Page:The food of the Gods - A Popular Account of Cocoa.djvu/116

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COCOA ESSENCE.
57

butter possible, the pressure is regulated to give the required result. In the end a firm, dry cake is taken from the press, and when cool is ground again to the consistency of flour; this is the "cocoa essence" for which the firm of Cadbury is so well known in all parts of the world.[1]

Between cocoa and chocolate there are essential differences. Both are made from the cocoa nib, but whereas in cocoa the nibs are ground separately, and the butter extracted, in chocolate sugar and flavourings are added to the nib, and all are ground together into a paste, the sugar absorbing all the superfluous butter. If good quality cocoa is used, the butter contained in the nib is all that is needful to incorporate sugar and nib into one soft chocolate paste for grinding and moulding, but in the commoner chocolates extra cocoa butter has to be added. It is a regrettable fact that some unprincipled makers are tempted to use cheaper vegetable fats as substitutes for the natural butter, but none of these are really

  1. For ancient processes see Appendix I., p. 103.