The Manufacture of Chocolate and other Cacao Preparations. Paul Zipperer

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СКАЧАТЬ so-called, although quite a small proportion, namely that brought over the mountains from the Rio Tuy district in donkey caravans, now touches the republican capital. La Guayra, rather, is the shipping port for the so-called Caracas sorts, to which belong all the cacaos from the fertile Barlavento district east of La Guayra, a region watered by two rivers, Rio Tuy and Rio Chico, and with the following outlets; Rio Chico (which gives its name to the most ordinary of sorts), Higuerote, and Capaya. The plantations hard on the mountainous coastal slopes produce a very fine bean, of equal value with the Puerto Cabello.

      4. Carupano cacao, a sound Venezuelan medium sort, generally coming into use uncoloured; the arrivals from the easterly harbour Rio Caribe also belong to this sort, and also the cacaos of Irapa, Guiria, and Cano Colorado, often shipped from the port of Trinidad lying opposite.

      From Angostura (Ciudad Bolivar) on the Orinoco and San Fernando on the Apure, only very insignificant quantities arrive.

      They speak of a Christmas and a Summer (June 21st) harvest in Venezuela; but the first four months of the year are generally the most productive. The total produce of Venezuela amounts to about 16,000 tons, of which as export there fall to

La Guayra	about 8,000 tons.
Puerto Cabello	about 3,000 tons.
Carupano	about 4,500 tons.
Maracabio and via Trinidad	about 500 tons.

      C. The Antilles.

      Trinidad produces a cacao which on many plantations, or estates, as they are called, receives preparation at the hands of experts, and is very highly esteemed in commerce, and especially in England and France. The best and generally slightly coloured sorts are specified as “Plantation”, the medium “Estates”, after the English name, and the inferior “Fair Trinidad shipping cacao The bean “Trinidad criollo” is oval, yet not so rounded as the Venezuelan; its kernel is for the most part dark-coloured, still brown in the better varieties, but inky black among the inferior. It is customary in Trinidad to trade the cacaos as prime specimens and to assign to them the name of a species which not infrequently furnishes no true indication of their origin. “Soconusco” and “San Antonio” are particularly high-sounding; mention can further be made of “Montserrat”, “La Gloria”, “Maraval”, “Belle Fleur”, “El Reposo” etc. Chief harvest, December to February inclusive, by-harvest May to August.

      The total export from Trinidad amounts to about 22,500 tons yearly. The substantially smaller island of Grenada, also British, contributes about 6,000 tons a year to the world’s supply. Owing to the prevalence of like climatic and geological conditions, the yield and quality are here the same as on the neighbouring island of Trinidad. The chief consumer of the Grenada cacaos is the Motherland, and the same holds good for the small British islands of St. Vincent, St. Lucia and Dominique, all of little import in the general trade of the world.

      Martinique-and Guadeloupe-cacaos, hailing from the French islands so named, with a yearly production varying from 5,000 to 7,500 tons, only come into consideration for the consumption of the Motherland, which affords them an abatement of 50 percent in connection with the tariffs. San Domingo, the larger and eastern part of the Haiti island, already contributes about 20,000 tons yearly to the universal harvest. Especially in the last ten years has the cacao cultivation here received considerable expansion (yield 1894 2,000 tons, 1904 13,500 tons) and as vast suitable tracts of land are to hand, this country would justify the highest expectations, if the general political and economical relations of the double republic and a certain indolence of the planters, all small farmers, had not to be allowed for.

      

      A methodical preparation only seldom takes place. Processes are limited to a very necessary drying, as a rule, so that the cacao, excellent in itself, takes rank among the lowest as a commercial quality. The chief gatherings occur in the months of May, June and July. The shipping ports are Puerta Plata on the north-coast, Sanchez and Sumana on the Bight of Samana, and La Romana, San Pedro de Macoris and Santo Domingo (the capital) on the south coast. Tiny Samana, situated on a small tongue of land, and so outlet for no extensive region, has given its name to Domingo cacao as a commercial sort, as from here the first shipments were dispatched.

      Sanchez cacao, so named because Sanchez, where the transports come from the fruitful district of Cibao as far as La Vega, is the chief exporting harbour of the republic. From the same district, starting at Santiago, there is yet another line, this time running northwards to Puerto Plata on the coast. The cacao of this northerly province of Cibao is generally held in higher esteem than that coming from the southern harbours.

      The United States, which have recently developed an interest in the land for political reasons, have been promoted to first place among its customers during the last few years; and then follow France and Germany. It can only be hoped that this influence grows, in view of the thereby doubtlessly accelerated improvements in the preparation processes. Up to the present, varieties free from blame are conspicuously rare. Uniformity as regards the weight of the sacks has not been possible, owing to the diversity of the means of transport. Districts lying along the railways, or close to the harbours, make use of 80–100 kg. sacks (about 176–220 lbs.) But where transport must be made on beasts of burden, sacks of from 65–70 kilos (143–154 lbs.) are the rule.

      Haiti cacao, coming from the Negro republic of the same name, is the most inferior of all commercial sorts, chiefly on account of the incredibly neglective preparation which it undergoes, for exceptions prove that the bean is capable of being developed into a very serviceable cacao. Beans covered with a thick gray coloured earthy crust, often even mixed with small pebbles and having a gritty, and where healthy, black-brown beaking kernel. The “Liberty and Equality” of the Negros and Mulattos in this corrupted republic are mirrored in its plantation system, the land being cultivated but little, and running almost wild. To effect a change in this state of affairs, that island law must first of all be abolished, whereby every stranger is prevented from acquiring landed estate in Haiti.

      

      The yield, about 2,500 tons, is chiefly exported from Jérémic, then also from the harbours Cap Haitien, Port de Paix, Petit Goave, and Port au Prince. France and the United States are the principal customers. The neighbouring island of

      Cuba also delivers the greater part of its cacao produce to the United States, amounting to between 1,000 and 3,000 tons, a fact explained by geographical, political and freight considerations.

      Thanks to its careful preparation, this bean, which resembles the Domingo in many respects, is preferred, and fetches a correspondingly higher price. The shipping port is Santiago de Cuba, situated in the south-eastern portion of the island.

      Jamaica, with its yearly harvest of about 2,500 tons, principally attends to the wants of the Mother Country.

      II. African Cacao Varieties.

      Cacao cultivation in Africa is of comparatively recent date. The plantations found on the three islands San Thomé and Principe (Portuguese), and Fernando Po (Spanish), lying in the Gulf of Guinea, are the oldest. To the first-named island may be traced much of the impulse given to cacao plantation in other African districts, so rapid has been its success here, under the energetic guidance of the skilful Portuguese planter, and the yet more effective propitious climatic influences and favourable industrial conditions.

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