TOSIER CHOCOLATEMAKER™

Brand's website: TOSIER CHOCOLATEMAKER™

The Tosier Chocolate brand came to public attention in 2017 at The Aldeburgh Food & Drink Festival in Suffolk, UK. Its founder, Deanna Tilston, combines her refined knowledge and trained palate from tasting different types of chocolates around the world in this brand, while following in the tradition of Thomas Tosier, a chocolate maker who was renowned for his culinary skills and even supplied chocolates to the Royal Court and was the chocolate maker directly for Henry I, to whom he personally brought a cup of hot chocolate for breakfast every morning.

Tosier chocolates are made in a small honest manufactory where everything is done by hand - sorting of cocoa beans, peeling, grinding, conching, etc. The chocolates are made in small batches. This ensures you always get the freshest chocolate. Moreover, production on such a small scale allows us to carefully monitor every stage of the process and produce chocolate of the highest quality.

These chocolates are designed for true gourmets who can enjoy the subtle differences in the flavours of the different types and origins of the cocoa beans. Just as with tea or wine, the place of cultivation has an impact on the resulting taste, so it is with cocoa beans.Tosier therefore offers chocolates from four different types of cocoa beans and a total of three different locations (Acul du Nord in Haiti, Tumaco in Colombia and Belize). This makes each chocolate taste a little different - it has a unique "personality" and a unique flavour profile.

Tosier is, of course, part of a transparent supply chain and fair trade that ensures farmers are paid fairly.

From cocoa bean to delicious chocolate

How does the production of high-quality and original chocolate work?

Sorting

Tosier imports cocoa beans from small farmers in 50-70kg jute bags. The bobs are then hand-cut to remove any poor quality or damaged pieces as well as any stones, twigs, etc.

Roasting

Each variety must be treated individually and the length and temperature of roasting must be adjusted. Tosier takes the utmost care at this stage of the process.

Peeling and finishing

After the cocoa beans have been roasted and cooled, they are peeled in a special machine and the husks are removed by air sparging. The cocoa bean pieces are then sieved through a sieve, and then hand-scraped of any residual husks and poor quality or insufficiently fermented beans.

Grinding

The cocoa bean pieces are then ground in a melanger, a special grinder with granite stones, which releases the cocoa butter and grinds it into a smooth-textured paste. And this is what chocolate looks like in its simplest version. During this 60-hour process, a little more cocoa butter is added to the melanger to facilitate the grinding process and lightly sweetened with organic cane sugar. The chocolate is then conched and refined to give it a silky, buttery texture and to remove the residual acidity produced during fermentation. The chocolate then rests and matures for 30 days before tempering.

Tempering

When the chocolate is perfectly ripe, it is melted again and then stabilised by tempering. During this process, the cocoa butter molecules crystallise and the resulting chocolate has a beautifully glossy surface and the desired crunch, so that when you take a bite, you hear that characteristic crunch.

Casting into molds

After tempering, the chocolate is poured into the moulds and, once set, hand-wrapped in decorated paper.

Cocoa+Bean+Origins