Chocolate Review

Chocolate taste tests: An enviable job

After reading more than two dozen reviews of boxed chocolates, we found that reviewers are so taken with the chocolates themselves that they fail to take a hard look at some crucial aspects of gift-giving: customer service, website navigation and packaging (both insulation against damage and gift wrapping). Reviews describe the chocolates themselves as "velvety," luscious," and "jewel-like," but very few discuss chocolatiers' responsiveness or the accuracy of the pricing. We were surprised to find that Consumer Reports, a magazine known for its rigorous product testing, rates chocolate candy on taste alone. Editors leave us wondering whether all the chocolates arrived intact, whether the gift wrapping was chintzy or attractive, and whether the gift boxes were delivered on time.

To our surprise, an amateur chocolate reviewer, Eric Postpischil, provided more of the information we sought than many professional reviewers. On Postpischil's personal web page, he reviews more than 90 chocolate purveyors. Not only does he rate the gourmet chocolates for flavor, he also weighs them and determines the actual cost per pound - a number that can significantly exceed the advertised price. Postpischil also notes any glitches in communications with the companies, describes shipping problems and downgrades chocolatiers for sending spam.

Author and former Gourmet critic David Rosengarten is similarly comprehensive, with 700 chocolate reviews under his belt. Unfortunately, many other boxed-chocolate reviews -- including those at Money magazine, Slate.com, Sunset, the Washington Post and Real Simple -- only discuss a handful of chocolate purveyors, perhaps because the field is so large. Most reviews test no more than 10 brands of chocolate candy.

Many of the best reviews rely on the knowledge of a single professional palate. These veteran reviewers have been tasting chocolate candy professionally for years, and when they say a product is extraordinary, we're inclined to believe them. At SeriousEats.com, veteran food writer Ed Levine offers a list of his favorite gourmet chocolates, and at Vogue, Jeffrey Steingarten selects a handful from the 40 boxes he sampled.

As you might expect, the best chocolatiers tend to be small enough to keep a close eye on operations. Large commercial chocolate companies such as Godiva (owned by the Campbell's Soup company), and Ghirardelli (owned by Lindt) are often the target of complaints: In Cook's Illustrated's tests, Lindt was downgraded for not offering gift wrapping, sending a box and lid that didn't match and failing to confirm the order or shipment. To testers' surprise, Lindt and its subsidiary, Ghirardelli, sent exactly the same chocolate candies, although the former is described as "America's longest continuously operating chocolate manufacturer" and the latter is said to be overseen by "Swiss master chocolatiers."

According to reviews, some long-established companies seem to be coasting on their reputations. Testers at Cook's Illustrated found See's chocolates to be sugary and lower in quality than the other chocolate candy they sampled. See's also fared poorly in tests at Slate.com, where testers found its confections to look "old, ashen, and altogether unappetizing" and their taste "sickeningly sweet."

Godiva chocolate gets mixed reviews

At one time, Belgian chocolates -- and pralines in particular -- represented the pinnacle of flavor and sophistication. However, at least on this side of the pond, well-regarded chocolate makers haven't fared as well in reviews, with quality and taste giving way to the demands of mass marketing and long shelf life. Perhaps the best example of this is Godiva chocolate (*Est. $40 for 36 pieces). Now seen in department stores and shopping malls across the U.S., Godiva began as a small Brussels-based chocolatier.

Most reviews are now not particularly kind to Godiva chocolates. Even the best say that Godiva chocolate is largely unexceptional. Eric Postpischil notes that Godiva is a reliable source of fine chocolate, but that it has "slipped somewhat" and he recommends exploring other alternatives. Testers at Money magazine found that Godiva's chocolates tasted as much of sugar as of chocolate, and concluded that the chocolates are merely "decent."

We've seen some more favorable reviews of Neuhaus (*Est. $66 for 32 pieces), another Belgian chocolate maker that Eric Postpischil says "may be the best world-wide mass-market chocolatier today." He particularly favors the company's Troika (marzipan and gianduja) and Paolo (hazelnut praline with whole hazelnut) varieties. Though some reviewers in a test at NPR (National Public Radio) are obsessed with some of the odd shapes in a Neuhaus Valentine Ballotin, most are pleased with the taste and texture.

We found mixed reviews for Brussels-based Leonidas chocolates (*Est. $34 for 28 pieces). Although taste testers at Forbes magazine had "high hopes," they ultimately judge Leonidas as "nothing special," rating candy from Lake Champlain and Godiva chocolates higher. In other evaluations, Leonidas chocolates are judged as very good, but short of great, with some variations in quality within a box.

Rather than Belgian chocolates, reviewers identify chocolate candy from smaller American companies as best. These smaller operations can produce fresher small batches of chocolate that don't have to be shipped great distances. Shelf-stable, mass-market chocolates don't fare very well in reviews. Drugstore staple Whitman's (*est. $20 for 24-ounces) earns poor marks from testers at NPR, who call the chocolates "mediocre." Money magazine's taste testers say that they're "more reminiscent of candy bars than of fine chocolate." Target's Choxie (*est. $25 for 18 pieces) fares even worse in Money's test. Its reviewers call the chocolates "waxy," "bizarre-looking," and ultimately "inedible." Russell Stover chocolates (*Est. $9 for 17 pieces) didn't stand out in any review.