(l) Packing.
The cocoa powder is taken to the packing rooms. Here the tedious weighing by hand has been replaced by ingenious machines, which deliver with remarkable accuracy a definite weight of cocoa into the paper bag which lines the tin. The tins are then labelled and packed in cases ready for the grocer.
[CHAPTER VI]
THE MANUFACTURE OF CHOCOLATE
Since the great improvements of the steam engine, it is astonishing to what a variety of manufactures this useful machine has been applied: yet it does not a little excite our surprise that one is used for the trifling object of grinding chocolate.
It is, however, a fact, or at least, we are credibly informed, that Mr. Fry, of Bristol, has in his new manufactory one of these engines for the sole purpose of manufacturing chocolate and cocoa.
Berrow's Worcester Journal, June 7th, 1798.
What I am about to write under this heading will only be of a general character. Those who require a more detailed exposition are referred to the standard works given at the end of the chapter. In these, full and accurate information will be found. The information published in modern Encyclopædias, etc., concerning the manufacture of chocolate is not always as reliable as one might expect. Thus it states in Jack's excellent Reference Book (1914) that "Chocolate is made by the addition of water and sugar." The use of water in the manufacture of chocolate is contrary to all usual practice, so much so that great interest was aroused in the trade some years ago by the statement that water was being used by a firm in Germany.