in commerce, a kind of paste, or cake, prepared of certain ingredients, the basis of which is the cacao-nut.

The Indians, in their first making of chocolate, used to roast the cacao in earthen pots; and having afterwards cleared it of the husks, and bruised it between two stones, they made it into cakes with their hands. The Spaniards improved this method: when the cacao is properly roasted, and well cleaned, they pound it in a mortar, to reduce it into a coarse mass which they afterwards grind on a stone, till it be of the utmost fineness; the paste being sufficiently ground, is put quite hot into tin moulds, in which it congeals in a very little time. The form of these moulds is arbitrary; the cylindrical ones, holding two or three pounds, are the most proper, because the bigger the cakes are, the longer they will keep. Observe, that these cakes are very liable to take any good or bad scent, and therefore they must be carefully wrapped up in paper, and kept in a dry place. Complaints are made, that the Spaniards mix with the cacao nuts too great a quantity of cloves and cinnamon, besides other drugs without number, as musk, ambergris, &c. The grocers of Paris use few or none of these ingredients; they only choose the best nuts, which are called Caracca, from the place from whence they are brought, and with these they mix a very small quantity of cinnamon, the freshest vanilla, and the finest sugar, but very seldom any cloves. Among us in England, the chocolate is made of the simple cacao, excepting that sometimes sugar, and sometimes vanilla is added.

Chocolate ready made, and cacao paste, are prohibited to be imported from any part beyond the seas. If made and sold in Great Britain, it pays inland-duty 1s. 6d. per lb. avoirdupoise: it must be inclosed in papers containing one pound each, and produced at the excise-office, to be stamped. Upon three days notice given to the officer of excise, private families may make chocolate for their own use, provided no less than half an hundred weight of nuts be made at one time.