Sweets for the sweet

USA Today (Society for the Advancement of Education), Jan, 1998

Valentine's Day is looming and, sure, you could wait till the last minute and then pick up a prosaic heart-shaped box full of second-rate candy, as usual. Or, you could take advantage of all the goodies just a phone call away and let your letter carrier become Dan Cupid.

Chocolate's aphrodisiac-like reputation always has made it the treat for lovers. Combine sheer intensity of the chocolate experience with an inspired name and you have Chocolove (1-888-246-2656), a Boulder, Colo., firm that produces chocolate to die for. With cocoa liquor, sugar, and cocoa butter as the predominant ingredients; wrappers adorned with X's and O's to symbolize kisses and hugs; a love poem printed inside the wrapper; and imported Belgian chocolate (arguably the world's finest), Chocolove's cedar presentation box of eight 3.2-ounce bars is the ultimate chocoholic's delight. The cocoa content is indicated on each, beginning with the 33% in its Pure Milk bar and escalating ever upward: Milk+Beans (40%), Pure Dark (55%), Dark+Beans (60%), Rich Dark (65%), two Strong Dark (70 and 77%), and, finally, Baking (100%), designed for cooking purposes. The beans, by the way, are crunchy cocoa beans. Accompanying each box is a pamphlet on "Enjoying Chocolove Chocolate," which rivals the Kama Sutra for sensuous descriptions. The boxed gift set is $32, including shipping, and worth every penny.

Superb Austrian chocolate is featured in Vienna Delights from Niemitz U.S.A. Inc., New York (1-212-333-8662). Resembling Mallomars in concept, with a dark chocolate coating over a mousse-like filling sitting on a wafer, Vienna Delights put their American cousins to shame, so light and airy that they virtually melt in the mouth. All four flavors -- Choco, Vanilla, Cafe Creme (coffee), and Banana -- are intense, with the latter avoiding the cloying after-taste artificial fruit flavors usually produce. Dark chocolate or coconut-covered, they are available in packages of 20 or 40 from about $12 to $20.

Less traditional are the confections from Savannah's Candy Kitchen, Savannah, Ga. (1-800-443-7884). Specialties include Gophers (round chunks of pecan covered with caramel and topped with either dark, milk, or white chocolate), Divinity (succulent vanilla meringue capped with a large pecan half), and Pralines (pecans held together by a sticky hardened syrup created from rich cream and butter). A one-pound sampler comes in a box, tin, or basket for $19.90, with a three-pound tin running $36.90. A special treat is a block of creamy fudge in chocolate, vanilla, maple, or any of those flavors with pecans ($18.90 for a one-pound tin). If we haven't lost diabetics and dieters yet in our sugar-rich meanderings, sugar-tree fudge at the same price is available in chocolate pecan and vanilla pecan, rich and creamy without the bitter aftertaste saccharine or other artificial sweeteners may leave.

More familiar are the miniature chocolates from Fannie May Candies, Chicago, Ill. (1-800-890-3629), an assortment of buttercreams, caramels, toffees, and other time-honored favorites. Far more interesting are Pixies (pecans, caramel, and silky milk chocolate) and Mint Meltaways (chocolate mint centers covered in milk chocolate; half are coated in a pale pastel green, which is startling, but equally delicious). Twelve-ounce boxes run about $13, and stubborn traditionalists can get a heart-shaped one for $14.

Handmade toffees from Mrs. London's Confections, West Concord, Mass. (1-800-452-8162), make another delightful alternative. Butter-crunch toffees come in six crisp styles: English Toffee (blended with milk and dark chocolates and walnuts), Milk Chocolate Peanut, White Chocolate Macadamia, Hazelnut Lover's (with Frangelico liqueur), Coffee Lover's (with Kahlua, espresso, and decaffeinated coffee beans), and Hazelnut Coffee (flavored with Kahlua). A three-pound sampler of all six flavors in a gift box runs $36.

It would be unfair to leave out the kids on this ultrasweet holiday, even if they weren't so forthcoming with the Halloween loot. An assortment of nostalgic tin lunchboxes from American Specialties Confections, Inc., Lancaster, Pa., that are filled with favorite candies or cookies should hold them. Our favorite is the giant Oreo cookie, round, distinctively brown, and filled with packs of Oreo cookies, brownies, and granola bars; the orange-and-brown Reese's Peanut Butter Cup is filled with gold-foil-wrapped miniature versions; and the rectangular box saluting the age-old favorite Candy Land game is stuffed with a bag of gingerbread cookies. While the letter carrier doesn't deliver these charming, reusable lunchboxes, they are available in major department stores at $10 each.