The History of Cuba, vol. 5

by Willis Fletcher Johnson

There are several varieties of the cacao, although that in common use in Cuba is known as the Cacao Criolla, and is not subject to diseases as are some of the other varieties grown in South America. The fruit is an elongated pod of cucumber shape, with a rough corrugated skin, hanging close to the trunk and branches. The side facing the sun carries shades of red and yellow that produce a rather startling color effect when first seen in the forest.

The cacao has two major crops each year. The pods when ripe are removed from the trees with a hooked pruning knife attached to a bamboo pole, and collected into piles, sometimes covered with earth, where they undergo a period of fermentation lasting five or six days. After this the seeds are removed from the pods and carefully dried for the market. In the days of Montezuma such was the value of the cacao seeds or beans that they took the place of money or small change in adjusting purchases, and they are recognized even today among the Indians in representation of values. In the cacao factories, the oil of the bean, which represents 50% of its weight, is extracted and known to the trade as cocoa butter. The residue, known as the cacao nib, is ground and forms the chocolate and cocoa of commerce. Even the hulls are used to make a low grade of cocoa known as “La Miserable.”

The tree comes into bearing the fourth year after planting and attains its maturity in about twelve years, with a life extending over a half a century or more. The yield per tree varies greatly, or from four to twelve pounds annually, with an average, under favorable conditions, or five or six pounds. This extreme range in the productivity of cacao is dependent almost entirely on the fertility of the soil, since the plant is greedy in its demand for nourishment, and it quickly responds to the generous use of fertilizer. In the ordinary sense of the term no cultivation whatever is given to the cacao tree, since it is truly speaking a denizen of the forest, doing better when the soil above its roots is never disturbed, although a mulch of leaves to maintain the moisture is very beneficial. Weeds and brush that may appear are removed with a machete.

The successful culture of cacao requires experience and care, especially during the period of fermentation through which the pods must pass before the removal of the seeds. This latter work is done usually by women and children, hence, as in the case of coffee, cacao in many senses of the word is well adapted to colonies and settlements composed of families who have grouped together and made permanent homes in the mountains and valleys that border on the Caribbean and the Gulf.

Cuba is exporting at the present time, mostly from the province of Oriente, approximately two and a half million pounds of cacao, valued at $15.20 per hundred pounds, or $380,000. The commodity is staple and the demand at good prices constant, while the cacao once prepared for market does not deteriorate or suffer loss if sale is delayed, all of which is to the advantage of the grower.

The north shores of the Province of Pinar del Rio, swept by the northeast trade winds throughout the entire year, furnish in many places conditions most favorable to the culture of cacao and coffee. The same is true of southeastern Santa Clara, of the northern slopes of the Sierra de Cubitas and of the coasts of Oriente from the Bay of Nipe on the north, clear around to Cabo Cruz on the southwest.

Both in nature and in its domestic use, cacao and the vanilla bean have always been more or less closely associated. Both are denizens of the deep forest, and are indigenous to the two Americas from Mexico to Peru. The Aztecs of Anhuac, the Mayas of Central America, and the subjects of the Incas, further south, added the delicate flavor of the vanilla to their chocolate, made from the beans of the caca-huatl, from which the name of cacao was taken. This association of vanilla with chocolate and other confectioneries has continued into modern times.

The so-called vanilla bean is not, as the name would indicate, of the legume family, but is an orchid, climbing the trunks of trees that grow on the rich soils of tropical forests. The vine may be germinated from seed planted in leaf mold at the base of the tree, but where cultivated it is propagated from cuttings and must have the shade of trees in order to thrive, climbing the trunks to a height of 20 to 30 feet, by means of fibrous roots that come from nodes along its length.

The leaves are bright green, long and fleshy; the flowers are white and usually fragrant, having eccentric forms peculiar to the orchid family. The pods, from six to nine inches in length, are cylindrical and some three-eighths of an inch in thickness. The vine begins to bear in the third year from planting and will continue to do so for thirty to forty years with but little care or culture. The pods are gathered before they are fully ripe, dried in the shade and “sweated” or fermented in order to develop and fix the delightful aroma for which they are famous.

It is during this period of fermentation that the bean requires careful watching and expert knowledge in order that the process of sweating may be perfect, since upon this chemical change in the texture of the beans the value of the product really depends. After fermentation the pods are carefully dried, tied in small bundles and made ready for market or export. They will keep indefinitely and the high prices secured for very small bulk renders them an attractive crop to handle.