Show Sources Source 5 o Chocolate L f 1 FJ Y MS 1 N r 1 Cacao Beans Arc Ara Cleaned by Shuffling Feet In Brazil f re Prepared m by bv National SocIety D C C U lOU like hot chocolate Do Chocol Chocolate cake caJe Or chocolate Ice cream sodas Then you'll be Interested In Inthe inthe the ne news s that science Is waging a de- de determined fight to save the famous cacao plantations of Trinidad nn an Is from n a de- de laud in th the West IndIe e a plant disease Trinidad d Is one me of the sources or of the ben bean which the makings for a hot bot beverage sur- sur pa sed In world orId Importance only by coffee and ten tea is s well ell as for candies c 5 SW etc ete Chocolate was n a gIft to mans wan's pal palate ate from Ute the western hemisphere Lake LII e tobacco the potato and a number of other plant products It was v lS taken hick to Europe by e soon after Columbus opened the road to the New world and launched hunched on the that has led to world markets In trade circles today three terms fire are used chocolate cocoa and cacao The rhe tropIcal tree which Is the source of chocolate Is called the cacao In Its leathery frUit are cacao pods which contain cacao cacno beans nut But when the beans are arc roasted and ground and much of the fat Is pI pressed essed out out the remaining brown substance ground to a dry powder Is cocoa If the fat Is not pressed out out the darker substance Is chocolate CredIt for the manufacture of choc chocolate chocolate from the hidden n seed of an un unprepossessing prepossessing fruit belongs to the Inal inhabItants of Mexico In 1519 when Hernando Cortez ins tided that country he discovered ered that the cacao tree was Idel widely cultivated The na natives tives had concocted a drink called or from whIch have come the names chocolate an and cocoa FrothIng pitchers of choco chocolate chocolate late were s served r ed bs b Montezuma when hen henhe he entertained Cortez Long In Use In MexIco Students of American name e cus customs customs toms hale hae estimated that the drink was In use 1000 years before the ar arrIval arrival rIval of Europeans According to Met Me lean mythology the seed of the cacao tree was carried from n a New world versIon ot of the Gaiden Gu den ot of Eden Into Mexico by Quetzalcoatl God Cod of AIr The fruit It Is related was a favorite fa food of the gods The great Swedish botanIst Linnaeus christened the fruit cacao meaning In Greek rood of the Gods Cacao was used as a means of bar barter barter ter and the payment of tribute by the Aztecs and Mayans A mans man's wealth was often judged by bv the number of cacao beans he possessed In Mexico a good slave could be purchased for beans Its concentrated food same alue low cost of production and numerous uses uses have stimulated cacao cultivation to such an extent tent that noss no It is grown in practically all tropical countries The wet tropIcal areas of the West African colonies of Great Britain and Portugal and the South and Central Americas are especially well suited to the cultivation of the trees The Introduction of the he cacao tree In Africa has resulted In a remarkable gro growth groth th of the Industry and economic de ot of the continent The Gold coast has taken first place away from In the worlds world's production ot of cacao What were once trackless s African jungles Inhabited only by savage bushmen and wild an anImals today are cacao plantations op operated crated for the most part by natives America Largest Consumer As an Intel natIOnal commodity the cacao bean has bas grown In Importance to such an extent that the United States alone In 1933 imported pounds valued at The United States is by far the larg largest est consumer cacao ranking sIxteenth In value alue ou 01 our list of Imports Ger Germany Germany many Great Britain and the Nether Netherlands Netherlands lands follow in the order named man many years the SpanIards ot of South America and ot of some of the West Indies monopolized the cacao In Industry industry Chocolate was Introduced Into Spain by Cortez and his conquista do dorei about the beginning ot of the Six Sixteenth ix century but the process of chocolate manufacture was k kept pt a se- se secret secret cret for almost years In 1606 1600 an Italian discovered the method of prep preparation Shortly aftel afterwards wards and throughout spread the news nes through out Europe The Seventeenth and Eighteenth 1 centurIes found the of the drink steadily IncreasIng Co Cocoa oa houses were established in Eng land Jand England as well as on the continent Chocola Chocolate te ho hoe e eer er was a luxury h only the rich doh coul could afford since It sold fot fOl as much 35 G 5 a poun pound To Today Today day good chocolate can be purchased for a few cents a pound and Is con consumed consumed In one form or another by b mIl muI lions of people the worl world 0 oser er Modern methods of cocoa and choco late manufacture e differ little from those used by primitive c people con cen tunes tudes ago ngo In Mexico the natives roasted the beans and then ground them bet between cen two warm at m fiat stones until a fine paste was obtained This was sometimes mt ed with corn md and flavored with vanilla and andI I spices The paste ws was molded Into forms and allowed uIlo to cool I Modern preparation of the commodity I Is more sCIentific and thorough but I the prIncipal steps taken are much the same I Cocoa butter utter is s nn an important by byproduct byproduct product of the cacao cco bean which con tarns 50 per cent fats fate The rhe butter to Ie tomos mos mo ed cd by cru crushing the beans under h pressure Is e extensively vely used in confectionEry ry and In tl ti-al ti al preparations Almost es e eel el v house house- household household hold has some commodity that con tarns tams this vegetable fat Cocoa butter butterIs butterIs Is an Ingredient ot of many soaps po pomades pomades mades perfumes perfume ointments plasters and co The Gold coast colony in Africa is the worlds world's largest producer of cacao In one recent year er the col colony colony ony shipped 54 tons ot of cacao vat val valued at to the United States bile the Gold coast no longer puts Its trust In gold cacao has displaced I the metal only within the last few years For 4 years gold was the hope that guttered glittered for white men on the Gold coast Gold mmes mines bunt built the railroad to for which Ta Is the port In 1924 gold ship shipments meats ments reached more than I but the mines seem to be nearing ex exhaustion A geologIcal survey of the Gold coast st colony In Un 1915 resealed re oth- oth other other er minerals which may themselves rel reI relegate gold to the background Manga Manganese nese and bauxite are Important ex exports exports ports The first Is used In steel mal mak lug Ing and the second for aluminum BIg Industry In BrazIl I In the Mate ot of BahIa in n ar about cacao caco trees this fruit I has been grown here for about I sears ears and a tiny railway ser series seres es the heart of the great reat cacao region It hauls more tons ot of freight per mile than any other railway line In South America Lea Leasing the coastal plain and enter entering mg ing the foothills one sees the cacao cao plantations In lon long shaded haded gros gro groes es Among bIgger protecting tree trees the small cacao trees are planted thus sheltered from sun and wind IOd 1 l off a green fruit break brel It open and taste the whitish seeds the na or Is like watermelon Barefoot men and women split the pods empty the seeds on a wide platform and tread them free Cree of pulp and pith path They call this I Dancing the Cacao I The seeds are dried by stirring them In a big flat bin A slide ide roof set seton seton on wheel heel la is at hand to be hauled over the bin It If It rains Turn Turning lag ing a dark darI brown when dried and tasting of unsweetened chocolate when rIpe the beans are tre picked In bag bags and sent to Europe and the United States tes I In 30 years Bahras Bahra's port export has risen I from 1 to bags a year I Braid drinks sery ery little chocolate but much coffee Near a station named Lava Pes Pest or Wa Wash h Your Feet reet the visitor my may stop to watch a long file ot of umbrella I 1 ants Lach fach carries a leaf ns as If It I were an umbrella Man Many ants are un In n a tree bating off orr bits of leaf and unI I droppIng them to other ants waiting wafting on the ground This line of marching ants Is often a mIte mile or more long The ants carry the Iea leases es to their un underground underground home and store them On the lel leases cs a fungus forms and this the Insects eat Farther up the line Une one crosses a small stream running among cacao covered hlll hills Long chutes made of boards run do down n the hillsides to the waters water's edge Do Down n these chutes na an tives slide fresh tresh cacao be beans Ins whIch empty Into waiting dugout canoes Al AI Although though cacao has been gro grown gron n here bere for forso forso so long the methods of han It are sun still prImitive for human labor Is cheap White men find life here hard because be- be cause Cluse ot of so many insects and malaria Bugs are a plague horned tumble bugs more than th se seen en Inches long long-larer than mans man kinds ot of birds snails weigh Ing weighIng halt half a pound and the ter fer de lance and other bad snakes I I i I |