The Osceola times., 1886-07-03
MAKING CHOCOLATE.
Great Industry in Which Mil
lions Are Invested.
fhe Several Processes Women in Brown
Holland Aprons At Work-Like
Milk. Cocoa Almost a Perfect
Article of Food.

Chocolate is kind Of hard paste, the
principal part of which is the pulp of
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 benefcient influences
,npon millions of the human race. The
Spanish word is coco, signfying nut.
1he cocoanpt palm grows IN warm oil
bates, and attains the height of from
eNty to ninety feet The stem Is SINH
jar to an apothocary's morton, being of
equal diameter at each end, but taper
BIZ somewhat in the middle. The bark
s smooth. OF pale brown, aud the tree
GENERALLY W.lnes on one SIDE. The
FRUIT il shaped like a cucum ber, green
while growing, then changing to a blush
Ted color with pink Neins and contains
From twenty to thirty nuts. The calyx
..Ct the cocoa nut palm is composed of
five sepals; the petals are five, lengthen-
ted into a strap-like form at the apex.
- nc nAhlli'llN at llNf NAtl wild U0uDlp
| Hnthers, and n horn-like appendage
Rfbetween each tilament; the style is hli-
n form with a five parted stigma, the fruit
n a i've celled capsule without valves, the
seeds embedded ina soft pulp, and thick,
#oily, wrinkled cotyedons. The species
chiefly used in the manufacture of cocoa
a and chocolate are cacao. and the fruits
n are collected from both wild and culti-
waited plants, the size and form of which
vary with the species. The cacao tree
4 Is carefully cultivated in many of the
settlements of Spanish America, and
particularly in Mexico, where, we learn
from Humboldt. it was eXtensvelyreared
so long ago as the time of Montezuma.
and, whence, indeed, it was transplant
ed into other dependencies of the Span
ish Monarchy. The names by which
the plant and the food prepared from
IL seed are recognized 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 us money
in Mexico in the time of the Aztec
kings, and this use o! them is still par
italy 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, Guayaquil and Surinam,
II is also extensively cultivated IN 1rini-
dad, Grenada, and is found in some of
the other West Indian Islands. but that
coming from Caracas being considered
the best.
We now come TO the preliminary
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 lying some
hours opened and the seeds picked out
by hand and sweated, as it is technically !
called. First they are arranged on a !
sloping floor or in baskets, where y the |
pulp enveloping 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 it 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 l |
should like to show tho manner in |
which 1t sustains the human organism. |
II is well known that milk contains all |
the essentials for supplying the human !
organism with proper nourishment, and |
al analysis of cocoa shows that there is |
very small proportion of water, while |
the analysis, as n whole, is closely like |
that of pure milk. Cocoa Is, in fact, a |
food beverage, and possesses beside the
invaluable property of promoting and |
sustaining the animal forces, without, of |
course, any of those evil reactionary eff |
iects which always follow the use of in
Ioxicants and ordinary nerve excitants. |
ihe best general idea of this can be
gwen by the following account of visit
to 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
hness, 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
cred 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
lected to a gentle heat over coke fires |
until the fun aroma is properly ,ievel-
oped. When cool they are passed to |
Another room In ,whicS Tho rn ohines