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- Overview
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Gift-boxed chocolates to sigh for
For anyone who wants to splurge on Valentine's Day, our expert tasters can recommend nine excellent boxed chocolates. We also found three very good choices that are CR Best Buys.
By "splurge," we mean spend on those nine Excellent-rated boxes of candy, which cost from $44 for a 36-piece box, to $102 for a 72-piece box. If you mail order them, you will also pay shipping charges. We paid $20 to $36 for standard overnight or one-day delivery.
By excellent, we mean that they're almost too pretty to eat, with ultrasmooth chocolate and fresh, real-tasting fillings. Those and the less-expensive assortments we've listed are all better choices than Russell Stover and Whitman's assortments, which cost even less but taste only OK.
Bottom line
Check the descriptions to see what might please the object of your affection. If you choose the expensive ones, nibble quickly or share; shelf life ranges from about one to three weeks.
Killjoy alert
The chocolates in this report have about 200 calories per 1.4-oz. serving on average, and about 8 to 16 grams of fat.
Shipping and handling can double the price—or more
For many of the chocolates that are available by mail-order, shipping can add substantially to the cost. Some companies also charge tax, and many don't ship to Post Office boxes. Shipping costs vary depending on the destination to which the chocolates are being shipped, time of year (costs are greater during warmer months), and the amount of chocolates ordered. Some companies will only deliver on some days of the week, and some charge more for Saturday delivery (for example, Godiva charges an additional $20 for Saturday delivery, and Norman Love charges the same for next-day delivery, regardless of the destination).
Because chocolates are perishable, next day/overnight or two-day delivery is recommended. The cost of standard overnight/one day delivery to our area is $15 to $36 for one box of chocolates. In some cases, shipping costs almost as much as or more than the chocolates. Although we purchased Lindt Classics Assortment from the company's boutiques, if we had chosen to have it shipped, we would have paid almost triple the cost of the product.
