The process of bean to bar chocolate starts back at origin and for small batch chocolate makers like ourselves, the work that the farming communities put into the growing, harvesting and fermenting of the cacao cannot be underestimated.
To put things into context, it takes about 60 beans to make a bar of our 70% chocolate. There are only about 40 beans in a cocoa pod and an average cocoa tree might only yield 30 to 40 pods. Below are a series of videos that give you an insight into the work involved, it’s astonishingly laborious.
When we receive the fermented, but un-roasted beans it takes 48 hours on average to stone-grind each batch and after that the blocks of made chocolate are aged for an average of 30 days before being tempered into bars. Additionally we hand-wrap every bar, which takes 1 1/2 hours for two of us to wrap 200 bars!
Farming and processing at origin…
Tosier’s chocolate making process all happens in the UK
Beans arrive at the Tosier Factory
The beans are shipped in 50 -70 kg jute sacks to Amsterdam, and the final leg of their journey is crossing the English Channel before delivery to our small-batch factory in Suffolk.
We are passionate about the origins of our cacao and really prioritise the authenticity of our beans. We source beans with great genetics from six different origins selecting them for their personality and unique flavour profiles
This is always an exciting day!
Sorting
Very much like the quality control sorting at origin, we sort the beans again by hand to remove any beans that might be damaged or any stones or twigs that might have been missed initially.
Roasting
Each bean variety has its own individual roasting profile and they are roasted to retain their flavour notes.
We adjust how we long we roast and the temperature we roast at, as this is a key stage for the production of chocolate.
Cracking & Winnowing
Once roasted and when the beans have cooled they are cracked in a Packint cocoa winnowing machine where the whole bean is cracked open and the outer husk is separated from the nib.
The husk is collected via an air-flow system and we are left with the nibs that we use for our chocolate. Finally we visually check and remove any poor quality or under-fermented nibs by hand.
Grinding & Conching
Grinding and Conching
The nibs are ground down to a uniform size in small batches before they are put in a CocoaTown melanger, a machine with a granite base and mill stones that break down the cocoa beans. This process takes between 48 and 72 hours and during this time we add organic unrefined cane sugar and a small amount of cocoa butter.
Conching and refining gives the chocolate a silky and buttery texture and removes residual acidity resulting from fermentation.
We assess the conching process throughout and adjust the amount of heat, pressure and time related to the bean variety.
The chocolate rests and matures for 30 days in blocks before tempering.
We received a grant through the New Anglia Small Grant Scheme, which is part-funded by the European Regional Development Fund.
Tempering
After the chocolate has matured it is remelted and this fluid chocolate is stabilised through tempering. The molecules from the cocoa butter must crystallise in order to obtain a smooth glossy finish and a satisfying snap.
Moulding
Once tempered the chocolate is poured into moulds and once set wrapped by hand.
Chocolate should be stored away from sunlight between 15 and 18 degrees.
