<h2><SPAN name="chapter5" id="chapter5">CHAPTER V</SPAN></h2>
<h3>THE MANUFACTURE OF COCOA AND CHOCOLATE</h3>
<div class="blkquot">
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.</div>
<div class="citation">
<i>Natural History of Chocolate</i>,
R. Brookes, 1730.</div>
<h3><i>Early Methods in the Tropics.</i></h3>
<p>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.
<SPAN name="page120" id="page120"></SPAN></p>
<p>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.</p>
<div class="centre">
<SPAN name="image68" id="image68"></SPAN>
<SPAN href="images/image068.jpg">
<ANTIMG src="images/image068_thumb.jpg" alt="EARLY FACTORY METHODS." title="EARLY FACTORY METHODS." /></SPAN>
<p class="caption">
EARLY FACTORY METHODS.<br/>
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 "<i>nibs</i>") 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.</p>
</div>
<h3><i>Early European Manufacture.</i></h3>
<p>The conversion of these small scale operations into
the early factory process is well shown in the plate
which I reproduce above from <i>Arts and Sciences</i>, published
in 1768.</p>
<div class="centre">
<SPAN name="image69" id="image69"></SPAN>
<SPAN href="images/image069.jpg">
<ANTIMG src="images/image069_thumb.jpg" alt="WOMEN GRINDING CHOCOLATE. From Squier "Nicaragua"" title="WOMEN GRINDING CHOCOLATE. From Squier "Nicaragua"" /></SPAN>
<p class="caption">
WOMEN GRINDING CHOCOLATE.<br/>
From Squier "Nicaragua"</p>
</div>
<p>A certain atmosphere of dreamy intellectuality is
<SPAN name="page121" id="page121"></SPAN>
<SPAN name="page122" id="page122"></SPAN>
associated 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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<h3>MODERN PRACTICE.</h3>
<p>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.</p>
<h4>(<i>a</i>) <i>Arrival at the Factory.</i></h4>
<p>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 something
<SPAN name="page123" id="page123"></SPAN>very 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.</p>
<div class="centre">
<SPAN name="image70" id="image70"></SPAN>
<SPAN href="images/image070.jpg">
<ANTIMG src="images/image070_thumb.jpg" alt="PART OF A CACAO BEAN WAREHOUSE, SHOWING ENDLESS BAND CONVEYOR. (Messrs. Cadbury Bros'. Works, Bournville)." title="PART OF A CACAO BEAN WAREHOUSE, SHOWING ENDLESS BAND CONVEYOR. (Messrs. Cadbury Bros'. Works, Bournville)." /></SPAN>
<p class="caption">
PART OF A CACAO BEAN WAREHOUSE, SHOWING ENDLESS BAND CONVEYOR.<br/>
(Messrs. Cadbury Bros'. Works, Bournville).</p>
</div>
<h4>(<i>b</i>) <i>Sorting the Beans.</i></h4>
<p>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 sieved
<SPAN name="page124" id="page124"></SPAN>
and 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 (<i>see illustration</i>) 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 (<i>e.g.</i>,
"cobs," that is, a collection of two or more beans stuck
together).</p>
<div class="centre">
<SPAN name="image71" id="image71"></SPAN>
<SPAN href="images/image071.jpg">
<ANTIMG src="images/image071_thumb.jpg" alt="CACAO BEAN SORTING AND CLEANING MACHINE. Reproduced by permission of Messrs. J. Baker & Sons, Ltd., Willesden." title="CACAO BEAN SORTING AND CLEANING MACHINE. Reproduced by permission of Messrs. J. Baker & Sons, Ltd., Willesden." /></SPAN>
<p class="caption">
CACAO BEAN SORTING AND CLEANING MACHINE.<br/>
Reproduced by permission of Messrs. J. Baker & Sons, Ltd., Willesden.</p>
</div>
<p>Another type of cleaning machine is illustrated by
the <SPAN href="#image72">diagram</SPAN> on the opposite page.</p>
<p>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.
<SPAN name="page125" id="page125"></SPAN></p>
<div class="centre">
<SPAN name="image72" id="image72"></SPAN>
<SPAN href="images/image072.jpg">
<ANTIMG class="noborder" src="images/image072_thumb.jpg" alt="DIAGRAM OF CACAO BEAN CLEANING MACHINE." title="DIAGRAM OF CACAO BEAN CLEANING MACHINE." /></SPAN>
<p class="caption">
DIAGRAM OF CACAO BEAN CLEANING MACHINE.<br/>
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.</p>
</div>
<h4>(<i>c</i>) <i>Roasting the Beans.</i></h4>
<p>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 atmosphere
<SPAN name="page126" id="page126"></SPAN>
round 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.</p>
<div class="centre">
<SPAN name="image73" id="image73"></SPAN>
<SPAN href="images/image073.jpg">
<ANTIMG class="noborder" src="images/image073_thumb.jpg" alt="SECTION THROUGH GAS HEATED CACAO ROASTER." title="SECTION THROUGH GAS HEATED CACAO ROASTER." /></SPAN>
<p class="caption">
SECTION THROUGH GAS HEATED CACAO ROASTER.</p>
</div>
<p>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.</p>
<div class="centre">
<SPAN name="image74" id="image74"></SPAN>
<SPAN href="images/image074.jpg">
<ANTIMG src="images/image074_thumb.jpg" alt="ROASTING CACAO BEANS. (Messrs. Cadbury Bros'. Works, Bournville)." title="ROASTING CACAO BEANS. (Messrs. Cadbury Bros'. Works, Bournville)." /></SPAN>
<p class="caption">
ROASTING CACAO BEANS.<br/>
(Messrs. Cadbury Bros'. Works, Bournville).</p>
</div>
<p>The diagram and photo show one of the types of
<SPAN name="page127" id="page127"></SPAN>
<SPAN name="page128" id="page128"></SPAN>
roasting 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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<h4>(<i>d</i>) <i>Removing the Shells.</i></h4>
<p>It has been stated (see <i>Fatty Foods</i>, by Revis and
<SPAN name="page129" id="page129"></SPAN>
Bolton) 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.</p>
<div class="centre">
<SPAN name="image75" id="image75"></SPAN>
<SPAN href="images/image075.jpg">
<ANTIMG class="noborder" src="images/image075_thumb.jpg" alt="CACAO BEAN, SHELL AND GERM." title="CACAO BEAN, SHELL AND GERM." /></SPAN>
<p class="caption">
CACAO BEAN, SHELL AND GERM.</p>
</div>
<p>In <i>A Curious Treatise on the Nature and Quality of
Chocolate</i>, 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 his <i>Travels in Spain</i>,
(1664), writes: "They first toast the berries to get off
the husk," and R. Brookes, in the <i>Natural History of
Chocolate</i> (1730), says: "The Indians ... roast
the kernels in earthen pots, then free them from their
<SPAN name="page130" id="page130"></SPAN>
skins, and afterwards crush and grind them between
two stones."</p>
<p>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."</p>
<p>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 on <SPAN href="#page120"></SPAN> from <i>Arts and Sciences</i>.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<h4>(<i>e</i>) <i>Breaking the Bean into Fragments.</i></h4>
<p>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, <i>e.g.</i>, by
the use of an adjustable serrated cone revolving in a
serrated conical case. In the diagram they are called
kibbling cones.
<SPAN name="page131" id="page131"></SPAN></p>
<div class="centre">
<SPAN name="image76" id="image76"></SPAN>
<SPAN href="images/image076.jpg">
<ANTIMG class="noborder" src="images/image076_thumb.jpg" alt="SECTION THROUGH KIBBLING CONES AND GERM SCREENS." title="SECTION THROUGH KIBBLING CONES AND GERM SCREENS." /></SPAN>
<p class="caption">
SECTION THROUGH KIBBLING CONES AND GERM SCREENS.</p>
</div>
<h4>(<i>f</i>) <i>Separating the Germs.</i></h4>
<p>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 finer
<SPAN name="page132" id="page132"></SPAN>
nib 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.</p>
<div class="centre">
<SPAN name="image77" id="image77"></SPAN>
<SPAN href="images/image077.jpg">
<ANTIMG src="images/image077_thumb.jpg" alt="SECTION THROUGH WINNOWING MACHINE." title="SECTION THROUGH WINNOWING MACHINE." /></SPAN>
<p class="caption">
SECTION THROUGH WINNOWING MACHINE.</p>
</div>
<p>This is the process in essence—to follow the various
partially separated mixtures of shell and nib through
the several further separating machines would be
<SPAN name="page133" id="page133"></SPAN>
tedious; 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.</p>
<div class="centre">
<SPAN name="image78" id="image78"></SPAN>
<SPAN href="images/image078.jpg">
<ANTIMG src="images/image078_thumb.jpg" alt="CACAO GRINDING. A battery of horizontal grinding mills, by which the cacao nibs are ground to paste (Messrs. Cadbury Bros., Bournville.)" title="CACAO GRINDING. A battery of horizontal grinding mills, by which the cacao nibs are ground to paste (Messrs. Cadbury Bros., Bournville.)" /></SPAN>
<p class="caption">
CACAO GRINDING.<br/>
A battery of horizontal grinding mills, by which the cacao nibs are ground to paste
(Messrs. Cadbury Bros., Bournville.)</p>
</div>
<p>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.</p>
<h4>(<i>g</i>) <i>Blending.</i></h4>
<p>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.
<SPAN name="page134" id="page134"></SPAN></p>
<h4>(<i>h</i>) <i>Grinding the Cacao Nibs to Produce Mass.</i></h4>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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."</p>
<p>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.
<SPAN name="page135" id="page135"></SPAN></p>
<div class="centre">
<SPAN name="image79" id="image79"></SPAN>
<SPAN href="images/image079.jpg">
<ANTIMG class="noborder" src="images/image079_thumb.jpg" alt="SECTION THROUGH GRINDING STONES." title="SECTION THROUGH GRINDING STONES." /></SPAN>
<p class="caption">
SECTION THROUGH GRINDING STONES.</p>
</div>
<p>This "mass" may be used for the production of
either cocoa or chocolate. When part of the fat (cacao
butter) is <i>taken away</i> the residue may be made to yield
cocoa. When sugar and cacao butter are <i>added</i> it 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.</p>
<h4>(<i>i</i>) <i>Pressing out the excess of Butter.</i></h4>
<div class="lef">
<SPAN name="image80" id="image80"></SPAN>
<SPAN href="images/image080.jpg">
<ANTIMG src="images/image080_thumb.jpg" alt="A CACAO PRESS. Reproduced by permission of Messrs. Lake, Orr & Co., Ltd." title="A CACAO PRESS. Reproduced by permission of Messrs. Lake, Orr & Co., Ltd." /></SPAN>
<p class="caption">
A CACAO PRESS.<br/>
Reproduced by permission<br/>
of Messrs. Lake, Orr<br/>
& Co., Ltd.</p>
</div>
<p>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 our
<SPAN name="page136" id="page136"></SPAN>
hardy 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.</p>
<p>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 (see <SPAN href="#page158">page 158</SPAN>). All
<SPAN name="page137" id="page137"></SPAN>
<SPAN name="page138" id="page138"></SPAN>
that it is necessary to do to obtain cocoa from the press
cake is to powder it.</p>
<div class="centre">
<SPAN name="image81" id="image81"></SPAN>
<SPAN href="images/image081.jpg">
<ANTIMG class="noborder" src="images/image081_thumb.jpg" alt="SECTION THROUGH CACAO PRESS-POT AND RAM-PLATE." title="SECTION THROUGH CACAO PRESS-POT AND RAM-PLATE." /></SPAN>
<p class="caption">
SECTION THROUGH CACAO PRESS-POT AND RAM-PLATE.</p>
</div>
<h4>(<i>j</i>) <i>Breaking Down the Press Cake to Cocoa Powder.</i></h4>
<p>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.</p>
<h4>(<i>k</i>) <i>Sieving.</i></h4>
<p>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.</p>
<h4>(<i>l</i>) <i>Packing.</i></h4>
<p>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.</p>
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