Cocoa as a beverage has a similar action to tea and coffee, inasmuch as the physiological properties of all three are due to the alkaloids and volatile oils they contain. Tea and coffee both contain the alkaloid caffeine, whilst cocoa contains theobromine. In tea and coffee, however, we only drink an infusion of the leaves or seeds, whilst in cocoa the whole material is taken in a state of very fine suspension, and as the preceding analysis indicates, the cocoa bean, even with the fat extracted, is of high nutritive value.
_Cacao-consuming Countries._--The principal cacao-consuming countries are indicated below, which gives the imports into the countries named for 1905. These figures, as also those on production, are taken from _Der Gordian_.
Tons (1000 kilos). United States of America 34,958 Germany 29,663 France 21,748 United Kingdom 21,106 Holland 19,295 Spain 6,102 Switzerland 5,218 Belgium 3,019 Austria Hungary 2,668 Russia 2,230 Denmark 1,125 Italy 971 Sweden 900 Canada 700 Australia 600 Norway, Portugal and Finland 692 ------- Total 150,995
During recent years the use of cocoa has increased rapidly in some countries. The following table gives the increase per cent in consumption in 1905 over that in 1901 for the five chief consumers:--
Per cent. United States 70 Germany 61 France 21 United Kingdom 11 Holland 34
[1] As a matter of nomenclature it is unfortunate that the corrupt form "cocoa," from a confusion with the coco-nut (q.v.), has become stereotyped. When introduced early in the 18th century it was as a trisyllable _co-co-a_, a mispronunciation of _cacao_ or _cocoa_, the Spanish adaptation from the Mexican _cacauatl_.
COCO DE MER, or DOUBLE COCO-NUT, a palm, _Lodoicea Sechellarum_, which is a native of the Seychelles Islands. The flowers are borne in enormous fleshy spadices, the male and female on distinct plants. The fruits, which are among the largest known, take ten years to ripen; they have a fleshy and fibrous envelope surrounding a hard nut-like portion which is generally two-lobed, suggesting a large double coco-nut. The contents of the nut are edible as in the coco-nut. The empty fruits (after germination of the seed) are found floating in the Indian Ocean, and were known long before the palm was discovered, giving rise to various stories as to their origin.