Cocoa : its growth and culture, manufacture, and modes of preparation for the table accompanied by easy methods of analysis, whereby its purity may be ascertained / by Charles Hewett.

  • Hewett, Charles.
Date:
1862
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Cocoa : its growth and culture, manufacture, and modes of preparation for the table accompanied by easy methods of analysis, whereby its purity may be ascertained / by Charles Hewett. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    smooth, the colour varying, according to the season, from bright yellow to red and purple. The rind of the fruit is very thick, and similar to a very hard tough apple in substance, but quite tasteless; if allowed to ripen, this changes into a shell of a weak nature. The seeds contained in each pod vary in number from twenty to forty, embedded in a soft, pinky white, acid pulp.” The bean or seed itself (see plates 2. and 3.) is also in- vested in a husk or shell, consisting of three or four distinct membranes, of different characters; and, deprived of this husk, the seed is found to consist of several parts or lobes, angular in form, but of irregular shape. These are also separated from each other by a very thin membrane (see plates 6., 7., and 8.), and are capable of being parted by pressure. When roasted and so separated these form “ Cocoa Nibs.” They consist of a large number of very minute cells, filled with fatty matter and corpuscles of starch, or amyline. The embryo is placed at one end of the seed. Its habitat may be described as being between the fifteenth parallels of latitude in South America. We may presume that this is its native country, because there alone it is found in a wild state. Whole forests of the Cacao exist in Demerara. It was also originally introduced into Europe from this district. It is capable, however, of being culti- vated in other countries up to the twenty-fifth parallel of latitude, though not on a sea coast exposed to an easterly wind, which is always unfavourable to blossom, or generally on ranges less than 500 feet above sea level. In cultivation, the range of the Cacao has necessarily been extended, as is the case with all productions, both animal and vegetable. But with acclimatization certain changes take place, and these almost seem to constitute different varieties. Though it is probable that Mexico was