We learned this week that a dragée is a bite-sized form of confectionery with a hard outer shell. In Tosier’s case, it is a bite-sized chunk of heaven, with a piedmont hazelnut covered in 65% Ghanian DarkMyllk. These were a refreshing surprise; crisp nuts with just the right coating of chocolate to get a perfect balance – and exceptionally moreish.

We picked up a packet of their Crystallised Ginger too, which was covered in 80% Ecuadorian chocolate. These went pretty much along the same route as the hazelnuts did – fast. We had to grab the packets back to get the pictures taken before they were all gone!

And at this point, we knew we liked the brand but needed to slow down just a little to get the best out of our purchases.

When it came to the Tumaco Colombian 70% (dark chocolate with Colombian coffee), the bar demanded a bit more respect than we had given the dragées. The story of chocolate was printed on the inside of the wrapper, and is a great source of information for anybody wanting to learn a bit about the chocolate-making process. Having lived in Europe for a number of years, and having tasted many different styles of chocolate, Deanna Tilston set out to learn how to make real chocolate from the bean herself. In 2016, she founded Tosier Chocolate.

For us, the 70% Colombian was a good point for discussion, as we already had a favourite coffee chocolate. Sadly due to new dietry restrictions, it is off our ‘to eat’ list as it contains milk, so we were in the market for an alternative. Tosier manages to make an espresso coffee mix into a bar of chocolate – because that is the exact flavour we get from this bar. Right or wrong, for us it is almost like solidifying the espresso into a solid form. It is clean, fresh and completely on point for what we would expect in a good cup of dark coffee. Surprisingly, the non-coffee drinker in the house also enjoyed this bar.

We are looking forward to the next event when we can meet this brand again, stock up on hazelnuts and discover more from tosier.co.uk