of the natural fat, plus sugar. To make the so-called "soluble cocoa" or Dutch cocoa, a small quantity of an alkali is added, in which the tannin and theobromine are soluble.
The popularity of cacao is due to its combination of pleasant taste, and stimulating and nourishing properties. The latter depend partly on its fat content, but there is also naturally present in cacao beans starch and vegetable proteins. A drink of chocolate or cocoa, without any addition, is consequently much more nourishing than either coffee or tea, with which it is comparable in respect to stimulating properties. The stimulating substance, an alkaloid, is practically the same in the case of all of these, producing the same physiological effect. It is caffein in coffee, thein in tea, theobromine and caffein in cacao. In cacao the caffein[1] is present in less quantity than in either of the other beverages. There is also a volatile oil, as in coffee, to which must be attributed some of the exhilarating properties and flavor.
Hundreds of millions of pounds of cacao beans are now produced and consumed annually. In 1921, the United States imported three hundred million pounds,
Theobromine and caffein may be extracted and isolated as alkaloids and as such are white, fleecy, crystalline substances of a bitter taste. Medicinally they are used as stimulating drugs acting upon the nervous system by increasing the arterial tension and blood-pressure. They also stimulate the cerebral centers and respiration. The "nervousness" produced by their excessive use is due to continual stimulation of the nervous system and particularly of the spinal cord.
- ↑ Theobromine and caffein are closely related. Chemically the former may be prepared from the latter. Other stimulating drinks in which caffein is the active principle are: Kola, from the Kola "nut", the product of another tree of the Chocolate family, and Guarana, from a Brazilian bush (Paulinia Cupana) of which the seeds are ground up, and sold and used by the natives like cacao. Of non-caffein containing substitutes for cacao, locally used in poor districts, may be mentioned the roasted and ground kernels of the pea-nut or ground-nut. In Mexico the name of the pea-nut is curiously enough "cacao of the ground" (Cacahuate).
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