“Before we go any further up the river I wish you boys to visit a cocoa plantation and learn something about cocoa and chocolate,” said the professor on the following morning. “There is a large plantation not many miles from here, and we will take a drive to it in a carriage immediately after breakfast.”
At this announcement all were pleased but Hockley, who drew down the corners of his mouth in disapproval.
“It will be dead slow,” he muttered. “I’d rather see the sights in the town.”
“We will view those later,” replied the professor. He had no intention of leaving the tall youth behind again, and Hockley realized it and made no further remonstrance.
The plantation was a large affair, situated upon a small creek flowing into the Orinoco. It was owned by a German merchant doing business in Bolivar, and it was the merchant himself who showed them around the place.
“As you can see,” said Professor Strong, when they were walking around, “the cocoa is set out very much as is coffee. The seeds are planted in a seed-bed and kept there two or three months. Then the shoots are planted in the field, between shade trees, with ditches cut through the field for irrigating purposes. The trees begin to bear in about five years and with care will last for thirty-five to forty years.”
“But where does the chocolate come in?” interrupted Hockley.
“Chocolate is made from the seed of the cocoa pod, so called. This pod, as you can see, is about the shape of a cantelope, and when ripe, is reddish in color. Each pod contains fifty or seventy-five seeds, each the size of one’s thumb nail. The trees give two crops a year, one in June and the other in December.”
“Do they use the beans as they are?” came from Sam.
“No. After the pods are gathered they are placed in the sun to dry. As soon as they burst open the beans are shelled out and sorted. Some growers then bag them and sell them in that shape, but others declare that the best cocoa is produced by placing the beans in the ground until they are about half rotted. Cocoa, such as we drink at home, is made by breaking the beans up, or shaving them fine, and then boiling in water or milk, and serving with sugar. Chocolate is made by mixing the crushed up beans with sugar and with some spices, to give it a special flavor. Of course you all know cake chocolate and chocolate bonbons. Cake chocolate unsweetened is generally cocoa beans ground up and mixed with flour or other foreign substances to give it weight. Sweet chocolate cakes have sugar, honey and very often some spices in them. Bonbons are made of cocoa, sugar, flavoring extracts and anything else the wide-awake confectioner chooses to put into them to strike the palate of his customer. Cocoa and chocolate, if pure, are very nourishing, and have none of the bad effects on the system that are attributed to coffee.”