statement, made by certain manufacturers and would-be connoisseurs, that the bitter taste peculiar to the acid produced in cacao during fermentation is the real aroma of the cacao, is undoubtedly erroneous. It could, in the same way, be said of tea and its acids, the bitterer, the better; which would of course end in the destruction of the true flavour. Equally erroneous is the theory that bitter cacao is more consistent. Such cacao must, previous to consumption, either be more sweetened than usual or, if the same quantity of sugar is put in, less of the beverage can be taken. When, for instance, very thin coffee is made, the beans, on colouring an abnormally large quantity of water, are said to be stronger, i. e. to yield more. The consistency of all such beverages is, however, only a matter of taste, and it would therefore be useless to discuss the subject in detail; some persons prefer strong tea, which has been brewed a quarter of an hour, others simply pour boiling water over the tea leaves and then drink the beverage immediately. It may, however, safely be taken that the highest amount of butter which can be expressed from cacao without prejudicing the flavour of the finished powder is 66 percent of the total fat content. Manufacturers nowadays try as a rule to express as much butter as possible, as the butter has a high price on the market, and this tendency naturally has the effect of lowering the quality of the cocoa. We thus come across cocoa powders containing only 20, 17, 15 percent of fat and even less. Of course nothing can be said against the production of such cocoas, provided they are sold at a lower price than cocoas more rich in fat and the public are aware that they are purchasing a non-fatty preparation, besides which the expression of so high a percentage of the fat alone rendered cocoa a fit regular beverage for certain classes of invalids and persons suffering from disorders of the stomach. The only serious drawback in this case is the great variability of the fat content, which fluctuates between 13 and 35 percent. Such fluctuations are absolutely impossible in the case of any other article of food which is manufactured and sold wholesale, or, at any rate, buyers know in all such cases exactly what they are purchasing; this is a point to which serious attention must be called. It is very much to be regretted that the Association of German Chocolate Makers[127] has declined to follow up this matter, while the Union of German Food Chemists, after considerable controversy, advocated a distinct legal classification of non-fatty cocoa powders containing up to 20 percent of fat.[128] We would prefer the Dutch preparations, which have remained the same up to the present day, so-called fatty cocoas containing more than 25 percent of fat, to be classified specially and those preparations which contain less than this percentage of fat to be termed “highly defatted” or “dry” cocoas,