Cocoa And Chocolate
The Tree, The Bean The Beverage

THE COCOA AND CHOCOLATE INDUSTRY CHARTER I INTRODUCTORY Cocoa and chocolate do not appear to be important articles of commerce until one remembers that every grocer sells cocoa, and that the principal sweetmeat in the multitude of confectioners’ shops is chocolate. The magnitude of the trade is perhaps better realised when one is reminded that the cultivation of cacao is the chief industry in several of our colonies, and that a single firm, manufacturing cocoa and chocolate in the Midlands, employs over 9,000 people. It is proposed in this little handbook to describe briefly the various stages in this industry, from the cultivation of the raw material to the sale of the finished product, or—to use a slick phrase after the männer of an. American adver-tisement—to sketch the career of cacao from the pod to the palate. A short description of the cacao tree will be given for the benefit of those readers who approach the subject for the first time. This will be followed by a chapter dealing historically with the main events in the development of the cultivation of cacao, and the manufacture of its products. The remainder of the book will describe in logical sequence, as far as possible, how the cacao bean is produced and prepared for the market at the present time, and the 1