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Page 5
[Illustration--Drawing: COCOA ADULTERATED WITH ARROWROOT OR POTATO STARCH.]
In order to avoid the expense and trouble consequent on the latter
process, some manufacturers add alkali, by which means the free fatty
acids are saponified, and the fat is held in a state of emulsion, thus
giving the cocoa a false appearance of solubility.
Another effect of the alkali is to impart to the beverage a much
darker colour, from its action on the natural red colouring matter of
the cocoa, this darkening being often taken, unfortunately, as
indicative of increased strength. On this account the presence of
added alkali should be regarded as an adulteration, unless notified on
the package in which the cocoa is contained.
A more subtle treatment with alkali for the same purpose is the
addition to the pulverized bean of carbonate of ammonia, or caustic
ammonia. This is afterwards volatilized by the application of heat.
Scents and flavourings are then added to disguise their smell and
taste.
Besides these combinations of cocoa with starch, sugar, etc., and
cocoa treated with alkali, there are now found on the market mixtures
of cocoa with such substances as kola, malt, hops, etc., sold under
strange-sounding names, reminding one of the many mixtures that are
made up as medicines rather than food. While the substances thus
incorporated are of value in their place, they possess no virtues
which are absent from the pure cocoa, and cannot be in any way
considered an improvement of cocoa as food. The sooner this practice
of drug taking under cover of diet comes to an end the better it will
be for the national health.
Formerly Venetian red, umber, peroxide of iron, and even brick-dust,
were employed to produce a cheaper article, but modern science and
legislation combined have rendered such practices almost impossible.
As early as the reign of George III. an Act[8] was passed, providing
that, "if any article made to resemble cocoa shall be found in the
possession of any dealer, under the name of 'American cocoa' or
'English cocoa,' or any other name of cocoa, it shall be forfeited,
and the dealer shall forfeit �100." Yet this Act was allowed to become
so much a dead letter that in 1851 the _Lancet_ published the analysis
of fifty-six preparations sold as "cocoa," of which only eight were
free from adulteration. In some of the "soluble cocoas," the
adulteration was as high as 65 per cent., potato starch in one case
forming 50 per cent. of the sample. The majority of the samples were
found to be coloured with mineral or earthy pigments, and specimens
treated with red lead are on exhibition at South Kensington.
The inclusion of the husk or shell in some of the cheaper forms of
chocolate is another reprehensible practice (strongly condemned), as
they do not possess the qualities for which the kernel or nib is so
highly prized. To prevent this practice it was enacted in 1770 that
the shells or husks should be seized or destroyed, and the officer
seizing them rewarded up to 20s. per hundredweight. From these a
light, but not unpalatable, table decoction is still prepared in
Ireland and elsewhere, under the designation of "miserables."
Among other beverages which have from time to time been produced from
the cacao was a fermented drink much in vogue at the Mexican Court, to
which it appears from the accounts of the conquest that Montezuma was
addicted, as "after the hot dishes (300 in number) had been removed,
every now and then was handed to him a golden pitcher filled with a
kind of liquor made from cacao, which is very exciting." One variety,
called _zaca_, drunk by the Itzas, consisted of cocoa mixed with a
fermented liquor prepared from maize; but a more harmless invention
was a drink composed of cocoa-butter and maize.
[Illustration--Black and White Photgraph: How the Cacao Grows.
(Showing Leaf, Flower, and Fruit.)]
There remain three forms in which pure cocoa may be prepared as a
beverage:
1. _Cocoa-nibs._--The natural broken segments of the roasted
cocoa-bean, after the shell has been removed, prepared for table as an
infusion by prolonged simmering.
It is strange that this ridiculous and wasteful means is still in use
at all, as next to none of the valuable portions of the nib are
extracted. The quantity of matter removed by the hot water is so
small, that close upon 90 per cent, of the nourishing and feeding
constituents are left behind in the undissolved sediment, the
substances extracted being principally salts and colouring matters.
One can but suppose that the long habit of drinking an infusion from
coffee-beans and tea-leaves has fixed in the mind the erroneous idea
that the substance of the cocoa-bean is also valueless. The fact
remains, however, that it is still customary at some hydropathic
establishments, and perhaps in a few other instances, for doctors to
order "nibs" for their patient, which may sometimes be accounted for
by injury having resulted from drinking one of the many "faked" cocoas
offered for sale; the order for "nibs" being a despairing effort to
obtain the genuine article.
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