Part 16 (2/2)

CHOCOLATE.

We have so far no legal definition of chocolate in England. As Mr. N.P.

Booth pointed out at the Seventh International Congress of Applied Chemistry: ”At the present time a mixture of cocoa with sugar and starch cannot be sold as pure cocoa, but only as 'chocolate powder,' and with a definite declaration that the article is a mixture of cocoa and other ingredients. Prosecutions are constantly occurring where mixtures of foreign starch and sugar with cocoa have been sold as 'cocoa,' and it seems, therefore, a proper step to take to require that a similar declaration shall be made in the case of 'chocolate' which contains other const.i.tuents than the products of cocoa nib and sugar.” We cannot do better than quote in full the definitions suggested in Mr. Booth's paper.

The author refers to the absence of any legal standard for chocolate in England, although in some of the European countries standards are in force, and points out, as a result of this, that articles of which the sale would be prohibited in some other countries, are permitted to come without restriction on to the English market.

[Ill.u.s.tration: WHARF AT FACTORY AT KNIGHTON, AT WHICH MILK IS EVAPORATED FOR MILK CHOCOLATE MANUFACTURE.

(Messrs. Cadbury Bros., Ltd.)]

He suggests that the following definitions for chocolate goods are reasonable, and could be conformed to by makers of the genuine article.

These standards are not more stringent than those already enforced in some of the Colonies and European countries:

(1) Unsweetened chocolate or _cacao ma.s.s_ must be prepared exclusively from roasted, sh.e.l.led, finely-ground cacao beans, with or without the addition of a small quant.i.ty of flavouring matter, and should not contain less than 45 per cent. of cacao b.u.t.ter.

(2) Sweetened chocolate or _chocolate_.--A preparation consisting exclusively of the products of roasted, sh.e.l.led, finely-ground cacao beans, and not more than 65 per cent. of sugar, with or without a small quant.i.ty of harmless flavouring matter.

(3) _Granulated_, or _Ground Chocolate for Drinking_ purposes.--The same definition as for sweetened chocolate should apply here, except that the proportion of sugar may be raised to not more than 75 per cent.

(4) _Chocolate-covered Goods._--Various forms of confectionery covered with chocolate, the composition of the latter agreeing with the definition of sweetened chocolate.

(5) _Milk Chocolate._--A preparation composed exclusively of roasted, sh.e.l.led cacao beans, sugar, and not less than 15 per cent. of the dry solids of full-cream milk, with or without a small quant.i.ty of harmless flavouring matter.

Mr. Booth further states that starch other than that naturally present in the cacao bean, and cacao sh.e.l.l in powder form, should be absolutely excluded from any article which is to be sold under the name of ”chocolate.”

CHAPTER X

THE CONSUMPTION OF CACAO

The Kernels that come to us from the Coast of _Caraqua_, are more oily, and less bitter, than those that come from the _French_ Islands, and in _France_ and _Spain_ they prefer them to these latter. But in _Germany_ and in the _North_ (_Fides sit penes autorem_) they have a quite opposite Taste.

Several People mix that of _Caraqua_ with that of the Islands, half in half, and pretend by this Mixture to make the Chocolate better. I believe in the bottom, the difference of Chocolates is not considerable, since they are only obliged to increase or diminish the Proportion of Sugar, according as the Bitterness of the Kernels require it.

_The Natural History of Chocolate_, R. Brookes, 1730.

The war has caused such a disturbance that the statistics for the years of the war are difficult to obtain. For many years the German publication, the _Gordian_, was the most reliable source of cacao statistics, and so far we have nothing in England sufficiently comprehensive to replace it, although useful figures can be obtained from the Board of Trade returns of imports into Great Britain, from Mr.

Theo. Vasmer's reports which appear from time to time in _The Confectioners' Union_ and elsewhere, from Mr. Hamel Smith's collated material in _Tropical Life_, and from the reports of important brokers like Messrs. Woodhouse. In 1919 the _Bulletin of the Imperial Inst.i.tute_ gave a very complete _resume_ of cacao production as far as the British Empire is concerned.

_Great Britain._

<script>