Bon Bon; Christopher Elbow; Dandelion Chocolate Factory; Fran's Chocolates; See's Candies.
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My career is related to chocolate. I trained at the Culinary Institute of America, then went to further training at the Chocolate Academy, Chicago, and now work at a small-batch chocolate producer in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Good chocolate brings joy, conveys love, heals heartache, and forges connections.
To find the best chocolates, I used my experience as a chocolatier to research many high-quality brands known for their reputation in the chocolate industry. I narrowed the list of brands to 13 because of consumer reviews and professional writings. I tasted more than 30 chocolate products from the 13 top competitors, evaluating their appearance, flavor, and texture. We tested here and you can read more about it. Insider Reviews tests and researches products.
Many of our favorite chocolate brands are offering special edition collections, from pink wrapped boxes to special edition collections. Vosges Haut-Chocolat is the best chocolate brand for gifts, and shoppers can get 15% off their sets.
These chocolates are the best money can buy and are delivered right to your door. It doesn't get better than these. I'm a chocolatier.
The best chocolates are here.
Vosges Haut-Chocolat is the best chocolate for gifts.
Vosges Haut-Chocolat is the perfect gift for anyone and any occasion.
Bon Bon has the best truffles and ganaches.
Each two-bite Bon Bon's is decorated and wrapped in its own box, and is a treasure trove of fun, inventive flavors.
Fran's Chocolates is the best chocolate for caramel lovers.
The caramels from Fran's Chocolates have everything a caramel lover needs in the perfect bite: pull, chew, and just a touch of salt.
See's Candies has the best chocolates for nut lovers.
See's Candies knows how to honor the perfect combination of nuts and chocolate.
The Dandelion Chocolate Factory has the best bean-to-bar chocolates.
Dandelion Chocolate Factory has chocolate bars with helpful notes to guide you through your tasting experience.
The best vegan chocolates are EHChocolatier.
You won't miss the dairy in its selection of vegan chocolates because it is not afraid to use flavor.
Christopher Elbow Chocolates is the best hot chocolate.
The cool older sister to your childhood hot cocoa is Christopher Elbow's Drinking Chocolate.
Gourmet chocolate of the month club is the best chocolate subscription.
The gourmet chocolate of the month club offers a variety of chocolates with a conscience.
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Vosges Haut-Chocolat is by Alyssa Powell.
There is a shop atvosgeschocolate.com.
Vosges Haut-Chocolat is the perfect gift for anyone and any occasion.
In a pinch, we can't find the perfect gift. Chocolate is always the answer, but the ideal gift needs to offer a variety to account for different preferences. The packaging needs to be special. When it comes to chocolates, opening presents are only half the fun. I looked at the quality of the chocolates, but also the assortments that cater to different occasions, relationships, and personality types, when considering options for this category.
Vosges Haut-Chocolat has a wide range of gift options. There's a "safe bet" gift of hand-formed Champagne Truffles in an ornate round purple box. The Comfort Food Tower is too easy to enjoy. If you're looking to go all-out for your college bestie, the Grateful Dead Box, a collection ofcurated chocolates accompanied by cosmic crystals, will surely strike a chord. Vosges offers Ritual Collections that include chocolate with small gifts, like a smudge stick and a journal, for people who are in a new stage of life.
Each box of chocolate comes with a wow-factor before the recipient has even opened it. The gift is unwrapped and the excitement continues. Vosges chocolates are beautiful. The use of shapes, layers, and variety within one box will be universally pleasing.
Vosges chocolates are very accessible to eat and feature unusual ingredients. I admit that it was a bit intimidating to eat a truffle of Reishi mushrooms and Italian hazelnuts, but it turned into a luscious milk chocolate ganache with an underlying nuttiness that left me wanting more. The gift that keeps giving is exciting to bite into.
It's worth a try.
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Bon Bon; Alyssa Powell.
There is a website called Bonbonbon.com.
Each two-bite Bon Bon's is decorated and wrapped in its own box, and is a treasure trove of fun, inventive flavors.
There is a ganache. You've seen the word many times on the menu. The combination of cream and chocolate is called ganache. A round chocolate shell is what a traditional truffle is made of. There is more to the world of ganache-filled Bonbons. Bon Bon Bon is unconventional in its shape, use of flavors and texture, and packaging.
The first thing to look for when selecting a good truffle is a uniform, thin shell. A thick coating of chocolate cracks and smashes delicate ganache when bitten into. It should have a shiny exterior and be free of white "bloom", which is a sign that the chocolate was not treated properly during production or storage. The filling should be smooth and silky and the ganache should be good. The chocolates are delivered in a thin rectangular shell.
Bon Bon Bon chooses to leave its Bonbons topless, rather than fully enrobing them. Each Bonbon is adorned with playful garnishes to match its youthful yet adult flavors. The Bour-Bon-Bon has a layer of rich bourbon ganache topped with whiskey caramel in a dark chocolate shell and a "ice cube." The Lemon Bar None is a white chocolate cup filled with a zingy lemon custard ganache on top of a layer of shortbread crust.
Bon Bon Bon chooses fresh, local ingredients and packages each ingenious morsel individually in a tiny box, mimicking the care and thought put into each bite you'll enjoy.
It's worth a try.
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Fran's Chocolates is owned by Alyssa Powell.
frans-chocolates is a brand of chocolate.
The caramels from Fran's Chocolates have everything a caramel lover needs in the perfect bite: pull, chew, and just a touch of salt.
All types of caramels come in all shapes and sizes, with degrees of bitterness and butteriness. A caramel lover will have a lot of opinions on how a caramel should be. I was up to the challenge of naming the best caramel chocolate. Fran's Chocolates caramels have the "pull," deliberate chew, and strategic salting that a great caramel should have.
When I bite into a caramel, I think about its pull. A good caramel should leave a trail of candy behind when you pull it out of your mouth. It should not allow for a clean bite. You still need your teeth intact in order to enjoy a second taste. A caramel needs to have just the right amount of chew, not too hard or soft. Salt is great for moderation. It shows the burnt sugar notes that make caramel what it is, and cuts through the rich, butter flavor of the confection. Salt applied with a heavy hand makes for an unpleasant surprise; it stomps out nuanced flavors and degrades the chocolate coating.
Fran's Chocolates was founded by Fran's Chocolates, who was inspired by a trip to Paris. The caramel's delicate yet luxurious butter flavor is complemented by Fair Trade certified chocolate. Each bite will be just as perfect as the last because of the consistency of the salting. Fran's Chocolates has box options that are completely committed to caramels, revealing its devotion to the craft of caramel chocolates. The truest of caramel lovers will find what they need with your choice of milk or dark chocolate coating, grey salt, smoked salt, or a classic exterior sans salt.
It's worth a try.
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See's Candies is owned by Alyssa Powell.
There is a website called Sees.com.
See's Candies knows how to honor the perfect combination of nuts and chocolate.
The nuts are no strangers to chocolate. They go hand-in-hand and you don't have to be a nut fanatic to appreciate them. A real nut lover wants a chocolate that celebrates the nut, not just accompanies it. The sweet and savory flavors of roasting cacao beans make chocolate the ideal "plus one" to any nut. A coating of good chocolate draws out the natural sweet taste of almonds, pistachios, and pecans, as well as the nutty flavor of cashews, macadamia nuts, and hazelnuts, and embraces the slight bitterness of walnuts and pine nuts.
See's Candies has a vintage, old timey feel with black and white checkered packaging and classic confections included in its arrangements. It has an entire collection of nut-bejeweled chocolates. Small nuggets of butter toffee and roasted almonds coated in milk chocolate and rolled in more almonds are sold in black and white coffee canisters.
You can put together your own custom arrangement with See's less conventional options. The CA Crunch is a brittle center with peanuts and peanut butter, covered in white chocolate and chopped English walnuts. The Cashew Brittle is non-traditional and covered in white chocolate. Are you looking for something a little more playful and funky? The Milk Mayfair is a center of walnuts, cherries, and vanilla covered in creamy milk chocolate. See's Candies has a wide range of nut-celebrating confections, which is perfect for anyone with a chocolate craving.
It's worth a try.
Chocolates, 1 lbs, $35.
Theettes, $36.
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Dandelion Chocolate Factory is owned by Alyssa Powell.
There is a store ondandelionchocolate.com.
Dandelion Chocolate Factory has chocolate bars with helpful notes to guide you through your tasting experience.
"Bean-to-bar" chocolates are made by small-batch craft producers that manage everything from source to final touches of processing and flavoring.
San Francisco-based Dandelion Chocolate Factory approaches its processing like a wine maker approaches the production of fine wine. Single-origin chocolate bars are made from a single variety of cacao beans. The flavors of cacao beans are influenced by regional terroirs. Different beans' distinctive characteristics are highlighted in Dandelion Chocolate's bars.
Dandelion Chocolate's bars showcase the nuances of single-origin beans, but they richly represent the art of roasting by offering bars made from cacao of the same harvest but with different roasting profiles. You can purchase a pack of bars made from the same beans, but they are currently sold out. Imagine two wines made from the same grapes. Few producers offer chocolate bars that open a window to the choco-connoisseur.
Each bar of chocolate from Dandelion Chocolate is wrapped in gold paper and has tasting notes on it. Dandelion Chocolate's bars offer something for everyone. I look for chocolate that is rich and complex with a pleasant bitterness and melt-in-your mouth smooth, without any waxy residuals. Many chocolate producers make dark chocolate that has high cacao percentages. Dandelion Chocolate's bars are balanced and easy to understand. Dandelion Chocolate makes the best "bean-to-bar" craft chocolate bars, whether you're a true chocolate enthusiast or just someone looking to enjoy a spectacularly tasty treat.
Dandelion's chocolate chips are specially engineered to be used in baking. The chips are said to be the perfect shape and size to create a delicate balance of snap and melt in chocolate chip cookies.
It's worth a try.
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Alyssa Powell/Insider.
There is a website called www.ehchocolatier.com.
You won't miss the dairy in its selection of vegan chocolates because it is not afraid to use flavor.
Dark chocolate is innately vegan, so vegan chocolate bars are dime-a-dozen nowadays. It's a whole other thing to achieve a rich, "creamy" truffle without dairy. The ganache contains cream. Heavy nut butters can leave a greasy film in your mouth, which is why many vegan options rely on heavy nut butters. Even with the use of fancy,flavorful olive oils, others have a thin texture or taste lackluster.
I tested and considered five other vegan chocolates for this guide, but I also work at a vegan chocolate company. The Meltaway Collection was compared by none. You'll never miss the dairy if you use flavor. The Belgian-style Hazelnut Praline meltaway is so rich you'll swear it, and the vibrant Passionfruit Bonbon sends you to a juicy tropical paradise in one bite. The filling is in perfect balance with the dark chocolate veil that covers it. The pink zebra print on the Bonbons is a striking contrast to the rich dark chocolate center.
I'm not alone in my praise for this collection. The International Chocolate Salon gave three gold medals in vegan categories in 2020: best ingredient combination, best taste, and best flavored chocolate, as well as three silver medals for best texture, most unique, and top vegan chocolate. The New York Times, Boston Magazine, and The Boston Globe have all featured positive reviews of this artisan chocolate producer.
It's worth a try.
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Christopher Elbow.
There is a website called elmchocolates.com.
The cool older sister to your childhood hot cocoa is Christopher Elbow's Drinking Chocolate.
I used to relish packets of cocoa mix with tiny dehydrated marshmallows. The sound of crackling firewood, the smell of hot cocoa, and the warmth of a ski lodge are all memories that come to mind when you smell hot cocoa. I crave unctuous, warm chocolate with a splash of amaretto. Over the years, my hot cocoa habits have evolved as well. Bitter drinking chocolate made its way to Europe and underwent countless changes before becoming the beverage we drink today. High-end hot chocolates celebrate the bitter notes of cacao, providing a grown-up sip with a touch of childhood nostalgia in each mug.
Adding your choice of schnapps or liqueurs should make a haute hot chocolate even more intense. The cocoa's acidity and bitterness should be prominent. Some chocolatiers add sugar or flavorings to their mixes. Many producers now offer single-origin sipping chocolates as well as single-origin chocolate bars.
Christopher Elbow offers four different hot chocolate options in sleek reclosable tins. As the weather gets warmer, you may find more limited availability. The Cocoa Noir Dark Drinking Chocolate is a luscious interpretation of a rich European-style drinking chocolate. This drink has a silky texture and is made from dark chocolate and vanilla bean. It has a balanced chocolate flavor that will leave you craving another sip. I was satisfied with a small mugful. There was no need for marshmallows.
It's worth a try.
Cocoa Noir Dark Drinking Chocolate is $19.95.
Gilbert Espinoza/Insider; Dandelion Chocolate Factory.
While I'm employed as a chocolatier, I've lived previous lives in both scientific research and recipe development. My testing approach for this research was methodical and thorough because I'm a scientist at heart. My education includes the hard sciences, the savory culinary arts, and finally fine chocolatier-work, all of which have prepared me for the daunting task of hand-selecting the very best chocolates. I didn't leave anything out and I didn't cut corners.
I read about the top brands in the chocolate industry and taste-tested countless confections, evaluating their flavors, texture, and presentation. I used more than 30 products from 17 brands for this guide. The criteria I considered were listed here.
The growing conditions of the cacao used to make any given chocolate impact its flavor, which can range from sweet and fruity, to nutty and toasty, to bitter or acidic. All of these can be used in different ways. Chocolate that has gone bad or rancid will have a soapy flavor. I was looking for cocoa notes with no off flavors.
I looked at the texture of the chocolates. When broken or bitten into, chocolate should be firm and melt smoothly on the tongue.
I looked for packaging that protects the chocolates. No one wants broken or smashed confections. I thought about how the packaging and presentation contributed to the impact of the chocolates, since many give chocolates as gifts for special occasions.
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