The Manufacture of Chocolate and other Cacao Preparations. Paul Zipperer
no other bean which contains so much acid as the Kameroon, and although this statement must be modified in view of improvements in recent years, the fact prevents the largest of German colonial sorts from serving as any other than a mixing variety.
Cultivation is the rule throughout Kameroon, with the exception of Doula, and the produce of the separate plantations, such as Victoria, Bibundi, and Moliwe, Bimbia, Debundscha and so forth, all of which belong to large Berlin and Hamburg companies, is influenced and differentiated by variations in the technique of preparation. There are smooth beans with blackish-brown shells, and others of a red-brown hue and shrivelled, some with traces of fruit pulp, and others again quite light-coloured, with occasional black specks resulting from a too thorough drying.
The chief gathering begins in September and ends in January. Exportation began in the year 1899 with 5 cwts. The produce in 1898 figured at 200 tons and it had in the year 1910 grown to 3,500 tons. Germany is of course the principal consumer, although England has since 1909 bought very much Kameroon cacao as St. Thomas.
Kongo is a bean resembling the finer St. Thomas, but smaller and often smoky. It comes on the market via Antwerp. Up to the present French Congo has only produced a few thousand hundredweights yearly, but the Belgian Congo Free State has managed to achieve an annual output of 900 tons towards the close of the last decade; and when this country takes the Gold Coast as model, perhaps Congo cacao will one day play an important rôle in the world of commerce.
St. Thomas, the small Portuguese island lying in the Gulf of Guinea, and almost on the Equator, produces a sort which enjoys immense popularity, and especially in Germany, which traces a fourth part of its consumption back to this island. The export figures are
| 1889 | 2,000 tons. |
| 1894 | 6,000 tons. |
| 1899 | 11,500 tons. |
| 1904 | 18,000 tons. |
| 1910 | 38,000 tons. |
These are estimates which make the Portuguese planter worthy of all respect. It is true that “Black ivory” has been utilised on a large scale, the exploiting of black labour having resulted in a boycotting of these St. Thomas sorts on the part of some English manufacturers, but less on account of harsh treatment on the plantations themselves as the manner of recruiting in Angola.
Fine Thomas is the description of those sorts which have been used in an unmixed condition owing to their indigestibility, but properly gathered and fermented. The inferior and slightly damaged cacaos picked out from these are called by the Portuguese planter “Escolas”, or assorted. Yet they do not come into commerce under this designation, being mostly used for making up sample collections which illustrate the difference between these and Fine Thomas. The latter is traded through Lisbon “On Approval of Sample
All the St. Thomas cacao trade passes through Lisbon; for the tariff regulations of the Portuguese government make direct connection between the island and the consuming land practically impossible. France indeed chooses the route via Madeira, unloading and reloading, to avoid the additional duties. The cacao is at Lisbon stored in the two great Custom-houses there, and prepared for despatch to the respective lands. Fine St. Thomas is reshipped in the original sacks.
The samples are offered under various marks, either the initials of the planter or the name of a plantation. We mention a few of the best known; U. B., D. V., R. O., “M. Valle Flor”, “Boa Entrada”, “Monte Café”, “Santa Catarina”, “Pinheira”, “Agua Izé”, “Colonia Acoriana”, “Queluz”, “Gue Gue”, “Rosema”, “Pedroma”, “Monte Macaco
The beans vary, as far as shell and kernel are concerned, according to the mode of preparation on the plantations and the structure of the soil from which they spring. Many which were formerly universally esteemed are now no longer preferred because the soil in the meantime has been worked out; and many are now described under different marks. Yet particular characteristics still continue; there are mild and strong sorts, smooth and shrivelled varieties which look as though they have been washed, and others black like the Cameroon bean. All are offered as Fine Thomas, and enjoy an immense popularity.
Good medium Thomas is the commercial designation of those cacaos hailing from small plantations which have undergone a scarcely sufficient preparation owing to the lack of proper apparatus, and which are always interspersed with black or sham beans. In so far as these are delivered from large plantations, they generally owe their origin to overripe fruit, probably overlooked in the gathering season; or fruits bitten by the rats which infest this island may also contribute such beans. Almost all these inferior cacaos are sorted in the Lisbon custom-houses, and thinned down to the quality “Medium Thomas” free from objection or “Good Medium Thomas The two months of the Summer harvest, July and August, supply a somewhat better variety of cacao, known in commerce as “Pajol”, i.e. literally, “Hailing from the country”, which generally fetches a rather higher price. During the Winter harvest from November to February the medium St. Thomas varieties come on the market, but not before the beginning of the year, as previous to that point of time only the regular harvest of Fine St. Thomas comes into consideration. All attempts on the part of consumers to effect an improvement in the quality of the medium varieties have unfortunately hitherto proved abortive, for they are regarded as by-produce on the larger estates, and the small ones do not possess the apparatus necessary for a thorough preparation. Then again it is seen that these inferior sorts are taken off the market at very reasonable prices.
Fernando Po, a mountainous island, situated immediately off Cameroon, may be regarded as a source of supply for the Motherland, Spain, and only as such, for its yearly output of 2500 tons need fear no competition, thanks to the excessive tariffs laid on the produce of other lands here. The qualities here are inferior to those from St. Thomas and Cameroon, chiefly because most plantation are in the hands of blacks and consequently not well managed.
German East Africa, Madagascar, Mayotta (Comoren) and Réunion with their dwarfish yield are only worthy of passing mention.
III. Asiatic Cacao Sorts.
The only cacao plantations deserving the name on the continent of Asia are those occurring on the two islands of Ceylon and Java, both producing a sort differing entirely from the Africans, the predominant seedling here planted being the Trinidad-Criollo. The Ceylon-Java bean is, like the genuine Criollo, oval shaped, inclining to a sphere; its kernel is light brown and among the finer sorts even whitish. So both varieties are principally used for colouring and covering the cacao mass, for neither has a very pronounced flavour. The shell is light brown or reddish brown after washing, and appears free from all traces of pulp. It sits loosely on the kernel, at least in the case of the Java bean, and is consequently often met with broken.
Ceylon, with the shipping port of Colombo, produces in a good year from 3,500 to 4,000 tons, about two-thirds of which are traded through London. Direct shipments to Germany have recently been more and more frequent; Australia also claims consideration as a consuming land.
The different sorts, or rather, qualities, for a very careful preparation ensures the excellence of the goods, go under the description fine, or medium, or ordinary, and occasionally are utilised as typical examples. The better sorts come exclusively from plantations, and the ordinary are the result of native enterprise.
Java also produces a large quantity, the cacao here being chiefly planted on the north side of this long, narrow island. More than a half is exported from the port of Samarang, then follow Batavia, Soerabaja and a few minor places, with a total output of about 2,500 tons. The larger proportion of this cacao is sold in the markets of Amsterdam and Rotterdam to Dutch merchants, who pass it on to other consuming countries. England, North