Choco love

A Good Box of Chocolates Should Be Well-Crafted and Balanced

The chocolates we tried came in all shapes, sizes, and flavors, but one thing really distinguished the so-so chocolates from the great ones: delicacy and balance. When you bite into a bonbon, you don’t want an old, cakey, chalky, or thick chocolate coating; instead, you want a fresh, thin layer that’s crisp and almost brittle, but that immediately melts into a smooth (not grainy) puddle in your mouth. How long the bonbon has been sitting in the box is a part of this, as is how the chocolate is crafted.

Michael Klug, head chocolatier of L.A. Burdick Chocolates, says that hand-forming the chocolates can help achieve a delicate outer layer. “When you use a chocolate mold you always have a little bit of a thicker coating, and that plays a little bit against the mouthfeel,” he explains. 

Another thing to consider is the interplay of the chocolate with the flavors inside. While flavors are fun, if they’re cloying or overwhelming, they risk obliterating any nuance—a flavor blast, if you will. “I think it’s important that the chocolate stands on its own and has the other flavoring components really as a companion, as something that goes with it instead of really riding totally over it,” he says. “You don’t want anything too overpowering.”