Cocoa And Chocolate - Their History From Plantation To Consumer

Originally published in 1920. PREFACE: ALTHOUGH There are several excellent scientific works dealing in a detailed manner with the cacao bean and its products from the various view points of the technician, there is no comprehensive modern work written for the general reader. Until that appears, I offer this little book, which attempts to cover lightly but accurately the whole ground, including the history ofcacao, its cultivationand manufacture. This is a small book in which to treat of so large a subject, and to avoid prolixity I have had to generalise. This is a dangerous practice, for what is gained in brevity is too often lost in accuracy brevity may be of truth. always the soul of wit, it is rarely the body The expert will find that I have considered him in that I have given attention to recent developments, and if I have talked of the methods peculiar to one place as though they applied to the whole world, consider me by supplying the inevitable variations and exceptions himself. The book, though short, has taken me a long time to I ask him to write, having been written in the brief breathing spaces of a busy life, and it would never have been completed but for the encouragement I received from Messrs. Cadbury Bros., Ltd., who aided me in every possible way. I am particularly indebted to the present Lord Mayor of Birmingham, Mr. W. A. Cadbury, for advice and criticism, and to Mr. Walter Barrow for reading the proofs... The industry with which this book deals is changing from an art to a science. It is in a transition slowly period it is one of the humours of any live industry that it is always in a transition period. There are many indications of scientific progress in cacao cul- tivation and now that, in addition to the experimental and research departments attached to the principal firms, a Research Association has been formed for the cocoa and chocolate industry, the increased amount of diffused scientific knowledge of cocoa and chocolate manufacture should give rise to interesting developments. A. W. KNAPP. Birmingham, February, 1920. Contents include: PREFACE .... v INTRODUCTION CHAPTER I COCOA AND CHOCOLATE A SKETCH OF THEIR HISTORY .5 CHAPTER II CACAO AND ITS CULTIVATION 17 CHAPTER III HARVESTING AND PREPARATION FOR THE MARKET 45 With a dialogue on The Kind of Cacao the Manufacturers Like...