3. ~Baláo.~ This variety can be described as a mean between Machala and Arriba. It has some of the characteristics of both, the bean being somewhat rounder.
4. ~Naranjal~ and ~Tenguél~ are likewise subdivisions of the foregoing, except that the bean is here much larger and flatter. As the production of all three sorts, and especially of Balao, is substantially greater than what finds its way to the market, we may reasonably assume that a large proportion is used for mixing purposes, and sails on commercial seas, as it were, under false colours. Cultivating district: the Machala district situated along the Jambeli canal, and the stretch of coast watered by the rivers Balao and Naranjal.
5. Pegados (i. e. stuck together) or Pelatos (balls) is the description of the cacaos comprised of series of 4-10 beans rolled together, generally developing from overripe fruit. They experience a particular kind of fermentation, apparently the result of the fruity substances still evident, which gives the light coloured kernels a soft aromatic flavour. For several years these sorts have rarely been seen on the European market, they being generally reserved for home consumption.
6. ~Oscuros~, i. e. dark coloured, a refuse sort rightly viewed with suspicion in manufacturing circles—Pelotas soaked in water, or beans left in the clefts and fissures of the drying chamber floors.—The black shell of the bean encloses a brownish and dirty-looking kernel, the colour sometimes approaching black: the whole bean giving a disagreeable impression, as it is often disfigured with mould, and possessed of a disagreeable odour. For several years this variety served the “crooks” of the commercial world as mixing material for the so-called “flavouring” of Machala, but it now again appears as a distinct sort.
The shipping port for all these cacao sorts is Guayaquil; though other harbours also handle valuable varieties. Such, for example, are
a) ~Bahia de Caraquéz~, and the small haven of Manta lying south of this town, which deals in a sort resembling a blended Machala-Balao, though occasionally light brown in appearance and of aromatic flavour. This cacao is generally labelled as ~Caraquéz~ for short, and is to be distinguished from ~Caraque~, the French term for Caracas cacao.