With Valentine’s Day right around the corner, love is in the air, presents are exchanged, luxurious jewelry is given. Most notoriously, Valentine’s Day chocolate is bought and sold in abundance. The fancy heart-shaped boxes symbolizing love, affection, and romance. It can also come in more common fun-size candies wrapped in Valentine’s Day decor, Chocolate has become a staple of Valentine’s Day, but how?
Traveling all the way back to the Victorian era in the 1840’s, the majority of the English-speaking world became engulfed in the idea of Valentine’s Day, and although it had been an idea for centuries before that, the Victorians adored the notion of heartfelt love, showering each other with elaborate gifts to show love for each other. During this time, Richard Cadbury, a man born into a British chocolate manufacturing family, first introduced the ideas of Valentine’s Day themed candy. During rough times for the company, Richard Cadbury, though it remains unknown who came up with the idea, began to mass produce these smaller and more favorable chocolates in heart-shaped boxes. This was done as an idea to attract Victorians to their company’s chocolate and their fun, lovable Valentine’s Day boxes. From there, these assorted chocolates in boxes sold rapidly, and the ideas and traditions from the Victorian era live on today, as chocolate is one of the most prominent symbols of Valentine’s Day.
While the eye-catching and beautiful boxes of chocolate remain some of the best gifts to give loved ones on Valentine’s Day, what really matters (or at least for me) is how the assorted chocolates actually taste, rather than just the look. In this article, I will be rating popular Valentine’s Day chocolates, not on look, but solely based on taste, letting you know if some of these heart-shaped boxes and other chocolates are worth buying.
Russell Stover
Since 1923 Russell Stover has been a beloved chocolate and candy company, offering many sweet and rich chocolates with a wide variety of sugar-free options. While offering many different options, Russell Stover is most famous for their boxed chocolates around the holiday season, but the question is, how do these chocolates actually taste?
- Texture: 7/10
Slightly underwhelming and more chewy compared to the other chocolates, these chocolate textures weren’t my favorite, yet I still believe the texture of some of the fillings made up for that.
- Sweetness: 8/10
Off the bat, the sweetness of the chocolates hits you like a freight train, and while I think that this is the most notable part of the chocolate, it is just a bit too sweet.
- Flavor Palette: 10/10
Offering the most flavors out of any of these brands, I thought that flavors such as caramel, vanilla, and strawberry were delicious, perfectly making up for the underwhelming texture.
Ghirardelli
Another historic American chocolate company, founded all the way back in 1852, Ghirardelli is best known for its little square chocolates, filled with rich and creamy flavors. Their assorted flavors have been favorites for centuries, but how do their chocolates compare?
- Texture: 9/10
Most known for their thin square chocolates, Ghirardelli chocolates have a “snapping” texture while eating them, which I personally found to be very delightful.
- Sweetness: 9/10
A very balanced recipe of chocolate with sugar, I found the sweetness of Ghirardelli to be near perfect. I loved both their milk and dark chocolate and thought the sweetness ratio was significantly better than that of Russelll Stover.
- Flavor Palette: 7/10
With a little bit of an underwhelming variety, I still loved flavors such as mint and raspberry, but I thought common types such as dark and milk chocolate were much better than some of their exotic flavors.
Lindor
Excellent little pieces of chocolate with a melting sensation, Lindor chocolate, made by Lindt, is another one of the most well-known chocolate producers in America. Also known for their classic red wrapping in spherical shapes, how do their recipes compare against Russell Stover and Ghirardelli?
- Texture: 10/10
Unlike the other two chocolate brands, Lindt chocolate created a melting sensation in my mouth sensationally better than any other. In my opinion, the creamy melting of the chocolate after breaking the harder outer shell is a top feeling for me.
- Sweetness: 8/10
Similar to the Russell Stover, I thought that the sweetness of the Lindt overdid it a bit, but I still thought it was generally better than Russell Stover in the overall sweetness of all the chocolates.
- Flavor Palette: 8/10
Having slightly more flavors than Ghirardelli, I thought that, in general, Lindt offers many flavors, and those such as white chocolate really stood out to me, yet I still think nothing beats their signature creamy flavors.
As an avid chocolate lover, I thought that each of these chocolates was unique in its own way, and each of these three iconic brands makes excellent chocolate. At the end of the day, your personal taste determines what chocolate you enjoy, but no matter what you choose, it really is hard to go wrong when choosing chocolates for you or your loved ones.
