Last month, I pitched a request to my Facebook friends asking their opinion of what’s the best chocolates they have tried. Most of the responses mentioned chocolatiers I knew and the few I didn’t know I investigated.
Let me begin by saying this review is not a sponsored post and I was not compensated by any of the companies that fell prey to our taste buds. We bought every last sinful bite and no doubt will regret eating too many sweets after Christmas but that’s a post for another time. This write-up is purely FYI.
I knew, since last Christmas I wanted to get Lake Champlain Chocolates. It’s been years! We got a couple of familiar boxes of chocolates that we always liked to try again.
Holiday Chocolates of Vermont What’s in the box: 4 each Honey Caramel, Green Mountain, Maple Crunch, & Evergreen Mints.
Holiday Chocolate Assortment 30pc What’s in the box: milk, dark, and white assorted chocolates, including 10 truffles. (Click on the link to get full details)
Excited to try Lake Champlain Chocolates after many years, my enthusiasm quickly dwindled to discover the once superior quality has slipped. The truffle centers lacked flavor and too fluffy making them more of a melt away chocolate instead of the consistency usually associated with truffles. The other chocolates as well were weak on flavor. It seems like they are skimping on quantity and quality of ingredients, but still charging premium prices for their product. A common flaw I see that’s practiced by many companies. I do have two good things to say about our LCC experience. The box chocolates are beautiful to receive and the chocolate’s (shells only) is satin elegance on your tongue. We have no plans to order from LCC in the immediate future. Maybe, we’ll try them again in two or three years.
The night we place our LCC order, we also bought from a new-to-us chocolate company in Maine, Dean’s Sweets, who specializes only in truffles. Perfect! We opted to get the 8-piece Maine Mix collection. What’s inside the box: 2 each Maple, Blueberry, Maine Sea Salt Caramel, & Needham.
DS truffles are smaller than most and expensive considering we only got a ¼ pound of chocolates. However, we hoped the taste would make up for the quantity. The quality is good. I wouldn’t say it was exceptional but far better than LCC and of the four flavors we considered the Maine Sea Salt Caramel outstanding. The other truffles failed to meet our taste palette expectations. That being said, will we order from Dean’s Sweets again. Yes, I see another order in our future.
After sampling these chocolates, we decided to order from a very well-known chocolate company, GODIVA, instead of being molested by Christmas shoppers at the mall. Yeah, me and my personal space issues, right? lol I’m not gonna lie to you, we placed a sizable order AGAIN. We didn’t discriminate, either. We got dark, milk, and white chocolates ~ truffles and other chocolates. We wanted to try a variety.
Here’s what we wound up with (hey, don’t judge).
Holiday Assorted Truffles 18-piece gift box What’s inside: Cranberry Truffle, Raspberry Linzer Torte Truffle, Gingerbread Truffle, Creme Brulee Truffle, & French Vanilla Truffle. 12.5oz.
27 pc. Dark Chocolate Gift Box ~ Classic What’s in the box: Dark Caramel Embrace, Midnight Swirl, Dark Ganache Bliss, Double Chocolate Raspberry Truffle, 72% Dark Demitasse, and Mochaccino Mousse Dessert Chocolate. 10.6oz.
22 pc. Milk Chocolate Gift Box ~ Classic What’s in the box: Cinnamon Blush, Coffee Feather, Open Oyster, Almond Praline Raindrop, Pecan Caramel Duet, and more. 10.5oz.
24 pc. White Chocolate Gift Box What’s in the box: Raspberry Star, Hazelnut Praliné Raindrop, White Ganache Bliss, Twilight Swirl, Cashew Raspberry Caramel Cluster, Strawberry Truffle and other white chocolate indulgences. 9.75oz.
16 pc. Limited Edition Holiday Gift Box What’s in the box: Mocha Snowflake: Limited edition holiday piece featuring mocha filling in a milk chocolate shell, Mandarin Snowflake: Limited edition holiday piece featuring orange mandarin filling in a white chocolate shell, Dark Medallion in Green Foil: Solid dark chocolate,Milk Medallion in Red Foil: Solid milk chocolate, & White Ganache Bliss: Creamy white chocolate ganache with vanilla in a white chocolate shell. 6.75oz.
What can I say, except Godiva was FANTASTIC like always. Needless to say, Godiva wins hands down easily and you betcha we’ll continue to buy from Godiva!
Pssst… just wanted to throw this out to ya that Godiva has a little promo going on where you can receive a $10 gift certificate for every $50 you spend. This offer expires ends shortly before Christmas and I found out the GCs mailed after Christmas. It’s a nice incentive, especially if you’re planning to buy anyhow.
I have one more mail order candy review up my sleeve. Come back to find out how See’s Candies fairs in the Kennedy Chocolate Taste-Off Challenge.
**images and some descriptive content borrowed from the appropriate sites**