DIAGRAM SHOWING VARIATION IN PRICE OF CACAO BEANS FROM 1913 TO 1919.DIAGRAM SHOWING VARIATION IN PRICE OF CACAO BEANS FROM 1913 TO 1919.
DIAGRAM SHOWING VARIATION IN PRICE OF CACAO BEANS FROM 1913 TO 1919.
The price of cacao is liable to fluctuations like every other product, thus in 1907 Trinidad cacao rose to one shilling a pound, whilst there have been periods when it has only fetched sixpence per pound. On April 2nd, 1918, the Food Controller fixed the prices of the finestqualities of the different varieties of raw cacao as follows:
British WestAfrica (Accra)65s. per cwt.BahiaCameroonsSan ThoméCongoGrenada\|}|/85s. " "TrinidadDemeraraGuayaquilSurinam\}/90s. " "CeylonJavaSamoa\}/100s. " "
The diagram on p. 113 shows the average market price in the United Kingdom of some of the more important cacaos before, during, and after the war. The most striking change is the sudden rise when the Government control was removed. All cacaos showed a substantial advance varying from 80 to 150 per cent. on pre-war values. Further large advances have taken place in the early months of 1920.
Many a young man, reading in some delightful book of travel, has longed to go to the tropics and see the wonders for himself. There can be no doubt that a sojourn in equatorial regions is one of the most educative of experiences. In support of this I cannot do better than quote Grant Allen, who regarded the tropics as the best of all universities. "But above all in educational importance I rank the advantage of seeing human nature in its primitive surroundings, far from the squalid and chilly influences of the tail-end of the Glacial epoch." ... "We must forget all this formal modern life; we must break away from this cramped, cold, northern world; we must find ourselves face to face at last, in Pacific isles or Africanforests, with the underlying truths of simple naked nature."
GROUP OF WORKERS ON CACAO ESTATE. Some are standing on the Drying Platform, which is the roof of the Fermentary.GROUP OF WORKERS ON CACAO ESTATE.Some are standing on the Drying Platform, which is the roof of the Fermentary.
GROUP OF WORKERS ON CACAO ESTATE.Some are standing on the Drying Platform, which is the roof of the Fermentary.
Many will recall how Charles Kingsley's longing to see the tropics was ultimately satisfied. In his book, in which he describes how he "At Last" visited the West Indies, we read that he encountered a happy Scotchman living a quiet life in the dear little island of Monos. "I looked at the natural beauty and repose; at the human vigour and happiness; and I said to myself, and said it often afterwards in the West Indies: 'Why do not other people copy this wise Scot? Why should not many a young couple, who have education, refinement, resources in themselves, but are, happily or unhappily for them, unable to keep a brougham and go to London balls, retreat to some such paradise as this (and there are hundreds likeit to be found in the West Indies), leaving behind them false civilisation, and vain desires, and useless show; and there live in simplicity and content 'The Gentle Life'?"
Few who go to the tropics escape their fascination, and of those that are young, few return to colder climes. Some become overseers, others, more fortunate, own the estates they manage. It is inadvisable for the inexperienced to start on the enterprise of buying and planting an estate with less capital than two or three thousand pounds; but, once established, a cacao plantation may be looked upon as a permanent investment, which will continue to bear and give a good yield as long as it receives proper attention.
In the recently publishedLetters of Anthony Farleythe writer tells how Farley encounters in South America an old college friend of his, who in his early days was on the high road to a brilliant political career. Here he is, a planter. He explains:
"My mother was Spanish; her brother owned this place. When he died it came to me.""How did your uncle hold it through the various revolutions?""Nothing simpler. He became an American citizen. When trouble threatened he made a bee-line for the United States Consulate. I'm British, of course. Well, just when I had decided upon a political life, I found it necessary to come here to straighten things out. One month lengthened itself into a year. I grew fascinated. Here I felt a sense of immense usefulness. On the mountain side my coffee-trees flourished; down in the valley grew cacao.""I grow mine on undulations.""You needn't, you know, so long as you drain.""Yes, but draining on the flat is the devil.""Anyhow, I always liked animals—you haven't seen my pigs yet—and horses and mules need careful tending. A cable arrived one morning announcing an impending dissolution. I felt like an unwilling bridegroom called to marry an ugly bride. I invited my soul. Here, thought I to myself, are animals and foodstuffs—good, honest food at that. If I go back it is only to fill people's bellies with political east wind."To come to the point, I decided to grow coffee and cacao. I cabled infinite regrets. The decision once made, I was happy as a sandboy.J'y suis, j'y reste, said I to myself, said I. Nor have I ever cast one longing look behind."[8]
"My mother was Spanish; her brother owned this place. When he died it came to me."
"How did your uncle hold it through the various revolutions?"
"Nothing simpler. He became an American citizen. When trouble threatened he made a bee-line for the United States Consulate. I'm British, of course. Well, just when I had decided upon a political life, I found it necessary to come here to straighten things out. One month lengthened itself into a year. I grew fascinated. Here I felt a sense of immense usefulness. On the mountain side my coffee-trees flourished; down in the valley grew cacao."
"I grow mine on undulations."
"You needn't, you know, so long as you drain."
"Yes, but draining on the flat is the devil."
"Anyhow, I always liked animals—you haven't seen my pigs yet—and horses and mules need careful tending. A cable arrived one morning announcing an impending dissolution. I felt like an unwilling bridegroom called to marry an ugly bride. I invited my soul. Here, thought I to myself, are animals and foodstuffs—good, honest food at that. If I go back it is only to fill people's bellies with political east wind.
"To come to the point, I decided to grow coffee and cacao. I cabled infinite regrets. The decision once made, I was happy as a sandboy.J'y suis, j'y reste, said I to myself, said I. Nor have I ever cast one longing look behind."[8]
This is fiction, but I think it is true that very few, if any, who become planters in the tropics ever return permanently to England. The hospitality of the planters is proverbial: there must be something good and free about the planter's life to produce men so genial and generous. There is a picture that I often recall, and never without pleasure. A young planter and I had, with the help of more or less willing mules, climbed over the hills from one valley to the next. The valley we had left is noted for its beauty, but to me it had become familiar; the other valley I saw now for the first time. The sides were steep and covered with trees, and I could only see one dwelling in the valley. We reached this by a circuitous path through cacao trees. Approaching it as we did, the bungalow seemed completely cut off from the rest of the world. We were welcomed by the planter and his wife, and by those of the children who were not shy. I have never seen more chubby or jolly kiddies, and I know from the sweetness of the children that their mother must have given them unremitting attention. I wondered indeed if she ever left them for a moment. I knew, too, from the situation of the bungalow in the heart of the hills that visitors were not likely to be frequent. The planter's life is splendid for a man who likes open air and nature, but I had sometimes thought that their wives would not find the life so good. I was mistaken. When we came away, after riding some distance, through a gap in the cacao we saw across the valley a group of happy children. They saw us, and all of them, even the shy ones, waved us adieux.
CARTING CACAO TO RAILWAY STATION, CEYLON.CARTING CACAO TO RAILWAY STATION, CEYLON.
CARTING CACAO TO RAILWAY STATION, CEYLON.
THE CARENAGE, GRENADA.THE CARENAGE, GRENADA.
THE CARENAGE, GRENADA.
[1]British Possessions.
[2]These figures, and others quoted later in this chapter, are estimates given by Messrs. Theo. Vasmer & Co. in their reports.
[3]Cacao production in 1919: Trinidad 27,185 tons; Grenada 4,020 tons.
[4]De Candolle,Origin of Cultivated Plants, quoted by R. Whymper.
[5]"Towards this latter result Messrs. Cadbury Bros., Ltd., rendered great assistance. This firm sent representatives into the country, who proved to the natives that they were willing to pay an enhanced price for cocoa prepared in a manner suitable for their requirements. A fair amount of cocoa was purchased by them, and demonstrations were made in some places with regard to the proper mode of fermentation." (The Agricultural and Forest Products of British West Africa.Imperial Institute Handbook, by G.C. Dudgeon).
[6]TheGordian'sestimate for the amount exported in 1919 is 40,766 tons.
[7]Robert Louis Stevenson was one of the pioneers in cacao planting in Samoa, as readers of hisVailima Letterswill remember.
[8]Quoted from theNew Age, where theLetters of Anthony Farleyfirst appeared.
The Indians, from whom we borrow it, are not very nice in doing it; they roast the kernels in earthen pots, then free them from their skins, and afterwards crush and grind them between two stones, and so form cakes of it with their hands.
Natural History of Chocolate, R. Brookes, 1730.
As the cacao bean is grown in tropical countries, it is there that we must look for the first attempts at manufacturing from it a drink or a foodstuff. The primitive method of preparation was very simple, consisting in roasting the beans in a pot or on a shovel to develop their flavour, winnowing in the wind, and then rubbing the broken shelled beans between stones until quite fine. The curious thing is that on grinding the cacao bean in the heat of a tropical day we do not produce a powder but a paste. This is because half the cacao bean consists of a fat which is liquid at 90° F., a temperature which is reached in the shade in tropical countries. This paste was then made into small rolls and put in a cool place to set. Thus was produced the primitive unsweetened drinking chocolate. This is the method, which Elizabethans, who ventured into the tangled forests of equatorial America, found in use; and this is the method they brought home to Europe. In the tropics these simple processes are followed to this day, but in Europe they have undergone many elaborations and refinements.
If the reader will look at the illustration entitled "Women grinding chocolate," he will see how the brittle roasted bean is reduced to a paste in primitive manufacture. A stone, shaped like a rolling-pin, is being pushed to and fro over a concave slab, on which the smashed beans have already been reduced to a paste of a doughy consistency.
EARLY FACTORY METHODS.EARLY FACTORY METHODS.Fig. 1 is a workman roasting the cacao in an iron kettle over a furnace. He has to stir the beans to keep them from burning. Fig. 2 is a person sifting and freeing the roasted kernels (which when broken into fragments are called "nibs") from their husks or shell. Fig. 3 shows a workman pounding the shell-free nibs in an iron mortar. Fig. 4 represents a workman grinding the nibs on a hard smooth stone with an iron roller. The grinding is performed over a chafing-dish of burning charcoal, as it is necessary, for ease of grinding, to keep the paste in a liquid condition.
EARLY FACTORY METHODS.Fig. 1 is a workman roasting the cacao in an iron kettle over a furnace. He has to stir the beans to keep them from burning. Fig. 2 is a person sifting and freeing the roasted kernels (which when broken into fragments are called "nibs") from their husks or shell. Fig. 3 shows a workman pounding the shell-free nibs in an iron mortar. Fig. 4 represents a workman grinding the nibs on a hard smooth stone with an iron roller. The grinding is performed over a chafing-dish of burning charcoal, as it is necessary, for ease of grinding, to keep the paste in a liquid condition.
The conversion of these small scale operations into the early factory process is well shown in the plate which I reproduce above fromArts and Sciences, published in 1768.
WOMEN GRINDING CHOCOLATE. From Squier "Nicaragua"WOMEN GRINDING CHOCOLATE.From Squier "Nicaragua"
WOMEN GRINDING CHOCOLATE.From Squier "Nicaragua"
A certain atmosphere of dreamy intellectuality isassociated with coffee, so that the roasting of it is felt to be a romantic occupation. The same poetic atmosphere surrounded the manufacture of drinking chocolate in the early days: the writers who revealed the secrets of its preparation were conscious that they were giving man a new æsthetic delight and the subject is treated lovingly and lingeringly. One, Pietro Metastasio, went so far as to write a "cantata" describing its manufacture. He describes the grinding as being done by a vigorous man, and truly, to grind by hand is a very laborious operation, which happily in more recent times has been performed by the use of power-driven mills.
Operations on a large scale followed the founding of Fry and Sons at Bristol in 1728, and of Lombart, "la plus ancienne chocolaterie de France," in Paris in 1760. In Germany the first chocolate factory was erected at Steinhunde in 1756, under the patronage of Prince Wilhelm, whilst in America the well-known firm of Walter Baker and Co. began in a small way in 1765. From the methods adopted in these factories have gradually developed the modern processes which I am about to describe.
As the early stages in the manufacture of cocoa and of chocolate are often identical, the processes which are common to both are first described, and then some individual consideration is given to each.
The cacao is largely stored in warehouses, from which it is removed as required. It has remarkable keeping properties, and can be kept in a good store for several years without loss of quality. Samples of cacao beans in glass bottles have been found to be in perfect condition after thirty years. Some factories have stores in which stand thousands of bags of cacao drawn from many ports round the equator. There is somethingvery pleasing about huge stacks of bags of cacao seen against the luminous white walls of a well-lighted store. The symmetry of their construction, and the continued repetition of the same form, are never better shown than when the men, climbing up the sides of a stack against which they look small, unbuild the mighty heap, the bags falling on to a continuous band which carries them jauntily out of the store.
PART OF A CACAO BEAN WAREHOUSE, SHOWING ENDLESS BAND CONVEYOR. (Messrs. Cadbury Bros'. Works, Bournville).PART OF A CACAO BEAN WAREHOUSE, SHOWING ENDLESS BAND CONVEYOR.(Messrs. Cadbury Bros'. Works, Bournville).
PART OF A CACAO BEAN WAREHOUSE, SHOWING ENDLESS BAND CONVEYOR.(Messrs. Cadbury Bros'. Works, Bournville).
As all cacao is liable to contain a little free shell, dried pulp (often taken for twigs), threads of sacking and other foreign matter, it is very carefully sievedand sorted before passing on to the roasting shop. In this process curios are occasionally separated, such as palm kernels, cowrie shells, shea butter nuts, good luck seeds and "crab's eyes." The essential part of one type of machine (see illustration) which accomplishes this sorting is an inclined revolving cylinder of wire gauze along which the beans pass. The cylinder forms a continuous set of sieves of different sized mesh, one sieve allowing only sand to pass, another only very small beans or fragments of beans, and finally one holding back anything larger than single beans (e.g., "cobs," that is, a collection of two or more beans stuck together).
CACAO BEAN SORTING AND CLEANING MACHINE. Reproduced by permission of Messrs. J. Baker & Sons, Ltd., Willesden.CACAO BEAN SORTING AND CLEANING MACHINE.Reproduced by permission of Messrs. J. Baker & Sons, Ltd., Willesden.
CACAO BEAN SORTING AND CLEANING MACHINE.Reproduced by permission of Messrs. J. Baker & Sons, Ltd., Willesden.
Another type of cleaning machine is illustrated by thediagramon the opposite page.
This machine with its shaking sieves and blast of air makes a great clatter and fuss. It produces, however, what the manufacturers desire—a clean bean sorted to size.
DIAGRAM OF CACAO BEAN CLEANING MACHINE.DIAGRAM OF CACAO BEAN CLEANING MACHINE.This is a box fitted with shaking sieves down which the cacao beans pass in a current of air. Having come over some large and very powerful magnets, which take out any nails or fragments of iron, they fall on to a sieve (1/4-inch holes) which the engineer describes as "rapidly reciprocating and arranged on a slight incline and mounted on spring bars." This allows grit to pass through. The beans then roll down a plane on to a sieve (3/8-inch holes) which separates the broken beans, and finally on to a sieve with oblong holes which allows the beans to fall through whilst retaining the clusters. The beans encounter a strong blast of air which brushes from them any shell or dust clinging to them.
DIAGRAM OF CACAO BEAN CLEANING MACHINE.This is a box fitted with shaking sieves down which the cacao beans pass in a current of air. Having come over some large and very powerful magnets, which take out any nails or fragments of iron, they fall on to a sieve (1/4-inch holes) which the engineer describes as "rapidly reciprocating and arranged on a slight incline and mounted on spring bars." This allows grit to pass through. The beans then roll down a plane on to a sieve (3/8-inch holes) which separates the broken beans, and finally on to a sieve with oblong holes which allows the beans to fall through whilst retaining the clusters. The beans encounter a strong blast of air which brushes from them any shell or dust clinging to them.
As with coffee so with cacao, the characteristic flavour and aroma are only developed on roasting. Messrs. Bainbridge and Davies (chemists to Messrs. Rowntree) have shown that the aroma of cacao is chiefly due to an amazingly minute quantity (0.0006 per cent.) of linalool, a colourless liquid with a powerful fragrant odour, a modification of which occurs in bergamot, coriander and lavender. Everyone notices the aromatic odour which permeates the atmosphereround a chocolate factory. This odour is a bye-product of the roasting shop; possibly some day an enterprising chemist will prevent its escape or capture it, and sell it in bottles for flavouring confectionery, but for the present it serves only to announce in an appetising way the presence of a cocoa or chocolate works.
SECTION THROUGH GAS HEATED CACAO ROASTER.SECTION THROUGH GAS HEATED CACAO ROASTER.
SECTION THROUGH GAS HEATED CACAO ROASTER.
Roasting is a delicate operation requiring experience and discretion. Even in these days of scientific management it remains as much an art as a science. It is conducted in revolving drums to ensure constant agitation, the drums being heated either over coke fires or by gas. Less frequently the heating is effected by a hot blast of air or by having inside the drum a number of pipes containing super-heated steam.
ROASTING CACAO BEANS. (Messrs. Cadbury Bros'. Works, Bournville).ROASTING CACAO BEANS.(Messrs. Cadbury Bros'. Works, Bournville).
ROASTING CACAO BEANS.(Messrs. Cadbury Bros'. Works, Bournville).
The diagram and photo show one of the types ofroasting machines used at Bournville. It resembles an ordinary coffee roaster, the beans being fed in through a hopper and heated by gas in the slowly revolving cylinder. The beans can be heard lightly tumbling one over the other, and the aroma round the roaster increases in fullness as they get hotter and hotter. The temperature which the beans reach in ordinary roasting is not very high, varying round 135° C. (275° F), and the average period of roasting is about one hour. The amount of loss of weight on roasting is considerable (some seven or eight per cent.), and varies with the amount of moisture present in the raw beans.
There have been attempts to replace the æsthetic judgment of man, as to the point at which to stop roasting, by scientific machinery. One rather interesting machine was so devised that the cacao roasting drum was fitted with a sort of steelyard, and this, when the loss of weight due to roasting had reached a certain amount, swung over and rang a bell, indicating dramatically that the roasting was finished. As beans vary amongst other things in the percentage of moisture which they contain, the machine has not replaced the experienced operator. He takes samples from the drum from time to time, and when the aroma has the character desired, the beans are rapidly discharged into a trolley with a perforated bottom, which is brought over a cold current of air. The object of this refinement is to stop the roasting instantly and prevent even a suspicion of burning.
After roasting, the shell is brittle and quite free from the cotyledons or kernel. The kernel has become glossy and friable and chocolate brown in colour, and it crushes readily between the fingers into small angular fragments (the "nibs" of commerce), giving off during the breaking down a rich warm odour of chocolate.
It has been stated (seeFatty Foods, by Revis andBolton) that it was formerly the practice not to remove the shell. This is incorrect, the more usual practice from the earliest times has been to remove the shells, though not so completely as they are removed by the efficient machinery of to-day.
CACAO BEAN, SHELL AND GERM.CACAO BEAN, SHELL AND GERM.
CACAO BEAN, SHELL AND GERM.
InA Curious Treatise on the Nature and Quality of Chocolate, by Antonio Colmenero de Ledesma (1685), we read: "And if you peel the cacao, and take it out of its little shell, the drink thereof will be more dainty and delicious." Willoughby, in hisTravels in Spain, (1664), writes: "They first toast the berries to get off the husk," and R. Brookes, in theNatural History of Chocolate(1730), says: "The Indians ... roast the kernels in earthen pots, then free them from theirskins, and afterwards crush and grind them between two stones."
He further definitely recommends that the beans "be roasted enough to have their skins come off easily, which should be done one by one, laying them apart ... for these skins being left among the chocolate, will not dissolve in any liquor, nor even in the stomach, and fall to the bottom of the chocolate-cups as if the kernels had not been cleaned."
That the "Indian" practice of removing the shells was followed from the commencement of the industry in England, is shown by the old plate which we have reproduced onp. 120fromArts and Sciences.
The removal of the shell, which in the raw condition is tough and adheres to the kernel, is greatly facilitated by roasting. If we place a roasted bean in the palm of the hand and press it with the thumb, the whole cracks up into crisp pieces. It is now quite easy to blow away the thin pieces of shell because they offer a greater surface to the air and are lighter than the compact little lumps or "nibs" which are left behind. This illustrates the principle of all shelling or husking machines.
The problem is to break down the bean to just the right size. The pieces must be sufficiently small to allow the nib and shell readily to part company, but it is important to remember that the smaller the pieces of shell and nib, the less efficient will the winnowing be, and it is usual to break the beans whilst they are still warm to avoid producing particles of extreme fineness. The breaking down may be accomplished by passing the beans through a pair of rollers at such a distance apart that the bean is cracked without being crushed. Or it may be effected in other ways,e.g., by the use of an adjustable serrated cone revolving in a serrated conical case. In the diagram they are called kibbling cones.
SECTION THROUGH KIBBLING CONES AND GERM SCREENS.SECTION THROUGH KIBBLING CONES AND GERM SCREENS.
SECTION THROUGH KIBBLING CONES AND GERM SCREENS.
About one per cent. of the cacao bean fragments consists of "germs." The "germ" is the radicle of the cacao seed, or that part of the cacao seed which on germination forms the root. The germs are small and rod-shaped, and being very hard are generally assumed to be less digestible than the nib. They are separated by being passed through revolving gauze drums, the holes in which are the same size and shape as the germs, so that the germs pass through whilst the nib is retained. If a freakish carpenter were to try separating shop-floor sweepings, consisting of a jumble of chunks of wood (nib), shavings (shell) and nails (germ) by sieving through a grid-iron, he would find that not only the nails passed through but also some sawdust and fine shavings. So in the above machine the finernib and shell pass through with the germ. This germ mixture, known as "smalls" is dealt with in a special machine, whilst the larger nib and shell are conveyed to the chief winnowing machine. In this machine the mixture is first sorted according to size and then the nib and shell separated from one another. The mixture is passed down long revolving cylindrical sieves and encounters a larger and larger mesh as it proceeds, and thus becomes sieved into various sizes. The separation of the shell from the nib is now effected by a powerful current of air, the large nib falling against the current, whilst the shell is carried with it and drops into another compartment. It is amusing to stand and watch the continuous stream of nibs rushing down, like hail in a storm, into the screw conveyor.
SECTION THROUGH WINNOWING MACHINE.SECTION THROUGH WINNOWING MACHINE.
SECTION THROUGH WINNOWING MACHINE.
This is the process in essence—to follow the various partially separated mixtures of shell and nib through the several further separating machines would betedious; it is sufficient for the reader to know that after the most elaborate precautions have been taken the nib still contains about one per cent. of shell, and that the nib obtained is only 78.5 per cent. of the weight of raw beans originally taken. Most of the larger makers of cocoa produce nib containing less than two per cent. of shell, a standard which can only be maintained by continuous vigilance.
CACAO GRINDING. A battery of horizontal grinding mills, by which the cacao nibs are ground to paste (Messrs. Cadbury Bros., Bournville.)CACAO GRINDING.A battery of horizontal grinding mills, by which the cacao nibs are ground to paste (Messrs. Cadbury Bros., Bournville.)
CACAO GRINDING.A battery of horizontal grinding mills, by which the cacao nibs are ground to paste (Messrs. Cadbury Bros., Bournville.)
The shell, the only waste material of any importance produced in a chocolate factory, goes straight into sacks ready for sale. The pure cacao nibs (once an important article of commerce) proceed to the blenders and thence to the grinding mill.
We have seen that the beans are roasted separately according to their kind and country so as to develop in each its characteristic flavour. The pure nib is now blended in proportions which are carefully chosen to attain the result desired.
In this process, by the mere act of grinding, the miracle is performed of converting the brittle fragments of the cacao bean into a chocolate-coloured fluid. Half of the cacao bean is fat, and the grinding breaks up the cells and liberates the fat, which at blood heat melts to an oil. Any of the various machines used in the industries for grinding might be used, but a special type of mill has been devised for the purpose.
In the grinding room of a cocoa factory one becomes almost hypnotised by a hundred of these circular mill-stones that rotate incessantly day and night. In Messrs. Fry's factory the "giddy motion of the whirling mill" is very much increased by a number of magnificent horizontal driving wheels, each some 20 feet in diameter, which form, as it were, a revolving ceiling to the room. Your fascinated gaze beholds "two or three vast circles, that have their revolving satellites like moons, each on its own axis, and each governed by master wheels. Watch them for any length of time and you might find yourself presently going round and round with them until you whirled yourself out of existence, like the gyrating maiden in the fairy tale."
In this type of grinding machine one mill stone rotates on a fixed stone. The cacao nib falls from a hopper through a hole in the centre of the upper stone and, owing to the manner in which grooves are cut in the two surfaces in contact, is gradually dragged between the stones. The grooves are so cut in the two stones that they point in opposite directions, and as the one stone revolves on the other, a slicing or shearing action is produced. The friction, due to the slicing and shearing of the nib, keeps the stones hot, and they become sufficiently warm to melt the fat in the ground nib, so that there oozes from the outer edge of the bottom or fixed stone a more or less viscous liquid or paste. This finely ground nib is known as "mass." It is simply liquified cacao bean, and solidifies on cooling to a chocolate coloured block.
SECTION THROUGH GRINDING STONES.SECTION THROUGH GRINDING STONES.
SECTION THROUGH GRINDING STONES.
This "mass" may be used for the production of either cocoa or chocolate. When part of the fat (cacao butter) istaken awaythe residue may be made to yield cocoa. When sugar and cacao butter areaddedit yields eating chocolate. Thus the two industries are seen to be inter-dependent, the cacao butter which is pressed out of the mass in the manufacture of cocoa being used up in the production of chocolate. The manufacture of cocoa will first be considered.
A CACAO PRESS. Reproduced by permission of Messrs. Lake, Orr & Co., Ltd.A CACAO PRESS.Reproduced by permissionof Messrs. Lake, Orr& Co., Ltd.
A CACAO PRESS.Reproduced by permissionof Messrs. Lake, Orr& Co., Ltd.
The liquified cacao bean or "mass," simply mixed with sugar and cooled until it becomes a hard cake, has been used by the British Navy for a hundred years or more for the preparation of Jack's cup of cocoa. It produces a fine rich drink much appreciated by ourhardy seamen, but it is somewhat too fatty to mix evenly with water, and too rich to be suitable for those with delicate digestions. Hence for the ordinary cocoa of commerce it is usual to remove a portion of this fat.
If "mass" be put into a cloth and pressed, a golden oil (melted cacao butter) oozes through the cloth. In practice this extraction of the butter is done in various types of presses. In one of the most frequently used types, the mass is poured into circular steel pots, the top and bottom of which are loose perforated plates lined with felt pads. A number of such pots are placed one above another, and then rammed together by a powerful hydraulic ram. They look like the parts of a slowly collapsing telescope. The "mass" is only gently pressed at first, but as the butter flows away and the material in the pot becomes stiffer, it is subjected to a gradually increasing pressure. The ram, being under pressure supplied by pumps, pushes up with enormous force. The steel pots have to be sufficiently strong to bear a great strain, as the ram often exerts a pressure of 6,000 pounds per square inch. When the required amount of butter has been pressed out, the pot is found to contain not a paste, but a hard dry cake of compressed cocoa. The liquified cacao bean put into the pots contains 54 to 55 per cent. of butter, whilst the cocoa press-cake taken out usually contains only 25 to 30 per cent. The expressed butter flows away and is filtered and solidified (seepage 158). Allthat it is necessary to do to obtain cocoa from the press cake is to powder it.
SECTION THROUGH CACAO PRESS-POT AND RAM-PLATE.SECTION THROUGH CACAO PRESS-POT AND RAM-PLATE.
SECTION THROUGH CACAO PRESS-POT AND RAM-PLATE.
The slabs of press-cake are so hard and tough that if one were banged on a man's head it would probably stun him. They are broken down in a crushing mill, the inside of which is as full of terrible teeth as a giant's mouth, until the fragments are small enough to grind on steel rollers.
As fineness is a very important quality of cocoa, the powder so obtained is very carefully sieved. This is effected by shaking the powder into an inclined rotating drum which is covered with silk gauze. In the cocoa which passes through this fine silk sieve, the average length of the individual particles is about 0.001 inch, whilst in first-class productions the size of the larger particles in the cocoa does not average more than 0.002 inch. Indeed, the cocoa powder is so fine that in spite of all precautions a certain amount always floats about in the air of sieving rooms, and covers everything with a brown film.
The cocoa powder is taken to the packing rooms. Here the tedious weighing by hand has been replaced by ingenious machines, which deliver with remarkable accuracy a definite weight of cocoa into the paper bag which lines the tin. The tins are then labelled and packed in cases ready for the grocer.
Since the great improvements of the steam engine, it is astonishing to what a variety of manufactures this useful machine has been applied: yet it does not a little excite our surprise that one is used for the trifling object of grinding chocolate.
It is, however, a fact, or at least, we are credibly informed, that Mr. Fry, of Bristol, has in his new manufactory one of these engines for the sole purpose of manufacturing chocolate and cocoa.
Berrow's Worcester Journal,June 7th, 1798.
What I am about to write under this heading will only be of a general character. Those who require a more detailed exposition are referred to the standard works given at the end of the chapter. In these, full and accurate information will be found. The information published in modern Encyclopædias, etc., concerning the manufacture of chocolate is not always as reliable as one might expect. Thus it states in Jack's excellentReference Book(1914) that "Chocolate is made by the addition of water and sugar." The use of water in the manufacture of chocolate is contrary to all usual practice, so much so that great interest was aroused in the trade some years ago by the statement that water was being used by a firm in Germany.
Ingredients required forplain eating-chocolate.Cacao nib or mass33 parts.Cacao butter13 parts.Sugar53¾ parts.Flavouring¼ parts.100 parts.
Since eating-chocolate is produced by mixing sugar and cacao nib, with or without flavouring materials, and reducing to a fine homogeneous mass, the principles underlying its manufacture are obviously simple, yet when we come to consider the production of a modern high-class chocolate we find the processes involved are somewhat elaborate.
The nib is obtained in exactly the same way as in the manufacture of cocoa, the beans being cleaned, roasted and shelled. The roasting, however, is generally somewhat lighter for chocolate than for cocoa. The nibs produced may be used as they are, or they may be first ground to "mass" by means of mill-stones as described above.
CHOCOLATE MELANGEUR. Reproduced by permission of Messrs. Lake. Orr & Coy. Ltd.CHOCOLATE MELANGEUR.Reproduced by permission of Messrs. Lake. Orr & Coy. Ltd.
CHOCOLATE MELANGEUR.Reproduced by permission of Messrs. Lake. Orr & Coy. Ltd.
PLAN OF CHOCOLATE MELANGEUR.PLAN OF CHOCOLATE MELANGEUR.
PLAN OF CHOCOLATE MELANGEUR.
Some makers use clear crystalline granulated sugar, others disintegrate loaf sugar to a beautiful snow-white flour. The nib, coarse or finely ground, is mixed with the sugar in a kind of edge-runner or grinding-mixer, called amélangeur. As is seen in the photo, themélangeurconsists of two heavy mill-stones which are supported on a granite floor. This floor revolves and causes the stationary mill-stones to rotate on their axes, so that although they run rapidly, like a man on a "joy wheel," they make no headway. The material is prevented from accumulating at the sides by curvedscrapers, which gracefully deflect the stream of material to the part of the revolving floor which runs under the mill-stones. Thus the sugar and nib are mixed and crushed. As the mixture usually becomes like dough in consistency, it can be neatly removed from themélangeurwith a shovel. The operator rests a shovel lightly on the revolving floor, and the material mounts into a heap upon it.
CHOCOLATE REFINING MACHINE. Reproduced by permission of Messrs. J. Baker & Sons, Willesden.CHOCOLATE REFINING MACHINE.Reproduced by permission of Messrs. J. Baker & Sons, Willesden.
CHOCOLATE REFINING MACHINE.Reproduced by permission of Messrs. J. Baker & Sons, Willesden.
GRINDING CACAO NIB AND SUGAR. (Messrs. Cadbury Bros., Bournville).GRINDING CACAO NIB AND SUGAR.(Messrs. Cadbury Bros., Bournville).
GRINDING CACAO NIB AND SUGAR.(Messrs. Cadbury Bros., Bournville).
The mixture is now passed through a mill, which has been described as looking like a multiple mangle. The object of this is to break down the sugar and cacao to smaller particles. The rolls may be made either of granite (more strictly speaking, of quartz diorite) orof polished chilled cast iron. Chilled cast iron rolls have the advantage that they can be kept cool by having water flowing through them. A skilled operator is required to set the rolls in order that they may give a large and satisfactory output. The cylinders in contact run at different speeds, and, as will be seen in the diagram, the chocolate always clings to the roll which is revolving with the greater velocity, and is delivered from the rolls either as a curtain of chocolate or as a spray of chocolate powder. It is very striking to see the soft chocolate-coloured dough become, after merely passing between the rolls, a dry powder—the explanation is that the sugar having been more finely crushed now requires a greater quantity of cacao butter to lubricate it before the mixture can again become plastic. The chocolate in its various stages of manufacture, should be kept warm or it will solidify and much time and heat (and possibly temper) will be absorbed in remelting it; for this and other reasons most chocolate factories have a number of hot rooms, in which the chocolate is stored whilst waiting to pass on to the next operation. The dry powder coming from the rolls is either taken to a hot room, or at once mixed in a warmmélangeur, where curiously enough the whole becomes once again of the consistency of dough. The grinding between the rolls and the mixing in themélangeurare repeated any number of times until the chocolate is of the desired fineness. Whilst there are a few people who like the clean, hard feel of sugar crystals between the teeth, the present-day taste is all for very smooth and highly refined chocolate; hence the grinding operation is one of the most important in the factory, and is checked at the works at Bournville by measuring with a microscope the size of the particles. The cost of fine grinding is considerable, for whilst the first breaking down of the cacao nibs and sugar crystals is comparatively easy, it is found that as the particles of chocolate get finer the cost of further reduction increases by leaps and bounds. The chocolatemay now proceed direct to the moulding rooms or it may first be conched.
SECTION THROUGH CHOCOLATE GRINDING ROLLS.SECTION THROUGH CHOCOLATE GRINDING ROLLS.
SECTION THROUGH CHOCOLATE GRINDING ROLLS.
We now come to an extraordinary process which is said to have been originally introduced to satisfy a fastidious taste that demanded a chocolate which readily melted in the mouth and yet had not the cloying effect which is produced by excess of cacao butter. In this process the chocolate is put in a vessel shaped something like a shell (hence called aconche), and a heavy roller is pushed to and fro in the chocolate. Although the conche is considered to have revolutionized the chocolate industry, it will remain to the uninitiated a curious sight to see a room full of machines engaged in pummelling chocolate day and night. There is no general agreement as to exactly how the conche produces its effects—from the scientific pointof view the changes are complex and elusive, and too technical to explain here—but it is well known that if this process is continued for periods varying according to the result desired from a few hours to a week, characteristic changes occur which make the chocolate a more mellow and finished confection, having more or less the velvet feel ofchocolat fondant.