The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1886-07-02
MAKING CHOCOLATE.
"A Great Industry in Which Nil.
lions Are Invested.
The Several Processes-Women In Brow
Holland Aprons at Work-Like
Milk, Cocoa Almost . Perfect
Article of Food.


the cocoa or chocolate nuts. The cocoa,
from which it comes, is q tree that has
been brought into great prominence
only in comparatively recent years,
although for many generations it has
been exercising beneficient influences
upon millions Of the human race. The
Spanish word is COCO, signifyiEg nut.
The eocoanut palm grows in warm eli
mates. and attains the height of from
sixty to ninety feet. The stem is SINH
lar to an apothecary' morton. being of
equal diameter at each end. but taper
ing somewhat in the middle. The bark
is smooth, Of a pale brown, and the tree
generally inclines on one side. The
fruit is shaped like cucumber, green
while growing, then changing to blush
red color with pink veins, and contains
from twenty to thirty nuts. The calyx
of the cocoa nut palm is composed of
five sepals: the petals are five, lengthen-
ed into strap-iike form at the apex
The stamens are five each with double
anthers, and horn-like appendage
between each tilament; the style is nil
form with five parted stigma, the fruit
a five celled capsule without valves. the
seeds embedded ina soft pulp. and thick,
OILY, wrinkled cotyledons. The species
chiefly used in the manufacture Of cocoa
and chocolate are cacao. and the fruits
are collected from both wild and Guilt
waited plants. the size and form of which
vary with the species. The cacao tree
is carefully cultivated in many of the
settlements of Spanish America, ard
particularly in Mexico, where. We learn
from Humboldt. it was extensively reared
so long ago as the time of Montezuma,
and. whence, indeed, it was transplant
ed into other dependencies of the Span
ism Monarchy. The names by which
the plant and the food prepared from
Its seed are recognised in the present
time are derived from the Mexican Ian
guage. The Mexican word chocolate
is derived from the sound of the stones
as they crash together in the primitive
method adopted by them for bruising
the bean and incorporating the sugar
and vanilla, and from this comes the
English word chocolate. The seeds of
the cacao were made use of as money
in Mexico in the time of the Aztec
kings, and this use o: them is still par
tally continued. But the cacao tree is
not confined to Mexico. II is extern
sively grown in Central America, Bra
I'll, Peru, Venezuela. Caracas, Ecua-
dor. Demerara, Guayaeuil and Surinam,
it is also extensively culsiva ted in Trini-
dad. Grenada. and is found in some of
the other West Indian Islands, but that
coming from Caracas being considered
the best.
treatment of the cocoa of commerce,
which is as follows: The various kinds
Of cocoa and chocolate are prepared
from the seeds. When ripe the pods
are gathered and after living some
hours opened and the seeds picked out
by hand and sweated, as it is technically
called. First they are arranged on 3
.sloping floor or in baskets, Whereby the
pulp enveioping them is drained of.
They are next inclosed in boxes for two
or three days, according to the state of
the weather, and afterwards placed in
the sun to dry. This sweating process
is similar to mailing, and on the man.
ner in which il is carried out the value
of the cocoa principally depends. As
soon as the seeds are quite dry they are
ready for shipment in barrels or bags.
Before proceeding to describe its actual
manufacture into an article of food I
should like to show the manner in
which it sustains the human organism.
it is well known that milk contains all
the essentials for supplying the human
organism with proper nourishment, and
sn ANALYSIS Of cocoa shows that there is
. very small proportion of water, while
the analysis, as a whole, is closely like
that of pure milk. Cocoa is, in fact, q
food beverage, and possesses beside the
Invaluable property of promoting and
sustaining the animal forces, without, of
course. any of those evil reactionary eff
fleets which always follow the use of in
toxlcants and ordinary nerve excitants.
The best general idea of this can be
given by the following account of visit
70 the works of an extensive BROOKLYN
mandatory, which of late has become
largely extended. The greatest atten-
ton found paid in the factory to clean
illness, and in passing through the rooms
noticed that the young women EMPLOYED
were dressed neatly, most of them wear
ing brown Holland apron which COW
erred the whole dress. The cocoa nut
beans are carefully sorted and the un-
sound ones rejected; they are then
placed in rotating cylinders and sub
jected to gentle heat over coke fires
until the full aroma is properly devel-
Oped. When cool they are passed to
another room, in which the machines