After fermentation, the raw cocoa still contains far too much water; in fact, about 6o%. Most of this has to be removed. What could be more natural than to spread the beans out to dry on the sun-soaked ground or on mats? After a week or so, all but a small percentage of the water has evaporated, the beans have taken on a browner colouring and the aroma has become more pronounced. Now the time has come when, after having been packed into jute sacks, weighed and classified, hundredweight upon hundredweight of the tropical fruit disappears into the copious holds of ocean-going freighters to begin the journey across the oceans to the great ports of Europe and North America.