, and is normally from 2000 to 5,000 tons yearly.

      b) Esmeraldas, similar to the foregoing, but of perceptibly inferior output, possesses only a very insignificant yield (about 150 tons a year), and this in spite of the cultivating capacities of the interior.

      Peru, the most southerly producing land on the west coast can likewise only boast of a very insignificant yield, chiefly destined for home consumption.

      Brazil, with its two great sorts for consumption, Bahia and Para cacao, and a yearly production of round 33,000 tons, has from the years 1906–1909 far outrun all other harvesting lands. Yet although it was able to increase this to 36,250 tons in 1911 it must nevertheless take second place among cultivating lands, the Gold Coast and Ecuador preceding.

      A most important factor on the market is included under the specification Bahia-cacao. Here again the shipping port has given its name to the cacao sort. It is harvested in three southerly situated districts, Ilheos, Belmonte, and Canavieiras, and is despatched to Bahia from harbours of the same name, in sailing vessel which sometimes ship a thousand sacks.

      Ilheos despatches the inferior of the two principal varieties “Fair fermented” and “Superior fermented” that is, the first-named, and so furnishes two-thirds of the Bahia crop. The cacao areas in the district of Ilheos are situated on rather high and mountainous ground, where arresting atmospheric conditions often predominate. Also the absence of any waterway whatever renders it a necessity to despatch the cacao to Bahia on beasts of burden, which during the rainy season can scarcely find a footing on the beaten tracks. It is, then, the unfavourable atmospheric conditions, combined with a certain carelessness on the part of the planter in the preparing processes, which prejudices the otherwise excellent quality of the Bahia bean, and more especially in the months of June, July and August.

      At this period it is no rarity to find from 10 to 20 percent of waste beans, and in general only the December-February months offer anything approaching a guarantee as to quality. But here no hard and fast rule can be adduced.

      

      Belmonte and Canavieiras are the districts of the “Superior fermented” cacaos. The lower lay of the land is responsible for other climatic conditions, and in addition, both harbours here are situated at the mouths of rivers which afford an easy and sure means of transport. So the cacao, which is also better roasted—a few planters even drying in ovens—reaches the market in a much better condition, and fetches at least from 3–4 sh. a cwt. more than the “Fair Fermented” variety.

      In all three districts, the beans are prepared in wooden boxes, covered with banana skin, in which the Ilheos variety is allowed to ferment from 2–3 days, and the superior from 2–5 days: this after they have been well shaken up. In Belmonte considerable drying takes place on the sand there deposited by the river in large quantities.

      The harvesting is generally reckoned from April 1st. to March 31st. In June and July is the intermediate harvest, whilst the months from October to February supply the bulkiest crops.

      The Bahia district yields yearly about 33,500 tons, a fourth part of which is devoted to the consumption of the United States, the remainder chiefly going to Germany, France and Switzerland. The return is still on the increase, and large stretches of land await cultivation.

      Para cacao is the denomination of all those sorts shipped from the tracts of land lying along the banks of the Amazon and its mighty tributaries, more especially from Manaos and Itacoatiara, through Para, a port situated on the eastern arm of the delta. These varieties may be classed as intermediary between Bahia and good Sumana. The yearly yield (harvest months June-August) amounts to about 5,000 tons, a comparatively small figure in view of the enormous expanses capable of planting, where the cacao tree at present grows wild, or at least uncultivated. It is true that the returns for 1891 reached 6,500; only to be diminished by half in 1908. France is by far the chief country consuming Para cacao; the sort not meeting with especial favour in other states.

      Guiana. Of the three colonies belonging to France, Holland, and Great Britain respectively, which go under this name, only the intermediate one, Dutch Guiana, is of importance in the world’s cacao trade. It comes into consideration under the name of

      Surinam cacao. The yield, which should in normal years amount to about 3,000 tons (1899 providing the record with approximately 4,000 tons), has been considerably impaired by tree diseases and parasites. The return for 1904 only amounted to 850 tons, for example. But meanwhile Holland had hit upon excellent measures to battle against the enemies of the tree, and the years 1909 and 1910 had in consequence already improved this to 2,000 tons. The bean has some resemblance to the Trinidad bean, as far as quality is concerned.

      Venezuela, one of the earliest cultivating lands, is the home of the Criollo bean, and of the most splendid specimens of bean in general, sorts which play a prominent part in the Chocolate Manufacture. The Venezuelan bean is rather long and round, and its kernel of a beautiful light brown, with a mild sweet flavour. Unfortunately the plantations have recently been interspersed with Forastero or Trinidad-Criollo trees—called in Venezuela “Trinitarios because brought over from Trinidad, a species which requires less attention and bears more fruit, but which just on that account supplies commoner and mediocre beans, slowly fermenting, and often developing a violet hue. The preparation is here of the simplest; the beans e.g. are dried on clay-covered floors, and in rainy weather earthy fragments often adhere to them. Yet such “Patios” or “Then-dales”, (clay floors) are only in use on the small “haciendas” (plantations). The colouring of the Venezuelan bean with an ocre-like earth constitutes an especial peculiarity. It is adopted in particular for the medium and finer sorts. The earth is mostly sent from the neighbourhood of Choroni to the two large shipping ports Puerto Cabello and La Guayra, where the colouring or “Earthification” of the cacaos to be exported ensues. The earth, varying in colour from a dirty yellow to brick-red, is mixed to a thin paste with sea-water, and afterwards placed in the sun on large sieves, or spread over cement floors. Where the colouring takes place immediately on the plantation, the yellowish brown earth everywhere available is utilised; and where sea-water cannot be obtained, as on the Rio Tuy, for example, there the beans are coloured with a mixture prepared from crushed and almost liquid cacao fruits and this same yellowish brown earth, as the use of fresh water is thought to afford but inferior protection against mould growths. Such juice-coloured cacaos, and occasionally also the Ocumare sorts, are often covered with a rather thick earthy crust. Professional opinion concerning the utility of this colouring varies greatly. In France, the principal country consuming Venezuelan cacao, it is still maintained that the thin earthy crust not only enables the bean to resist the penetration of mildew, but also admits of a kind of after-fermentation, together with developement and preservation of the most valuable constituents of the cacao bean. Colouring is then the rule for the finer Caracas sorts, and all varieties shipped through Puerto Cabello; it is also in use at Carupano, for export to Spain.

      The Venezuelan cacaos are divided as follows, and with one exception take their names from the chief shipping ports, to which they are brought in small sailing vessels tapping the villages dotted along the coast.

      1. Maracaibo cacao, the noble, large, and always uncoloured bean found on the shore of Sea of Maracaibo.

      2. Puerto Cabello, quite the finest of all cacao sorts, with the following sub-classes, each named after tiny harbours in the vicinity: Chuáo, Borburato, Chichiriviche, San Felipe (coloured with its own peculiar light brown earth) Ocumare, Choroni.

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