Cocoa And Chocolate
The Tree, The Bean The Beverage

 I?-[ ■vi -i ;j;< << s DESCRIPTION OF CACAO TREE 9 tapers at the other end. The wall of the pod has ten longitudinal furrows, five of which are very marked ; it is soft and can easily be cut with a knife. Forastero. This variety has less warty pods than the Criollo, and the walls are more woody in character. The shape of the pod varies considerably ; one kind, Angoleta, resembles Criollo; another, Cundeamor, is bottle-necked ; another Amelonado, resembles a melon ; and a fourth kind Calabacillo, is as globular as a cala-bash. In a single Trinidad plantation one may find not only all these kinds, but all manner of intermediate and indeterminate types. It is interesting, with the above differences in mind, to walk through a plantation and attempt to name the varieties. One can best determine whether one has been successful by taking a pod from the tree and cutting it open. The more easily one cuts open the pod, the more sure one is that it is Criollo, but it is the colour of the seeds inside which enables one to make a final decision. On opening the pod there is a pleasant odour resembling melon. The inside of the pod, like a young chestnut burr or the pod of a broad bean, is lined with white pulp. Inside there are 20 to 40 seeds packed closely together. These seeds are also thinly covered with a glistening snow-white or pale-heliotrope pulp, so that they slip through the fingers with the same facility as the seeds of a melon or cucumber. On putting one of the seeds in the mouth the pulp is found to be sweet and faintly acid. On biting through the seed one finds that it is bitter and astringent, particularly if it is the Forastero variety, and one spits it out as not being sufficiently pleasant to eat. This discovery strikes one as curious, since from these same seeds are prepared those delightful food-stuffs, cocoa and chocolate. When prepared for the market the cacao seeds are always known incorrectly