Thomas and Grace Tosier

Grace Tosier, chocolate maker

The Tosier name has a centuries-old connection with British-made chocolate...

When I first started out on my journey as a chocolate maker I did a lot of reading around chocolate and its history. I was fascinated to learn about a very early British chocolate maker, Thomas Tosier and I visited the Chocolate Kitchen at Hampton Court where he used to work. At that time I was making chocolate at home in a room in our basement and these small rooms where he roasted and ground his beans to make chocolate really resonated with me. We were struggling to find the right name for our chocolate business and I realised the Tosier name was perfect, it captured so much of what our approach to chocolate making was - I wonder what he and his wife Grace would think of the chocolate we now make that bears his name?

Thomas Tosier was George I’s personal chocolate maker – a privileged position within the Royal household at Hampton Court. One of his key duties was to serve the king his chocolate; and Tosier was responsible for making and taking a cup of chocolate to George I in his bed chamber every morning. We also know that the chocolate maker had his own bedroom - a luxury and an honour for a servant at court. If you visit Hampton Court you can see the original Chocolate Kitchen that was only re-discovered in 2013.

Thomas wasn’t only the King’s chocolate maker – he also ran a chocolate house on Chocolate Row in Greenwich, which was managed by his wife Grace. In the 18th century chocolate houses were a bye word amongst the upper classes for luxury, sophistication and good company.

Drawing of a Coffee House, which looked remarkably like the Chocolate Houses that preceded them. (Anonymous, 1690-1700) ©British Museum

The Tosier name was clearly important. After Thomas died and Grace remarried, she remained a Tosier. It appears that Grace was quite a character – she was known for wearing a ‘large brimmed hat’ and ‘flowers in her bosom’.

Grace was so successful that the fashionable painter Bartholomew Dandridge painted her portrait in 1729. Her portrait became a collectable print and she was considered a Georgian celebrity.