Cacao butter has been put to many other uses, thus it has been employed in the preparation of perfumes, but the great bulk of the cacao butter produced is used up by the chocolate maker. For making chocolate it is ideal, and the demand for it for this purpose is so great that substitutes have been found and offered for sale. Until recently these fats, coconut stearine and others, could be ignored by the reputable chocolate makers as the confection produced by their use was inferior to true chocolate both in taste and in keeping properties. In recent times the oils and fats of tropical nuts and fruits have been thoroughly investigated in the eager search for new fats, and new substitutes, such as illipé butter, have been introduced, the properties of which closely resemble those of cacao butter.
For the information of chemists we may state that the analytical figures for genuine cacao butter, as obtained in the cocoa factory, are as follow:
ANALYTICAL FIGURES FOR CACAO BUTTER.
| Specific Gravity (at 99° C. to water at 15.5° C.) | .858 to .865 |
| Melting Point | 32°C. to 34°C. |
| Titer (fatty acids) | 49°C. to 50°C. |
| Iodine Absorbed | 34% to 38% |
| Refraction (Butyro-Refractometer) at 40°C. | 45.6° to 46.5° |
| Saponification Value | 192 to 198 |
| Valenta | 94°C. to 96°C. |
| Reichert Meissel Value | 1.0 |
| Polenske Value | 0.5 |
| Kirschner " | 0.5 |
| Shrewsbury and Knapp Value | 14 to 15 |
| Unsaponifiable matter | 0.3% to 0.8% |
| Mineral matter | 0.02% to 0.05% |
| Acidity (as oleic acid) | 0.6% to 2.0% |
Although the trade in cacao butter is considerable, there were, before the war, only two countries that could really be considered as exporters of cacao butter; in other words, there were only two countries, namely, Holland and Germany, pressing out more cacao butter in the production of cocoa than they absorbed in making chocolate:
EXPORT OF CACAO BUTTER.
| Tons (of 1000 kilogrammes) | |||
| 1911 | 1912 | 1913 | |
| Holland | 4,657 | 5,472 | 7,160 |
| Germany | 3,611 | 3,581 | 1,960 |
| 8,268 | 9,053 | 9,120 | |
During the war America appeared for the first time in her history as an exporter of cacao butter. Hitherto she was one of the principal importers, as will be seen in the following table:
IMPORTS OF CACAO BUTTER.
| Tons (of 1000 kilogrammes) | ||
| 1912 | 1913 | |
| United States | 1,842 | 1,634 |
| Switzerland | 1,821 | 1,634 |
| Belgium | 1,127 | 1,197 |
| Austria-Hungary | 1,062 | 1,190 |
| Russia | 955 | 1,197 |
| England | 495 | 934 |