hedge!

MANUFACTURER: The cacao of each producing area has its
special characters, even as the wine from a country, and part
of the good manufacturer's art is the art of blending.

PLANTER: What--good with bad?

MANUFACTURER: No! Good of one type with good of another type.

PLANTER: What do you mean exactly by good?

MANUFACTURER: By good I mean large, ripe, well-cured beans.
By indifferent I mean unripe and unfermented. By abominable I
mean germinated, mouldy, and grubby beans. Happily, the last
class is quite a small one.

PLANTER: You don't mean to tell me that only the good cacao
sells?

MANUFACTURER: Unfortunately, no! There are users of inferior
beans. Practically all the cacao produced--good and
indifferent--is bought by someone. Most manufacturers prefer
the fine, healthy, well fermented kinds.

PLANTER: Well fermented! They have a strange way of showing
their preference. Why, they often pay more for Guayaquil than
they do for Grenada cacao. Yet Guayaquil is never properly
fermented, whilst that from the Grenada estates is perfectly
fermented.

MANUFACTURER: Agreed. Just as you would pay more for a
badly-trained thoroughbred than for a well-trained mongrel.
It's breed they pay for. The Guayaquil breed is peculiar;
there is nothing else like it in the world. You might think
the tree had been grafted on to a spice tree. It has a fine
characteristic aroma, which is so powerful that it masks the
presence of a high percentage of unfermented beans. However,
if Guayaquil cacao was well-fermented it would (subject to
the iron laws of Supply and Demand) fetch a still higher
price, and there would not be the loss there is in a wet
season when the Guayaquil cacao, being unfermented, goes
mouldy. I think in Grenada they plant for high yield, and not
for quality, for the bean is small and approaches the
inferior Calabacillo breed. Its value is maintained by an
amazing evenness and an uniform excellence in curing. The way
in which it is prepared for the market does great credit to
the planters.

PLANTER: They don't clay there, do they?

MANUFACTURER: No! and yet it is practically impossible to
find a mouldy bean in Grenada estates cacao. Evidently
claying is not a necessity--in Grenada.

PLANTER: Ha! ha! By that I suppose you insinuate th