, 1885-04-28
COFFEE AND CHOCOLATE.
n Plantations Along the Venezuelan
= coast-The Chocolate Industry.

The Plantations Along the Venezuelan
Coast-Tho Chocolate Industry.
lAspinwan Cor. Inter ocean,
The country along the Spanish main,
from Trinidad to the isthmus, is a mix
ture of Florida and Switzerland, where
one can find within the radius of a
single days journey any climate or
scene to suit his taste, from a tropical
jungle, swarming with tigers and ALI
gators to mountain crests crowned with
eternal snow. Down in the southwes-
tern part of Venezuela and east
ern Colombia the Andes noun
tains and twin range, the Cor
dilleras, forming adouble spinal column
for the continent, split and scatter, and
finally jump into the sea. Between
these mountains, along the coast, are
narrow valleys of the most luxurious
tropical veTdure and the richest soil,
which yield three harvests annually and
are densely populated. Coffee, sugar
and chocolate are the staples of the
lower region, called "terre caliente" Chot
earth); corn, beans and other temper
ate zone products are raised on the
mountain side. and higher up, on the
plains, 1000 and s, 900 feet above the
sea, are thousands Of goats and cattle.
The coffee plantations extend from
the coast far up into the mountains,
and are very prolific. The people here
claim TO raise the best coffee in the
world, and it is a singular fact, as
serted by the exporters, that only the
poorest grade goes to the United States.
while ali of the better quality is sent to
France and Germany. Just why this
is so no one explains, further than re-
peating the remark so often made, that
the Americans do not like n good coffee.
The cocoa plant is an odd sort of af-
fair. 1t has great wax-like leaves, and
resembles a small magnolia tree. Upon
its trunk and larger limbs there appears
semi-annually a large number Of wart-
lii p~rotuberances, about as large as
the smallest pineapple. They are ugly
looking parasites, but, like many other
ugly things have a value and usefulness.
At first they are green, but when they
get red the natives pick them off, crush
them in n rude machine, and take from
each a handful of SEEDS about the size
and shape of n lima bean. This is the
cocoa.
When the beans are thoroughly dried
in the sun they are shipped to the mar
ket in gunny sacks, where the chocolate
gets hOld OF them. lie
grinds them into a fine powder of a gray
color, that looks like graham flour,
mixes it with the pure juice of the sugar
cane, called ''papillon, " and favors the
mixture with the juice of the vanilla
bean. After being boiled for a certain
length of time this is poured into molds
and allowed to harden, when it becomes
the chocolate of commerce.
The Caracas chocolate, as all the pro-
duct Of Venezuela is termed, is con-
sidered the best in the world. 1t costs
65 cents a pound at the factories there,
but can be purchased for 40 or 80 cents
q pound in New York. The best cocoa
beans are 40 cents a pound here, but the
Yankee manufacturer has a way of in
creasing their weight and reducing their
value by adulteration. Pipe-clay is
cheap and heavy, and it is supposed to
BIO harmless. 1t weighs about five times
as much as cocoa, and, as the profit in
lager beer is in the foam, so is the profit
in chocolate in the pipe clay, or what
ever substance it may be mixed with.