Encyclopedia of Diderot & d’Alembert

Title: Cocoa or Chocolate tree (Natural history)
Original Title: Cacao ou Cacoyer
Original Version in French
English Translation
Volume:Page: 2:495
Author: Diderot
Translator: Philippe Bonin [Cornell University, pcb25@cornell.edu]

Cocoa or Chocolate tree, foreign tree.

Its description. The cocoa tree is of a mediocre height and width, which vary according to the quality of the soils it, grows in.

On the shores of Caraque [1], for example, it does develop into a much bigger tree than in our French islands.

Its wood is porous and rather light; the color of its bark is fairly unicolor, with more or less dark cinnamon hues, according to the age of the tree.

Its leaves measures about nine by four inches in their largest part, in a shape that diminishes towards both extremities into pointed ends; their color is darkish green, but is lighter on the top than below; they are attached to pedicles of three inches in length, and of one line in diameter. The stretching of these pedicels forms along the middle of each leaf a slightly elevated ridge that, from its inception, goes diminishing; on either part of this ridge alternatively sprout thirteen to fourteen oblique nervures.

As these leaves, when they fall, do so successively and as other leaves come in their place, the tree never look bare: it blooms at all [p. 496] times; but more abundantly towards the two solstices than at any other seasons.

Its flowers that are regular and in roses, despite being small and odorless, shoot in bunches from the pits left behind by the fall of the old ones, the scars of which one can see, so to speak, where the tree became bare. A large quantity of these flowers fall off, and from a thousand barely ten remain on the tree, so that the soil that is underneath seem all but covered by these false flowers.

Each flower is rooted into the tree by a nimble pedicel, five or sic lines long; when it is still a bud, it is only two lines in diameter, by two and a half or three lines at most in length. The smaller it is when compared to the tree and the fruit, the more singular and worthy of attention I deemed it.

Only when the bud comes to bloom can the chalice, the foliage and the heart of the flower.

The chalice is made up of the envelope of the bud, itself divided into five parts or leaves of a ghastly skin color.

Five true flowers of a similar color follow in their wake, and fill in the voids or separations of the chalice. These leaves have two parts; one of that us below and shaped like an oblong cup, variegated inside with purple, which curbs toward the center via a stamen that officiates as a link, from which then sprouts the other part of the leaf that appears separated from it, and that is shaped into a iron club.

The heart of the flower is made up of five threads and five stamens, with the pistil in the middle; the threads are straight, of a purple color, and aligned opposite the intervals of the leaves; the stamens are white and curved on the outside, with some sort of bud at the top that positions itself in the middle of each leaf to sustain it.

When these tiny parts are observed under a microscope, it would seem that the point of the thread is silvery, and that the stamens are crystal-like, as well as the pistil that nature seemed to have placed in the center, in the shape of a white thread, either to be the premises of a young fruit, or to act as its defense, if it is true that this bud is only produced by and can only develop from its basis.

The cocoa tree bears all year long fruits of all ages, which ripen alternatively, but which does not hang from the ends of the little branches, as our fruits in Europe, but rather along the stem of main branches; this is not uncommon in these countries, where several trees have similar proprieties: cocoa tress, apricot trees from Santo Domingo, calebassiers [2], papaya trees, etc.

The fruit of the cocoa tree is contained in a pod, which from utter smallness develops in four months into the size and shape of a cucumber that would be pointed from the bottom and whose surface would be made out of melon peel.

This pod in its first months is either red or white, or red mixed with yellow; and this variety of colors delineates three types of cocoa trees, that differ only because of this nuance that I do not warrant important enough to establish three types of cocoa .

The first type is of a dark, red-wine color, especially on its sides and becomes clearer and paler as it ripens.

The second type, of the white color, initially is so bright green that is appears white; it increasingly takes a lemon color and, always coloring itself, it finally turns to yellow in its maturity.

The third type, which is red and yellow altogether, holds a middle position between these two colors; since in ripening, the red becomes paler, and the yellow strengthens.

It has been remarked that the white pods are larger than the others, especially on the side to the tree, and that the cocoa trees of this sort are generally bearing more pods.

If one pod is cracked open along its length, we find that it is approximately four lines thick, and that its capacity is replete with cocoa almonds, the intervals of which are filled before their maturity with a white and firm substance, but which eventually changes into a type of mucilage of a charming acidity; this is why one often indulges oneself into putting these cocoa almonds with their envelopes in one’s mouth, in order to refresh it agreeably, and to stifle the thirst: but one should refrain to break it open, for as the skin of the pod is broken, extreme sourness would fill up the mouth.

When the pod’s interior structure is examined, and that all its parts have been anatomized, so to speak, one finds that the fibers of the fruit’s tail that cross through the pod are splitting into five branches; that each of these branches separates into several filaments, which each finish at the larger end of one of these almonds; and that the whole forms a type of bunch of grapes containing twenty-five to thirty-five grains at most, in line and pressed against one another in the pod in what is a marvelous order.

After a series of experiments, no more or no less than twenty-five can actually be found: a more extensive search into the largest pods, in the most fecund soils and from the most vigorous specimens would yield up to forty; but since it will never go beyond this figure, it is as certain that one could never find any pods that would hold less than fifteen, unless these are aborted pods, or the fruits of some tired tree, meaning overused by old age, or by bad soils, or by bad care.

When one peels some of these grains of cocoa , one discovers the almond-like substance, that appears tender, smooth, slightly purple and almost divided into several lobes, even if in reality it only has two, although fairly irregular and fairly ensconced one into the other.

Finally, after splitting the almond in two along the length, one finds at the end of the larger end a sort of cylindrical grain of two lines in length, by one half line in diameter, which is the real bud of the plant; whereas in our European almonds, this part is placed at the other end.

In France, the same irregularity of the lobes and of the cocoa bud can be witnessed, both in roasted almonds and in ground almonds, used to make chocolate.

About the choice and the disposition of the plot to grow a cocoa patch. The cocoa tree naturally grows in several areas in the torrid zone of America, but especially in Mexico, in the provinces of Nicaragua and of Guatemala, and also along the shores of the Amazon river, and on the coast of Caraque, that is, from Camana [3] to Carthagene [4] and to the Golden Isle; some cocoa trees have even been found in the forests of Martinique.

Spanish and Portuguese have been the first to whom the Indians transmitted their knowledge of the cocoa ; they had used it for a long time without communicating it to other nations.

In 1649, only one cocoa tree was known in the Windy Islands, planted there out of curiosity in the garden of an Englishman living on the Island of the Sainte-Croix. In 1655 the Caribbean Indians showed M. du Parquet the cocoa tree in the forests of the island of Martinique [p. 497] of which he was the governor: this discovery led to many others of the same kind, in the same woods – of the Capestere – on this island; and it is from the grains issued from these trees that the cocoa trees that were later planted there owe their origin. A Jew named Benjamin planted the first seed around 1660: but it is only twenty or twenty-five years later that the inhabitants of Martinique started to apply themselves to the culture of cocoa , and to plant cocoa trees .

A cocoa patch is a sort of orchard of cocoa trees planted on a straight line, similar to what we call in France a cherry patch , an apple patch , a plum patch , a fig patch , etc.

When one wants to plant a cocoa patch , the location and the nature of the soil that most fit its growth are paramount.

The cocoa tree requires a flat and wet area, protected from the winds; a new, if not untouched, soil, barely heavy, loose and deep; this is why freshly cleared grounds, whose earth is dark and sand-textured, that a river keeps cold, and that nearby hills or slopes (to speak the regional lingo) protect from the winds, especially if close to the sea, are preferable to any other situation; and one should really use these elements when one is lucky enough to have similar conditions.

I mean by freshly cleared grounds , these grounds whose woods has just been chopped for this purpose; because it is necessary to note that today all the cocoa patches are placed in the middle of the woods, as it has been done since the world’s creation; and for two very essential reasons; the first, so that the wood that remains around can act as protection; and the second, so that these grounds are less difficult to till, the soil that has never seen grass barely producing any since there is no such grain.

Concerning cocoa patches located on hilltops: the earth never retains enough humidity or never has enough depth. Ordinarily, the linchpin or main root, that alone digs its way straight down in the earth, cannot pierce through the stone that it soon encounters: winds from anywhere are more felt, detach the flowers from their stems, and, if they are strong enough, fall the trees whose roots are but superficial.

It is even worse on the hills where the slope is slightly accentuated; beyond the same inconveniences, the constant downhill fall pulls the good earth away, and gradually uncovers the roots.

One can thus conclude that all these sorts of cocoa patches necessitate a long time to bear fruits, that the harvests are never plentiful, and that they turn bad in a very short time.

It is preferable (as much as possible) for a cocoa patch to be surrounded by standing trees; or, if one side is left opened, a front made up of several rows of banana trees should be planted to promptly remedy the situation.

Moreover, it is necessary for a cocoa patch to barely be large; since small ones, especially in the depths, do not have enough air, and are stifled; and since ones big to excess are too exposed to draught and to powerful winds that are named hurricane in America.

Once the location of the cocoa patch is selected, and its dimensions ascertained, trees have to be chopped: at first, small plants have to be weeded out, and then small trees and dead wood have to be cut; then the small and larger branches of the small trees, and onward to the medium ones; woodpiles are made, and fires are set all around; one should burn the largest trees as they stand, to spare oneself the trouble of cutting them down.

When everything is burnt, that only remains on the ground the stumps of the tallest trees that is unnecessary to burn, and that all chopped wood has been perfectly cleared, one designs on a straight line alleys both equidistant and parallel, where wooden sticks of two to three feet in length are planted in staggered rows, with intervals of five, six, seven, eight, nine or ten feet, whatever distance that has been chosen to give to the cocoa trees that the sticks represent. Finally, the remaining cleared space is turned into a manioc patch, taking great precautions not to plant any too close to the sticks.

It shall be observed that cocoa patches planted on large intervals of eight, nine, or ten feet are much more difficult to keep tidy in the first years (as we shall explain soon): but also that, when they benefit from good soils, they enjoy better success this way, bearing more and lasting longer.

The inhabitants that are more pressed on time and money are planting the trees closer, because this dramatically increases the number of cocoa trees, and at the same time reduces the work necessitated to keep them tidy. When later the trees end up encroaching on one another’s space by being too close, the farmers have already harvested some cocoa that paid for their most urgent necessities; and, if everything comes to that, they then cut some of the trees to give some air to the rest.

On the coast of Caraque, cocoa trees are planted at intervals of twelve to fifteen feet, and some irrigation channels are dug from time to time to water then during draughts: similar successful experiences have been undergone in Martinique for the past few years.

Furthermore, the manioc is a tree whose roots, once grated and baked, furnish the cassave [5] and the flour that officiate as bread for all the natural inhabitants of America. It is planted in new plots, not only because it is required for the nourishment of the people, but also to restrain the apparition of weeds and to protect the growing cocoa trees from the sun, whose weak top or even secondary leaves could not withstand the sun’s excessive ardor: this is why one ought to wait for the manioc to be tall enough to shade the wooden sticks before planting the cocoa seeds .

About the way to plant a cocoa patch, and how to tend to it until the fruits reach maturity . All cocoa originates from a seed, as the wood of this tree cannot be grafted. One opens a cocoa pod, and as one needs them, the almonds are taken out from it and are planted one after the other, starting, for example, with the first wooden stick, it is torn loose with a sort of iron hook finely sharpened, one plows a little line removing all roots that would impede its growth, one plants the grain three or four inches deep, and one places the wooden stick slightly next to it to act as a marker; and thus from wooden stick to wooden stick, from row to row, until the cocoa patch is covered.

It must be noted that, 1. planting should not take place in dry periods; one can really plant every month, and in all the moons, old or young; when the season is fresh, and that the location is ready: but it is believed that by planting from the month of September until the Christmas celebrations, the trees will bear their fruits earlier by two months.

2. one should avoid only planting big almonds that appear well-fed; since even in the most beautiful pods there are aborted grains, it would be foolish to use them.

3. one should plant the larger end of the grain first, as this is the one that is connected to the center of the pod by a tiny thread when the almond is pulled out. If one were to plant [p. 498] first the smaller end, the tree would become twisted, and would die; if planted flat, the tree would also fail to come along.

4. one should put two or three grains for each wooden markers, so that, if crickets or other critters were to sever the plume of one or two trees, there would still be one remaining; to make up for the waning of the others. If there is no accident, then one is left with the advantage to chose the thread that is the straightest and most promising: but one should refrain to cut out supernumerary trees, until the one that has been selected is crowned, and out of any danger under all appearances.

Cocoa seeds need eight, ten or twelve days to grow, according to the weather that might accelerate or slow down the process: the cylindrical grain of the bud, by growing, will push the radicle downwards, which will then become the master root of the tree; and upwards the plume, which is a shortened version of the trunk and the branches: with these parts growing, and increasingly developing, the two lobes of the almond slightly separated and curved, are the first out of the ground, and as the tree elevates, they totally separate into two different leaves, of a dark green, thick, unsimilar, and rolled up, and thus make what we call the ears of the plant : the plume appears at about the same time, and splits into two tender leaves, of a light nascent green; after these first two leaves opposite one another arrive two others in the same way, to these another set of two, the tree elevates proportionately, and so on for a year or so.

The whole culture of cocoa is then reduced to the practice of two things:

Firstly, to recover the patch every fortnight, meaning to plant new seeds in places where the first ones failed to grow, or rather, where the trees have been eaten by crickets or other critters, which are so terribly damaging to these new plants, even when we think them out of danger. Some inhabitants are managing tree nurseries slightly away, and graft cocoa trees wherever there is a hole; but since they do not always take root, especially when they are a little older, or when the season is not favorable, and since most of these that take root are a long time in blooming, it has always seemed preferable to recover with seeds.

Secondly, to never let any grass grow in the cocoa patch , starting to weed from one hand when the other one is done; by taking care above all to never let any grass germinate; since if it happens that one gets to that stage, it causes increasing pain and effort to destroy the weeds, and to keep the cocoa patch clear, because vegetation is never interrupted in these countries by cold weather.

One should continually weed out until the cocoa trees grow tall, and, with their branches mingling, the shade prevents any grass to grow; moreover, the leaves falling off the trees onto the ground will finish stifling any grass. Then finishes the difficult exercise of weeding; one just has to check everything once a month by walking in the cocoa patch , pulling out the few weeds that one finds here and there, and to transport them far into the woods, for fear of their grains.

When the cocoa trees reach nine months, on should start puling out the manioc, and to ensure that within three months at the latest it is all gone. As it is pulled out, one or two rows in each alley can be planted, and in the other holes cucumbers, pumpkins, giraumonts [6] or Caribbean cabbage; because these plants have large rampant leaves, they are most appropriate to keep the freshness of the earth intact, and to stifle the weeds. When the cocoa trees managed to cover their whole ground, one has to pull out everything, since nothing can grow underneath them any longer.

One-year-old cocoa trees ordinarily measure four feet or so; and they start to make their heads by simultaneously growing five branches from the top, which form what is called the crown of the cocoa . It rarely happens that this crown does not have these five branches; and that, through some accident, or against the natural order, it only has three or four, the tree never comes along right; and it might be better to cut it then first, and to wait for another crown that would not be long in growing.

If by the end of the year the manioc were not pulled out yet, this would detain the growth of the trees; and their stems going too high, would be weak, sickly and more exposed to the winds: if these trees were to form a crown, the crowns would be to tight, and the main roots not being apart enough, the trees would never be cleared enough from one another, and would not take what is their natural space.

When all the trees have crowned, a selection is made of the most beautiful branches, and all supernumerary are cut down without pity; if this course of action is not taken rapidly, it is even harder to take later; however, it is impossible for trees so entangled not to hinder their growth.

Cocoa trees are no sooner crowned that they grow, from time to time, by an inch or two above their crown, new branches that are called rejects ; [7] if you let nature follow her course, these rejects will soon grow a second crown, from which a second reject shall sprout, and from this a third crown, etc. This is the evolution undergone by natural, uncultivated cocoa trees, such as can be found in the woods of Capesterre in Martinique. But because all these multi-level crowns only destroy in their way the initial crown, which is the main one, because a tree abandoned to itself grows too high and too thinly; care must be taken every month, by weeding or cutting out, to de-bud, that is, to get rid of all these rejects, and that is what is called in these regions rejecting .

So far, no one has ventured to trim or to graft cocoa trees ; there is however a type of trimming that could be beneficial to them. It is a fact, for example, that these types of trees always have some dead wood parts, some more, some others less; especially on the branches’ extremities: and there is no reason to doubt that it would be extremely useful to cut out this dead wood as close as possible with a sickle: but since the advantage one would gain from this would not be as real and felt as the time and effort undergone to achieve it; it quickly appears that this operation shall always be overlooked, and that it would even be labeled useless. The Spanish do not feel the same way, though, and they take great care to cut out all this dead wood; consequently, their trees are more vigorous than ours, and give more beautiful fruits. We doubt that they might have the same care in grafting them, and that anyone has ever attempted it; we believe however that cocoa trees would be much better for it.

As the cocoa trees grow, they shed their leaves from the stem little by little, a process that must remain natural; since, as soon as they are bare, it is not long before they bloom [p. 499]: but these first flowers ordinarily fall, and one should not hope for any ripe fruits until three years, provided the soil is rich; the fourth year, the harvest is mediocre, and the fifth it is the strongest. Then cocoa trees bear all year long flowers and fruits of all ages; there are, in truth, months when they barely have any, and others when they seem overloaded; as we approach the solstices the harvests are always more abundant than at any other seasons.

Since in hurricanes the wind can whirl so fast in so little time, it is not uncommon that, piercing through the weakest point, and the least covered of the cocoa trees , the wind can wreak havoc, and it is necessary to remedy the damage as soon as possible. If the wind only toppled over the trees without rupturing the main root, in this case the best course of action is to lift these trees again immediately, to put them back into place; pressing them down with a fork, and repotting them well with nearby earth: this way, they become stronger in less than six months, and bear fruits again as if they had never been hurt. With bad soils, it is better to leave them fallen, to replant the roots, and to cultivate for each tree the healthiest reject, and the closer it will grow to the roots, by weeding out all the others: a tree in this state will soon bloom, and bear fruits; and in two years’ time when the protected reject has become a new tree, the old tree has to be cut within a half foot of the reject.

About the harvest of cocoa, and how to resweat [8] and dry it, so that it can be preserved and shipped to Europe . Cocoa is good to pick when all the pod have changed color, and when only the little bud underneath has remained green. We go from tree to tree, from row to row, and with forked tools, we make the ripened pods fall to the ground, taking care as to not touch those that are not ripe, or the flowers: for this task, only the most adroit shall be used, with other following them with baskets that pick up the pods from the ground, and who pile them up here and there in the cocoa patch without touching them.

During the months where pods are numerous, harvests happen every fortnight: during the less abundant seasons, we pick from month to month.

If the seeds remain in the pods for more than four days, they would inevitably germinate and spoil; this is why, when from Martinique, cocoa pods were sent to nearby islands which needed seeds to plant, extreme care was taken to harvest only when the ship was ready to set sails, and to use them when they arrived: it is thus impossible that the Spanish who wanted to have seeds to produce these trees had waited for these pods to ripen fully and dry, before extracting the seeds from these pods, and before carefully drying them in the shade, in order to plant them in a tree nursery, as is told by Oexmeli, History of Adventurers, Vol. 1, p. 424 . It is necessary to open the pods in the morning of the fifth day at the latest; in order to do that, a wooden stick is used to hit the middle of the pods, and then the hands finish to prop them open and to pull the almonds that are placed in baskets, throwing back into the cocoa patch the empty pods that will act to enrich the soils in almond and as a fertilizer, when they get rotten, just like the flowers falling off the trees act as perpetual manure.

The cocoa thus obtained is carried into a hut, put into a pile, on a sort of elevated floor covered by balisier [9] leaves, measuring about four feet by twenty inches; then, wrapping the cocoa by boards covered by the same leaves, and by placing them into a type of attic that can contain all the pile of cocoa thus spread, one covers the whole by similar leaves, pressed upon by some more boards: cocoa , piled and covered and wrapped as it is on all sides, becomes increasingly warmer through the fermentation of its insensitive parts, what is termed in these regions resweat .

Cocoa is uncovered every morning and evening, and are allowed in the attic where it is stocked only vigorous farmers that move it and shake it so well with their hands and feet; after which cocoa is covered again with the same leaves and the same boards. This operation goes on every day until the fifth day, when cocoa usually is sufficiently resweat ; something that can be assessed with its color, now much darker and reddish.

The more cocoa resweats, and the more it loses of its depth and its sourness: but if it does not resweat enough, it more sour, smells, and sometimes flowers; in order to do well, there is a certain measure to observe that one can only know through habit.

As soon as cocoa has resweat enough, then it is brought in the open air and exposed to the sun so that it can be dried in the following manner.

We have already built in advance several workbenches two feet apart or so above the plan of a courtyard destined for that; (they look like two parallel sand sieves, two feet away from one another, strengthened on small posts buried into the ground). Spread onto these workbenches several braids made of split reeds assembled with threads of mahot bark; (the mahot is a small tree whose leaves are round and sweet to the touch, just like the guimauve [10] ones; its bark that can be raised easily, and that can be divided into long ribbons, is used as thread and rope by the inhabitants and the savages) and on these braids we put the cocoa that has resweat at a height of about two inches, it is moved and turned fairly often with a wood plane, especially during the first two days: at night cocoa is folded in the braids, that are covered by some few leaves of balisier , for fear of rain; the same is done during the day when it is about to ran. For those who fear that it might be stolen at night, are locking it up in a hut.

Some inhabitants are using boxes of about five by two feet, and three to four inches high, in order to dry the cocoa: they have this advantage that during the grand rains that happen all of a sudden, when the cocoa starts to dry, these boxes can easily put stacked up so that only the top one has to be covered, which can be easily done with balisier leaves, themselves covered by an empty box turned upside down. But what makes the use of the leaves preferable is that the air that goes through the interstices between the reeds dries the cocoa much more efficiently. The boxes whose bottom would be made into a tight network of brass thread, would be excellent; but they would have to be made in Europe, which would be a huge expense.

When cocoa has been resweat enough, it has to be exposed on the braids whatever the weather: even if a long and heavy downpour was forecast, it would be good to leave it to resweat less than a half-day or so; it has been noted that a few hours of rain at the beginning of the process, far from ruining it, only help to make cocoa more beautiful and better conditioned. During the good season, instead of the rain, it is not bad to expose cocoa to the first calm and dewy nights. A one- or two-day rain will not be too [p. 500] damaging, if care is taken not to completely cover it until it has had one day, or at least a half-day of sun; because after a day of good weather, cocoa is folded in the braid, as we have described, and after a half day, it is only enough to cover it during the night with balisier leaves without folding it, and stopped with stones put on top of the extremities. But a rain that would be too lengthy might split cocoa; and because it does not then conserve for long, it is used right here to make chocolate.

If cocoa is not resweat enough, or if it is folded too early in its braid, it is subject to germinate; which makes it fairly sour, and completely bad.

When cocoa has been folded once into its braid, and that it has started to dry, it should not be suffered to be wet again; it is then appropriate to move it from time to time, until it is dry enough; what is known is, if it one would take a handful of cocoa in one’s hands, and if one were to squeeze it, then it would crack; then it is time to put it into a store, and to show it to sell.

Those who want to acquire the reputation for delivering beautiful merchandise, take great care, before they uncover their cocoa , to sort and put aside the grains that are too small, under-nourished, and flat, that are less agreeable to the sight and are yielding less chocolate.

It is by following this method that the sun dried cocoa grains or almonds are shipped to us in Europe, and sold at the grocery stores, which distinguish them (I know not why) in bulk and little Caraque, and in big or little island cocoa ; that in these places there is no mention of this diversity and that the merchants that are doing business on this must have found some benefit to use this sorting, as in its natural state all cocoa issued from the same tree and the same pod are never of the same size. It is true that by comparing an entire crop of cocoa with another, one can find that one crop is for the most part is composed of larger seeds than the other, which could be caused by the age of the plant, or by the strength of the tree, or by the particular richness of the earth: but most assuredly there is no type of cocoa that can label big compared to another that one could call small .

The cocoa that comes to us from Caraque is more unctuous and less sour than the one from our islands, and it is preferred in Spain and in France to the latter: but in Germany and in the North, opinions are, according to the rumors, completely different. Many people are mixing half of the Caraque cocoa with half of the island’s cocoa, and they claim that the mix is making their chocolate better. It is believed that at heart the difference between cocoas is not that formidable, since it forces to raise or diminish the dose of sugar to temperate the sourness of this fruit. Because it must be thought, as we have already said, that there is only kind of cocoa , which grows as naturally in the forests of Martinique, as on the coast of Caraque; that the climate of these places is almost the same, and as a consequence the temperature of the seasons remarkable similar, and that there would not between these fruits no inner difference that would be essential.

Concerning the external differences that can be noticed, they can only originate from the varying fecundity of the soils, the varying care given to the culture of the trees, the varying industriousness and application by those that prepare and work on cocoa , from its harvest to its delivery; and maybe even from these three factors altogether; what can be seen in Martinique itself, where there are districts where cocoa would grow better than in others, by the sole difference of the richness in soils, whether they are dry or humid.

Cocoa from Caraque is a little flat, and resembles by its volume and its shape one of our big broad bean; the cocoa from Santo Domingo, from Jamaica, and from the Island of Cuba, generally is larger than the one from the Caribbean. The more the cocoa is big and well fed, the less waste there would after it is roasted and sliced.

Good cocoa must have a rather brown and unicolor skin; and when peeled, the almond has to look full, plump, and smooth; its color, ranging from fairly dark hazelnut on the outside to redder inside; its taste should be sour and astringent, without smelling green or rotten; in a word odorless and without being eaten by worms.

Cocoa is the most oleaginous fruit produced by nature; it has this admirable quality that it cannot go rancid, however old it is, contrary to what all other fruits do that are close to it in quality, like nuts, almonds, kernels, pistachios, olives, etc.

Shipped from America is a cocoa reduced into cylindrical breads of about one pound each; and since this preparation is the first and principal that it undergoes before making chocolate, it seems appropriate to add here how to prepare it.

The Indians, from which the recipe has been taken, did not lay too much store by it; they would roast their cocoa into earthenware pots, then after having dried it from its sweat and crushed it and mashed it between two stones, they would shape it into loaves with their hands.

The Spanish, more industrious than the savages, and today other nations, following their example, are choosing the better cocoa or the most recent. (As cocoa is never so clear, that among the good beans there are some aborted, or some earth, stones, etc, one must, before even using the cocoa, sift these unwanted elements through a sieve that would let them pass while keeping the cocoa beans.) They would put at least two pounds of cocoa in a large iron pan over a clear flame, and would whisk and stir the beans continually with a large spatula, until the almonds are roasted enough to be easily peeled; which one must do one by one, and set them aside, taking extreme care to reject the damaged grains, those rotten, and all the skins of the good ones; because these peelings left amongst the cocoa never dissolve in any liquor, not even in the stomach, and rush to the bottom of chocolate cups, if the cocoa has not been sifted carefully. Workers, in order to expedite this operation faster and to save time, are laying out a heavy tablecloth on a table, and they spread on it the cocoa still hot from the pan, then they use the iron roll over them so that the cocoa pod sins crack and detach; finally, they put everything into a wicker basket until cocoa is completely sifted.

If care was taken to weigh the cocoa at the grocer’s, and if it is weighed again after it is roasted and sifted, it will be discovered that there is about one sixth of waste, more or less, depending on the nature and the qualities of cocoa ; meaning, for example, that from thirty pounds bought, there will remain about twenty-five all sifted.

All cocoa being thus roasted and sifted on several occasions, it is put once again to roast in the same [p. 501] iron pan, but over a less intense heat; almonds are to be mixed with a spatula without a break, until they are evenly and optimally roasted; which can be pinpointed thanks to the savory taste and its brown, without being black, color; the skill consists in avoiding both extremities, not to roast them enough or too much, meaning burn them. If they are not enough roasted, they keep a certain harshness in taste that is disagreeable; and if they are roasted until they burn, apart from the sourness and the bad taste they acquire, the process deprive them completely from their onctuosity, and of the best part of their good qualities.

In France, where all these measures are generally ignored, people have come to associate the burnt taste and the black color as required qualities of good chocolate; overlooking the fact that coal for coal it would be as advisable to substitute it with cocoa into the fire. This observation in not only true to reason and common sense: but it is also confirmed by the unanimous agreement from all these who wrote on the subject, and it is even authorized by universal practice in the whole of America.

When cocoa is appropriately roasted and well sifted, it is put into piles in a large recipient to reduce it into a rudimentary mass, that is put atop a stone until it becomes extremely fine, a process which requires more explanation.

A stone should be selected that naturally withstands fire, and whose grain should be firm, without being too gentle as it would brittle away, or too firm as it would fail to polish. The stone must be cut into a shape of sixteen to eighteen inches in width, by twenty-seven to thirty inches in thickness, so that its plane should be curved and hollow in the center by about on and a half inch; to harden the stone, it should be placed on a scaffold made of wood or iron, slightly slanted on the side: underneath, a fire is lit to heat the stone, in order for the heat to enable the oily parts of cocoa to ooze, and to reduce them to the consistency of liquid honey, which grandly facilitates the action of a iron roll, used to work cocoa strongly, to crush it, and to refine it until there is no more clumps, or hard spots. This roll is a cylinder of polished iron, two inches in diameter by about eighteen in length, with on each end a wooden handle of similar diameter, and measuring six inches long to allow for the workers’ hands.

When the paste is deemed crushed enough, it is placed all warm in white ironmoulds, where it stabilizes and solidifies in a very short time. The shape of the moulds is arbitrary and everyone can shape them according to their fantasy: however, the cylinders that can contain two of three pounds of paste seem to me the most appropriate, since the biggest loaves keep fresh the longest and are more convenient to manipulate when the time comes to grate them. They should be kept wrapped in paper in a dry place, and note that they are extremely sensitive to either good or bad smells, and that it is advisable to keep them so for five or six months before using them.

As for the rest of the process, when cocoa is sufficiently crushed and rolled on the stone, as we just described, if one wanted to finish the mass elaboration of chocolate, one would just need to add to this paste a powder sifted through silk and made up of sugar, cinnamon and, if one so desires, vanle [11], following the doses and proportions that we will specify in this article; then, the whole concoction should be rolled again on the stone in order to mix and incorporate the ingredients, before finally pouring the preparation into white iron moulds shaped as bars of four ounces each, or half a pound if so desired.

Properties of cocoa . Cocoa is fairly tempered, rich, and easily digested. It promptly cures dissipated spirits and exhausted energies; it is beneficial to old persons.

Uses of cocoa ; jams and chocolate are made from it, and an oil named cocoa butter can be extracted from it.

From cocoa to jam . We select cocoa beans that are half ripe; almonds should be cleanly subtracted without damaging them, and they are left to soak for a few days in the water of a fountain, which should be changed morning and evening: after pulling them out and drying them, small lemon and cinnamon bark slips can be inserted into them, in the same fashion used to make the Rouen nuts.

Meanwhile, a recipient has been prepared of the most beautiful sugar, but fairly white, meaning that the sugar content is low; and after clarifying and purifying the sugar, it should be taken all boiling away from the flame and cocoa beans should be added to it, where they should soak for twenty-four hours, after which they should be scooped out; and as they dry, another recipient of sugar should be prepared, in a similar way as the old one but with a higher sugar content, where the cocoa beans should soak for another twenty-four hours. This operation is repeated five or six times, each time with a higher sugar content, without putting the cocoa beans over a flame or cooking them in any way. Finally, after preparing a last recipient of sugar, this is poured over the cocoa beans that are carefully drying in a faïence pot to better conserve them, and when the syrup is almost cold, a few drops of amber are added.

This jam, that looks very much like the Rouen nuts, is excellent to fortify the stomach without irritating it too much, which means that it can even be given to sick people with a fever.

About chocolate. See article Chocolate.

Cocoa butter . Take roasted and sifted cocoa beans, rolled over a stone; pour this fine paste in a big bowl of boiling water over a clear flame, where it should be left to boil until the water is evaporated; then some new clear water should be added: oil rises to the top, and solidifies into butter as the water warms down. If this oil is not really white, it just needs to be melted into a large bowl of cold water, where it will separate and purify itself from the reddish and earthy parts that remained in it.

In Martinique, this oil has the consistence of butter: but shipped to France, it turns into a fairly hard cheese, that however melts and becomes liquid when exposed to a light heat; it has no particular smell, and has the good quality never to rot. When there was a shortage of olive oil one year, cocoa oil was used during Lent: it has a nice taste, and far from being unpleasant, it contains the most essential and healthy parts of the cocoa .

Since this oil is very anodyne, it is excellent in the body to heal congestion, and to lighten the sharpness of the pain that with the flu irritates the chest. To use it so, the oil is melted, mixed with enough sugar cane, and small bars are made of the mixture, that one should keep as long as possible in one’s mouth, letting the bar melt slowly without swallowing it.

Cocoa oil, when taken under certain circumstances, could be even more wonderful against corrosive poisons. It [p. 502] does not have less use for the outside of the body: 1. it is the best and most natural of all creams, and women with dry skin can use to make it gentler and smoother, without it looking shiny or oily. Spanish people from Mexico know this merit very well: but as it hardens too much in France, it is necessary to mix it with Ben oil, or oil made from sweet almonds untouched by the fire.

2. If the ancient tradition that Greeks and Romans had to place ointment on their skins were to be reestablished, there would be no other cream that would better answer the needs that had to conserve body parts by this means, and even to tone the muscles and increase their strength, and to protect them from rheumatisms and from other diseases that afflict them. Such practices have been abandoned owing to the bad smell and the uncleanliness that came with it; but substituting olive oil with cocoa oil, no such inconvenience would occur, because it is odorless, and because it dries on leather; nothing would be more advantageous, especially for older people, than to renew today a custom so condoned by experience throughout Antiquity.

3. Apothecaries must prefer this oil to all others to act as a basis for their apoplectic balms; because all grains rot and because muscadet oil whitened with spiritual wine, still retains a little bit of its natural odor, when cocoa oil does not have such inconveniences.

4. There is no other oil that is cleaner to prevent weapons from rusting, because it contains less water than all the other oils that are used for this purpose.

5. In Islands in America, this oil is mostly used for the healing of hemorrhoids: some use it pure; others, after melting two or three pounds of lead, gather the residue, crush it into powder, sieve it through silk, incorporate it with the cocoa oil, and make a very efficient liniment for this disease.

5. Others with the same intention are using with this oil the powder of woodlouses, Saturn sugar, pompholyx [12] and a touch of laudanum.

Others are using this oil to sweeten the pains of gout, by applying it warm on this part with a compress that is covered with a warm towel. A similar device could be used for rheumatism.

6. Finally, cocoa oil is an element in the composition of the marvelous plaster, and of the cream against dermatitis.

Excellent plaster to heal most of the ulcers. Take olive oil: one pound; céruse [13] from Venice (it is more expensive than the ones from Holland and England, which contain chalk and which should be left to painters): half a pound: put them in a copper basket or an earthenware pan over a clear and moderate flame, always whisking with a wooden spatula until the whole turns to black and of a consistence close to plaster (which can be ascertained by letting a few drops onto a tin plate; because if the substance congeals immediately, and does not stick to the fingers, then it is cooked enough.) Then can wax be added, sliced in little strips, one ounce and a half; cocoa oil or butter, one ounce; copahu [14] balm, one ounce and a half. When everything is melted and well mixed, the pan should be taken off the fire, and still mixing with the spatula, the following drugs can be incorporated after they have been finely powdered, separately, and then mixed together; the drugs are: caliminaire [15] stone red hot from the coal, then warmed down and whitewashed, and crushed on prophyre [16] , one ounce; drops of myrrh, succotrin aloes [17] , round aristoloche [18] , iris from Fiorenza, each two dragmes [19]; camphor, one dragme . When the whole is well mixed, it will be let some time to cool off, and after that it will be poured upn some marble, to shape it into ordinary shapes.

This remedy produces surprising effects; it cures the most rebellious and inveterate ulcers, provided that the bone is not touched; because in this case, in order not to be inefficient, the treatment should start with the healing of the bone, and then proceed with the ulcer and the plaster. The wound is covered night evening and morning after it is cleaned and whitewashed, and dried well with fine cloth.

The same plaster can be used several times, provided that before it is applied it has been cleaned and whitewashed, that it has been dried with a piece of cloth, be put close to a fire for a while, and that it has been manipulated in order to reactivate it somewhat. Generous people are asked to produce this plaster and to hand it out to the poor, especially in the countryside.

Excellent cream to heal dermatitis or other skin deformities . Take some sulfur flowers from Holland, (it is a fairly light bread, gentle, brittle and rather white than yellow; it should not cost less than thirty sous a pound. If absent, the one from Marseilles can be used, which is a light, golden-yellow, impalpable powder); refined salpetre [20] , each a half ounce; good white precipitate, two dragmes; (the test of the white precipitate goes thus. A little bit is put over some warm coal; if it exhales, it is a sign that it is good and faithful; if it stays in the fire or if it melts, it is but crushed ceruse or some other similar white;) benjoin [21] , one dragme. Crush for a longtime the benjoin with the refined salpetre in a bronze mortar, until the powder is extremely fine; mix the sulfur flour and the white precipitate; and when everything is well mixed, keep this powder as needed.

In Martinique, when I had to use it, I would incorporate it with cocoa butter; but in France where it is too hardened, I would substitute some white cream of the most odorant jasmine; this smell, with that of the benjoin, overpowers in a way that of the sulfur, that many people detest. Histoire Naturelle du Cacao by M. de Dhoury .

FOOTNOTES:

[1] A city on the island of Guadeloupe. Its zip code is: CARAQUE, 97139 LES ABYMES in Guadeloupe.

[2] This tree from Tropical America bears round or ovoid fruits that almost appear unnatural because their protection is green and smooth. The fruit is suspended from the branches or the trunk itself and can measure up to 40 centimeters in length. It is essentially used for its protection, and can be made into recipients, or maracas.

[3] A province in Central America.

[4] Which Carthagene is Diderot alluding to? The city located in Spain, Chile or Columbia?

[5] Creole term for a bread made from manioc.

[6] The giraumont is a vegetable, which appeared in Central America. It was famed as a fecundity symbol ; it was also used as an offering during voodoo ceremonies.

[7] The French word “rejetons” is a slang term for “sons.” It originates from the verb “rejecter,” which led me to my translation.

[8] This term is of my own invention. It was inspired to me by Diderot, whose following description is enlightening.

[9] An ornemental plant, it was introduced in Europe for its flowers, either yellow or deep red. It was used during the magical rituals of local ethnic tribes in Africa and Central America.

[10] I doubt that Diderot refers here to marshmallows. This guimauve is a plant used in medicinal concoctions for its emollient properties, for ornaments with its flowers and sometimes as a food item for its roots.

[11] Another spice. I failed to identify which exactly.

[12] A type of cadmium (chemical element occurring as a sulfide or carbonate in zinc ores); it could be found in a natural state, or also around the funnels expulsing the rejected gas from silver foundries, where pompholyx can be found.

[13] A basic lead carbonate, used as a white pigment.

[14] Sap originating from the copayer tree, resinous tree from Tropical America. Forgotten nowadays, it was an excellent protection against any bacteria before antibiotics were invented.

[15] Hydrated silicate of zinc used as ore.

[16] Stone from a volcano, extremely hard.

[17] An aloes is the sap from a plant growing in warm climate, especially in Arabia. Succotrin aloes is deemed the most efficient: either black or brown, shiny on the outside, resinous, brittle and sour to the taste, it turns yellow if put in pulverized form. It has purgative and desiccative values, and strengthens the stomach provided it is taken while eating, or it would upset the stomach.

[18] Climbing plant, petal-less, whose chalice is shaped like a cone.

[19] One dragme is 1/8th of an ounce.

[20] Common name given to certain nitrates.

[21] Resin from trees found in Tropical Asia, used in perfumes and medicine.
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