Rensselaer Republican, Volume 16, Number 48, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 August 1884 — Cocoa and Chocolate. [ARTICLE]

Cocoa and Chocolate.

Many drinkers of these pleasant beverages are unaware as to the method by which the cocoa seeds are obtained Cocoa, or cacao, is extracted from- the seed of small trees of the genus theodroma, which, when cultivated, grow from twelve to eighteen feet high, but to a higher elevation Th their wild state. The flowers are small, and cluster on the branches and trunk, the matured fruit appearing as though artificially attached. Out of each cluster only one pod is allowed to mature, and this when full grown is from seven inches to ten inches long by three inches to four-and-a half inches wide. The five tain each a row of from five to ten seeds imbedded in a pink, acid pulp, the cocoa bean. The tree is indigenous to MexicOj but it can be cultivated near the twenty-fifth, parallel of latitude, and thrives at any elevation under 2,000 feet, but it requires a rich soil, a warm, humid atmosphere, and protection from cold winds. The trees are propagated from seeds in a nursery until they attain a height of from fourteen inches to eighteen inches, when they are transplanted and carefully sheltered by planting other trees about them.

■They commence to bear about the fifth year, but do not attain maturity until the eighth, and continue yielding fruit for nearly half a cehthry. There is no special time for harvesting the crop, as the trees continue bearing all the time, flowers and fruit in all stages being curiously borne on the same tree. But in Venezuela the principal gatherings are in June and December. Chocolate is generally made from the finer varieties of cocoa seed, and was a favorite beverage in Central America long before Columbus discovered the New World. As at present prepared chocolate is made in cakes, while cocoa is usually sold in powder, flakes, or nibs.