From Passion to Pantry: The Tosier Chocolate Story
The Seeds of Obsession
At Tosier, authentic chocolate isn’t just a product; it is our obsession. The journey began in 2016 when I founded Tosier Chocolate, but the spark was lit long before that during my travels across Europe. As I sampled an incredible variety of chocolates, my palate began to change. I moved beyond simple sweetness and started chasing the complex, nuanced flavors of the cacao bean itself. My curiosity eventually became an irresistible pull: I didn’t just want to taste chocolate; I wanted to understand the alchemy of creating it directly from the bean.
In 2017, I officially introduced the Tosier Chocolatemaker label to the world at the Aldeburgh Food & Drink Festival in Suffolk. Seeing the reaction from fellow food lovers confirmed what I already felt—this was my calling.
The Art of the Micro-Batch
For me, learning the craft of chocolate was a natural extension of a lifelong love for making things by hand. However, working with cacao is unlike any other craft. It is finicky, temperamental, and demands absolute precision. In those early days, my kitchen felt like an alchemist’s lab. There was a steep learning curve, plenty of trial and error, and a healthy dose of beginner’s luck.
Driven by the success of those preliminary batches, I sought out the best mentors in the world. I traveled to Atlanta, Georgia, to study at Cocoatown and to Paris to learn at Ecole Chocolat. Training under the legendary Chloe Doutre-Roussel and Maria Fernanda Di Giacobbe was a turning point. These two exceptional women didn’t just teach me the theory and practice of chocolate; they solidified my resolve to produce the finest chocolate possible. Once I committed to importing specialized machinery from the United States, I knew there was no turning back.
Growth Against the Odds
Our physical journey has been as transformative as our culinary one. We started in the humble surroundings of my basement, eventually outgrowing it and moving into a Port-a-cabin. Then, during the global pandemic—perhaps not the easiest time to scale a business—we took a leap of faith and moved into a beautifully converted dairy.
What began as a solo passion project has blossomed into a true family business, something I never dared to imagine when I first started. Today, the Tosier team is a family unit:
- Jonathan, my husband, steers our sales and marketing.
- Emile, our son and a trained chef, works alongside me in production, bringing his culinary expertise to every batch.
Craft Without Compromise
We have grown from our original four signature bars to an expanded collection of eight, including unique inclusions, dragées, pralines, and our fan-favorite Freddy Rocks! While we have evolved, our core values remain set in stone. We are a specialized, small-batch chocolate factory. We produce in strictly controlled batches of 64 kilograms, allowing us to oversee every meticulous step:
- Sorting: Hand-selecting only the finest beans.
- Cracking & Winnowing: Separating the husk to find the “nib.”
- Grinding & Conching: Developing the smooth texture and complex flavor profiles over many hours.
Transparent Roots
The “Tosier Way” is built on the foundation of a transparent supply chain. We believe that you cannot have a premium product without a trace of its origin. We pay a fair price to our growers, ensuring that the cocoa-growing communities we partner with thrive alongside us. This ethical traceability is just as important as the flavor of the chocolate itself.
Everything we have achieved so far has happened organically, fueled by pure passion. As we look toward the future, we are thinking deeply about our next steps, but our mission remains simple: to honor the bean, the grower, and the chocolate lover.
— Deanna Tilston Founder & Head Chocolatier, Tosier Chocolate Ltd.
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