The rooms where chocolate wares are stored should not be too warm, and it is indispensable that they be kept dry, for heat accelerates the volatilisation of their aroma and also the rancidity to which cacao is liable, whilst moisture spoils the general appearance of the chocolate and promotes the growth of mould. This development of mould, which is first noticeable after long storage in damp, dark warehouses, is principally due to the growth of a fungus which Royer has named “Cacao-oïdium[134]
As the numerous wrappings (in tin-foil, paper, etc.) are at present only effected by hand labour, they mean an appreciable increase in the price of the goods. This is of less moment for the chocolate tablets as the small napolitains and the like. Therefore attempts have often been made to effect this wrapping by means of machines[135], and I have seen among others two models for napolitains, one on a large and the other on a small scale, the property of a Hamburg chocolate factory, and constructed by the firm of A. Savy & Co., Paris, which same machines were said to effect the wrapping in tin-foil, folding and additional packing in paper, as also the final closing, automatically and well; but just as I requested to be shown the machines, I was told that they were for the time being not in working order. Since then I have heard no more of the matter, and regret that the firm of Savy & Co., who have a branch in Dresden, have not been able to answer several letters which I sent them inquiring for further particulars. It must be that the machines have failed to answer their purpose, for otherwise they would have been assured of a hearty reception, no matter how dear they might have been. So for the nonce our chocolate packing must depend on hand labour.
Quite a different arrangement obtains in respect to cocoa powder, which was also originally packed up in paper bags by hand. This operation is to-day despatched in machines, as also in the case of other powder substances, like tooth-powder, dyes, patent foods, soap powder, etc., and this even in the smallest of factories. It is true that the machine built a decade ago by L. Wagner in Heilbronn and at that time described by Zipperer in our second edition, which was to wrap up a dozen packets simultaneously, seems to have failed, for it is no longer constructed; yet its place has been taken by a succession of other machines which have stood the tests of many years. The principle has been altered, many packets at one time not being filled, but always one only, and the advantage lies in the fact that the machine fills more exactly and with a higher degree of uniformity as regards the weights of the several packets.
Figs. 92 and 93.
Apart from the “Machines for packing en masse” Co., Ltd. Berlin, who put out several automatic fillers, special mention may here be made of the firm of Fritz Kilian, whose automatic filler and packer “Ideal” (fig. 92) for quantities of from 25-2500 grammes, and “Triumph” (fig. 93), for quantities of from 1-100 grammes, have both long established their right to a place in every factory, their excellence being predominant.
[Part III.]
Ingredients used in the manufacture of chocolate.
A. Legal enactments. Condemned ingredients.
Chocolate is a mixture of cacao mass with sugar, to which usually spices and even cacao butter are also added. The sugar generally amounts to rather more than one half (60 percent) of the total mixture. Spices such as cinnamon, vanilla, cloves, nutmeg, mace, cardamoms, as well as cacao butter, or perfumes like peruvian balsam, are only added in small quantity so as to improve or alter the flavour as required. Recently, the ethereal oils of the spices have been used for this purpose as well as artificially prepared aromatic substances, such as vanillin, for example. Flour and starch[136], although the latter is seldom used, are permissible ingredients in cheaper kinds of chocolate but only when the fact of the addition is plainly stated. The kinds of flour usually employed are wheat and potato flours, rice-starch and arrowroot, dextrin and, less frequently, oat, barley, acorn, chestnut, or rye flour. In certain forms of dietetic chocolate, sugar being injurious to invalids, it is replaced by saccharin; another material, such as a leguminous flour from beans, peas or lentils, must be employed in its place.[137] In some kinds of fancy chocolate, harmless colours, tincture of benzoin etc. are used.