Chapter 12

BY-PRODUCTS OF THE COCOA AND CHOCOLATE INDUSTRY

Of Cacao Butter.--

It is the best and most natural _Pomatum_ for Ladies to _clear_ and _plump_ the Skin when it is _dry, rough_, or _shrivel'd_, without making it appear either _fat_ or _shining_. The _Spanish Women_ at _Mexico_ use it very much, and it is highly esteem'd by them.

_The Natural History of Chocolate_, R. Brookes, 1730.

Of Cacao Shell.--

In Russia and Belgium many families take Caravello at breakfast. This is nothing but cocoa husk, washed and then boiled in milk.

_Chocolate and Confectionery Manufacture_, A. Jacoutot.

_Cacao Butter._

In that very able compilation, _Allen's Organic Analysis_, Mr. Leonard Archbutt states (Vol. II, p. 176) that cacao butter "is obtained in large quantities as a by-product in the manufacture of chocolate." This is repeated in the excellent book on _Oils_, by C.A. Mitchell (Common Commodities of Commerce series). These statements are, of course, incorrect. We have seen that cacao butter is obtained as a by-product in the manufacture of cocoa, and is _consumed_ in large quantities in the manufacture of chocolate. When, during the war, the use of sugar for chocolate-making was restricted and little chocolate was produced, the cacao butter formerly used in this industry was freed for other purposes. Thus there was plenty of cacao butter available at a time when other fats were scarce. Cacao butter has a pleasant, bland taste resembling cocoa. The cocoa flavour is very persistent, as many experimenters found to their regret in their efforts to produce a tasteless cacao butter which could be used as margarine or for general purposes in cooking. The scarcity of edible fats during the war forced the confectioners to try cacao butter, which in normal times is too expensive for them to use, and as a result a very large amount was employed in making biscuits and confectionery.

Cacao butter runs hot from the presses as an amber-coloured oil, and after nitration, sets to a pale golden yellow wax-like fat. The butter, which the pharmacist sells, is sometimes white and odourless, having been bleached and deodorized. The butter as produced is always pale yellow in colour, with a semi-crystalline or granular fracture and an agreeable taste and odour resembling cocoa or chocolate.

Cacao butter has such remarkable keeping properties (which would appear to depend on the aromatic substances which it contains), that a myth has arisen that it will keep for ever. The fable finds many believers even in scientific circles; thus W.H. Johnson, in the _Imperial Institute Handbook_ on _Cocoa_, states that: "When pure, it has the peculiar property of not becoming rancid, however long it may be kept." Whilst this overstates the case, we find that under suitable conditions cacao butter will remain fresh and good for several years. Cacao butter has rather a low melting point (90° F.), so that whilst it is a hard, almost brittle, solid at ordinary temperatures, it melts readily when in contact with the human body (blood heat 98° F). This property, together with its remarkable stability, makes it useful for ointments, pomades, suppositories, pessaries and other pharmaceutical preparations; it also explains why actors have found it convenient for the removal of grease paint. The recognition of the value of cacao butter for cosmetic purposes dates from very early days; thus in Colmenero de Ledesma's _Curious Treatise on the Nature and Quality of Chocolate_ (printed at the Green Dragon, 1685), we read: "That they draw from the cacao a great quantity of butter, which they use to make their faces shine, which I have seen practised in the Indies by the Spanish women born there." This, evidently, was one way of shining in society.

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

The next table shows the imports (expressed in English tons) into the United Kingdom in more recent years:

IMPORTS OF CACAO BUTTER.

Year 1912 1913 1914 1915 1916 1917 Tons 477 912 1512 599 962 675

The wholesale price of cacao butter has varied in the last six years from 1/3 per pound to 2/11 per pound, and was fixed in 1918 by the Food Controller at 1/6 per pound (retail price 2/- per pound). The control was removed in 1919, and immediately the wholesale price rose to 2/8 per pound.

_Cacao Shell._

Although I have described cacao butter as a by-product, the only true by-product of the combined cocoa and chocolate industry is cacao shell. I explained in the previous chapter how it is separated from the roasted bean. As they come from the husking or winnowing machine, the larger fragments of shell resemble the shell of monkey-nuts (ground nuts or pea nuts), except that the cacao shells are thinner, more brittle and of a richer brown colour. The shell has a pleasant odour in which a little true cocoa aroma can be detected. The small pieces of shell look like bran, and, if the shell be powdered, the product is wonderfully like cocoa in appearance, though not in taste or smell. As the raw cacao bean contains on the average about twelve and a half per cent. of shell, it is evident that the world production must be considerable (about 36,000 tons a year), and since it is not legitimately employed in cocoa, the brains of inventors have been busy trying to find a use for it. In some industries the by-product has proved on investigation to be of greater value than the principal product--a good instance of this is glycerine as a by-product in soap manufacture--but no use for the husk or shell of cacao, which gives it any considerable commercial value, has yet been discovered. There are signs, however, that its possible uses are being considered and appreciated.

For years small quantities of cacao shell, under the name of "miserables," have been used in Ireland and other countries for producing a dilute infusion for drinking. Although this "cocoa tea" is not unpleasant, and has mild stimulating properties, it has never been popular, and even during the war, when it was widely advertised and sold in England under fancy names at fancy prices, it never had a large or enthusiastic body of consumers.

In normal times the cocoa manufacturer has no difficulty in disposing of his shell to cattle-food makers and others, but during 1915 when the train service was so defective, and transport by any other means almost impossible, the manufacturers of cocoa and chocolate were unable to get the shell away from their factories, and had large accumulations of it filling up valuable store space. In these circumstances they attempted to find a use near at hand. It was tried with moderate success as a fuel and a considerable quantity was burned in a special type of gas-producer intended for wood.

Cacao shell has a high nitrogenous content, and if burned yields about 67 lbs. of potassium carbonate per ton. In the Annual Report of the Experimental Farms in Canada, (1898, p. 151 and 1899, p. 851,) accounts are given of the use of cacao shell as a manure. The results given are encouraging, and experiments were made at Bournville. At first these were only moderately successful, because the shell is extremely stable and decomposes in the ground very slowly indeed. Then the head gardener tried hastening the decomposition by placing the shell in a heap, soaking with water and turning several times before use. In this way the shell was converted into a decomposing mass before being applied to the ground, and gave excellent results both as a manure and as a lightener of heavy soils.

On the Continent the small amount of cacao butter which the shell contains is extracted from it by volatile solvents. The "shell butter" so obtained is very inferior to ordinary cacao butter, and as usually put on the market, has an unpleasant taste, and an odour which reminds one faintly of an old tobacco-pipe. In this unrefined condition it is obviously unsuitable for edible purposes.

Shell contains about one per cent. of _theobromine_ (dimethylxanthine). This is a very valuable chemical substance (see remarks in chapter on Food Value of Cocoa and Chocolate), and the extraction of theobromine from shell is already practised on a large scale, and promises to be a profitable industry. Ordinary commercial samples of shell contain from 1.2 to 1.4 per cent. of theobromine. Those interested should study the very ingenious process of Messrs. Grousseau and Vicongne (Patent No. 120,178). Many other uses of cacao shell have been made and suggested; thus it has been used for the production of a good coffee substitute, and also, during the shortage of sawdust, as a packing material, but its most important use at the present time is as cattle food, and its most important abuse as an adulterant of cocoa.

The value of cacao shell as cattle food has been known for a long time, and is indicated in the following analysis by Smetham (in the Journal of the Lancashire Agricultural Society, 1914).

ANALYSIS OF CACAO SHELL.

Water 9.30 Fat 3.83 Mineral Matter 8.20 Albuminoids 18.81 Fibre 13.85 Digestible Carbohydrates 46.01 ------ 100.00 ------

From these figures Smetham calculates the food units as 102, so that it is evident that cacao shell occupies a good position when compared with other fodders:

FOOD UNITS.

Linseed cake 133 Oatmeal 117 Bran 109 English wheat 106 _Cacao shells_ 102 Maize (new crop) 99 Meadow hay 68 Rice husks 43 Wheat straw 41 Mangels 12

These analytical results have been supported by practical feeding experiments in America and Germany (see full account in Zipperer's book, _The Manufacture of Chocolate_). Prof. Faelli, in Turin, obtained, by giving cacao shell to cows, an increase in both the quantity and quality of the milk. More recent experience seems to indicate that it is unwise to put a very high percentage of cacao shell in a cattle food; in small quantities in compound feeding cakes, etc., as an appetiser it has been used for years with good results. (Further particulars will be found in _Cacao Shells as Fodder_, by A.W. Knapp, _Tropical Life_, 1916, p. 154, and in _The Separation and Uses of Cacao Shell_, Society of Chemical Industry's Journal, 1918, 240). The price of shell has shown great variation. The following figures are for the grade of shell which is almost entirely free from cocoa:

CACAO SHELL.

AVERAGE PRICE PER TON.

Year 1912 1913 1914 1915 1916 1917 1918 1919 Price 65/- 70/- 70/- 70/- 90/- 128/- 284/- 161/-

PRICE PER FOOD UNIT.

_July_, 1915. _Jan._, 1919. _s._ _d._ _s._ _d._ English Oats 3 1-1/2 3 8 Cotton Seed Cake 2 5 3 11 Linseed Cake 1 7 3 5 Brewers Grains (dried) 1 6-1/2 3 8-1/2 Decorticated Cotton Cake 1 6 3 3-1/2 Cacao Shell 8-1/4 1 4-1/2

The above table speaks for itself; the figures are from the Journal of the Board of Agriculture; I have added cacao shell for comparison.