The best chocolates, according to a professional chocolatier
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Bon Bon Bon; Christopher Elbow; Dandelion Chocolate Factory; EHChocolatier; Fran's Chocolates; See's Candies; Gilbert Espinoza/Business Insider
The best chocolates bring joy, convey love, heal heartache, and forge connections. Whether you're seeking the most unusual flavor combinations or you relish a bold single-origin bar, the world of chocolate has something for everyone.
To find the best chocolates, I sampled 45 top brands for appearance, flavor, and texture. Our favorite brand for gifting is La Maison du Chocolat, thanks to its elegance and objective allure. We also love Compartés for the brand's joyful flavor innovations, like incorporating glazed donut pieces into a chocolate bar.
My career revolves around chocolate: from training at the Culinary Institute of America and the Chocolate Academy, in Chicago to working at EHChocolatier, a Massachusetts-based artisanal chocolate producer. I'm confident that these are the best chocolates money can buy, delivered right to your door (or the lucky recipient's). Trust me, I'm a chocolatier.
Learn more about how Insider Reviews tests and researches products.
Our top 5 picks for the best chocolates
La Maison du Chocolat
La Maison du Chocolat's understated luxury, meticulous French elegance, and unparalleled quality, make it a great fit for any fortunate recipient on any occasion. There is an undeniable wow factor to all of La Maison du Chocolat's products, and it comes down to impressive craftsmanship — no glitter necessary. A deep burgundy box, tied closed with a chocolate-brown ribbon, sets the stage for the refined, clean lines of the bonbons carefully arranged inside. The minimalist packaging, free of glassine cups or plastic trays, feels surprisingly lavish and robust. The focus is on the chocolate itself, and it's utter perfection.
To make a strong impression with future in-laws and new neighbors, I'd reach for one of the brand's Gesture Git Boxes, an assortment of delicate rectangles filled with flavored ganaches like juicy raspberry and rich Ethiopian coffee. To express sincere gratitude to a mentor or lifeline coworker, a box of rustic, cocoa-dusted, Cognac-scented truffles will do the trick. And for a host gift, I recommend a box of assorted pralines, filled with smooth hazelnut gianduja and crispy, toasty rochers.
For a more modest treat, La Maison du Chocolat offers a Snacks & Treats collection, with hearty candy bars, rustic barks, chocolate-covered nuts, and candied orange peels. If you're looking to really make a grand gesture, the brand's Parisian Hatboxes — curated gift baskets filled with carefully selected boxes — will make a memorable statement.
Worth a try:
Cocoa & Cardamom
A bonbon is a small chocolate-coated confection filled with fruits, nuts, or luscious ganache. A good bonbon should have a thin, flawless shell free of blemishes or chalky white "bloom." It must be visually enticing, hinting at the flavor journey within. Most importantly, it should deliver balanced, thoughtfully textured, and flavorful fillings with no air pockets or leaks. It's a tall order to ask for a single bite of candy, but our favorite maker, Cacao & Cardamom, steps up with style, intrigue, and worldly sophistication.
Each brilliant chocolate is meticulously lacquered with vivid cocoa butter, its design reflecting the filling inside. Beneath the surface, layers of jewel-toned, jammy, creamy, bold, and balanced fillings deliver a fully composed dessert in one to two bites. Inspired by Houston-based founder Annie Rupani's South-Asian heritage and extensive global travels, Cacao & Cardamom turns to chiles, spices, leaves, flowers, and berries to tell a story. She evokes a sense of adventure and celebrates cultural traditions.
Flavors like Five Spice Praline, with fennel, Szechuan peppercorns, and star anise over crisp hazelnut praline, and Cardamom Rose with warm, herbal green cardamom and a touch of rose water, offer uncharted culinary experiences. New releases like Knafeh Kisses, a cheeky nod to the trending "Dubai Bar," keep the devoted cacao fiends coming back for more. Even nostalgic classics like S'mores and Turtle Caramel get their moment, proving there's something for every kind of bonbon lover.
Cross-country chocoholics, rest assured. Every order from Cacao & Cardamom is carefully packed and shipped with care to ensure their labors of love arrive as pristine as they left.
Worth a try:
Compartes
Compartés seamlessly draws upon familiar flavors and tailors them to fun, stylish candy bars. Take, for example, The Donuts & Coffee bar, which is adorned with bits of real glazed buttermilk donuts, crispy coffee donut crumble, and finely ground coffee. That's just one of the nearly 70 flavors to choose from, and all come in beautiful packaging that makes for great gifting.
One of my favorites of the best chocolate bars was the Cookies & Cream bar, which draws on a crowd-favorite flavor but uses an elegant blend of dark and white chocolate to control sweetness. I also loved the Strawberry Shortcake bar, which whimsically mixes jammy, tart, bite-sized strawberries and crumbles of buttery shortcake into a strawberry-flavored, rosy-hued white chocolate. There's even a plethora of vegan options.
Worth a try:
Tony's Chocolonely
When choosing chocolate fit for kids, I want a quality brand with approachable flavors, whimsical packaging, and easy-to-portion treats. Tony's Chocolonely offers all of that, and much more. Founded in protest against child exploitation and slave labor (which remains disturbingly common in the chocolate industry), Tony's Chocolonely is an ethics-first company. What better way to introduce kids to ethical consumerism than with the most delightful incentive imaginable: chocolate. Tony's leads by example with its 5 Sourcing Principles: traceable beans, high prices paid to farmers, partner cooperatives, long-term partnerships, and investment for sustainable growth.
Ethics lessons aside, the bright wrappers, playful font, and Fairtrade-certified chocolates are an instant hit with all ages. Irregularly sized, cattywampus pieces to portion off chocolate bars give an intentionally imperfect, lighthearted aesthetic. Creamy, dreamy milk chocolate will win over even the fussiest of the bunch, while inventive flavors like the white chocolate with raspberry popping candy, and Ben & Jerry's collaboration brownie act as playful gateways, subtly encouraging young (and not-so-young) eaters to explore new textures and flavors.
Tiny Tony's, individually wrapped mini bars, are perfect for lunch boxes (or purse snacks, ahem). Lil' Bits are chocolate-coated candy bites with fillings like crunchy caramel, buttery cookie, graham cracker, and fluffy marshmallow. The options are endless, so you are sure to find something for even the pickiest of palates.
Worth a try:
Dandelion Chocolate
Food nerds rejoice: San Francisco-based Dandelion Chocolate, most known for its single-origin chocolate bars, has expanded into bean-to-bonbon confections. Much like a wine, beer, or spirit flight, the brand offers curated collections of bars, truffles, caramels, and pralinés for an immersive, experiential tasting. These flights showcase how terroir and added ingredients shape flavor and texture, pairing remarkable artistry with thoughtful storytelling. Each set feels deluxe, with gold-accented packaging and thoughtfully compiled tasting notes.
The 70% Six-Bar Gift Set reveals bold contrasts and subtle nuances between origins. Whether you're just discovering your inner gourmand or a seasoned gastronome, you'll appreciate the detailed tasting tips and origin maps guiding your chocophile adventure. The truffle flight transforms each single-origin chocolate into ganache, enrobed in its matching couverture. The addition of cream to each chocolate draws out the existing flavors for the curious connoisseur to savor. For example, Dandelion's chocolate from Kokoa Kamili, Tanzania delivers bright notes of kiwi, strawberry, with tangy dairy on its own. In ganache form, it reveals more tropical fruit, richer creme fraiche-like tang, and subtle floral aromas. Tumaco, Colombia's bar, is fudgy with hints of caramel and sweet almond. Its truffle counterpart is softer, with silky dulce de leche taking center stage.
For the ingredient geeks, the caramel flight pairs Tumaco chocolate with caramels crafted from five different sugars from around the world: Brazilian cane, Southeast Asian palm, Indian jaggery, Japanese Okinawa black sugar, and Caribbean muscovado. Each sugar lends its own striking aroma, flavor, and texture to the rich caramel filling, harmonizing with the fudgey cacao in distinct ways.
The Single-Origin Praliné Collection pairs five different cacao origins with complementary nut and seed pâtes. Espelette-spiced quicos-almond praline stands up to vibrant Tanzanian chocolate, without steamrolling its cherished flavors. Candied hazelnut and coffee praline deepens the Colombian chocolate's caramel richness.
Worth a try:
Amazon
The sweet and savory flavors developed from roasting cacao beans make chocolate the ideal "plus one" to any toasted nut. See's Candies has perfected the craft. A coating of good chocolate draws out the natural sweetness of almonds, pistachios, and pecans; coaxes the fatty richness of cashews, macadamia nuts, and hazelnuts; and embraces the slight bitterness of walnuts and pine nuts.
See's Candies, founded in 1921, has a vintage, old-timey feel with black and white checkered packaging and classic confections included in its arrangements, such as Dark Scotchmallows. It has an entire collection of "Nuts & Chews" for those devoted to nut-bejeweled chocolates. Toffee-ettes are small nuggets of Danish butter toffee and roasted almonds coated in milk chocolate and rolled in more crunchy almonds.
See's also offers less conventional options for the more daring nut enthusiasts that you can put together in your own custom arrangement. Consider the CA Crunch, a flakey brittle center with peanuts and peanut butter enrobed in white chocolate and covered with chopped English walnuts. Try the Milk Mayfair, a soft pink-hued center of walnuts, cherries, and vanilla, coated with creamy milk chocolate.
Worth a try:
Chocolove
Chocolove, a Boulder-based company, prides itself on providing "affordable luxury." At budget-friendly prices, Chocolove somehow offers high-quality flavor and texture, sustainability, and even ethical sourcing. It uses non-GMO ingredients, including cacao beans traceable down to the farmer, to ensure premium chocolate bars at a fair price.
I felt like the elegant Cherries & Almonds in Dark Chocolate bar was a decadent dessert worthy of its own plate and white tablecloth. The Passion Fruit in Ruby Chocolate bar showcases the bright berry notes and pink hue of ruby chocolate's naturally red cacao bean, complemented by a tart passion fruit puree filling. With Belgian-trained Master Chocolatier Patrick Peeters at the helm, Chocolove continues to provide exquisite chocolate bars of the highest caliber — at the lowest prices.
Worth a try:
Fran's
Caramels come in all shapes and sizes, firmnesses, colors, degrees of bitterness and butteriness, and with all types of garnishes. Naming the best chocolate with caramel was no easy task, but I found that Fran's Chocolates caramels offer the "pull," deliberate chew, and strategic salting that a great caramel should possess.
Like the perfect bagel or pizza crust, a caramel needs to have just the right amount of chew — not too hard, not too soft. Secondly, salt is great in moderation. It highlights the burnt sugar notes and cuts through the rich, buttery flavor of the confection. However, salt applied with a heavy hand makes for an unpleasant surprise; it stomps out nuanced flavors and tramples on the chocolate coating.
Fran Bigelow, founder of Fran's Chocolates, was inspired by a trip to Paris and has since been dedicated to sharing the joie de vivre philosophy through exceptional confections. This Seattle-based candy producer features Fair Trade-certified chocolate to complement, not overshadow, the caramel's delicate yet luxurious buttery flavor.
Worth a try:
Monthlyclubs.com
Monthly subscriptions are available for just about anything: flower bouquets, recipe kits, smoked meats, date-night in a box, and yes, you guessed it, chocolate. Subscriptions are a fun, interactive way to learn more about a specific product through exposure and experience. When searching for the best chocolate subscription, we considered each brand's selection, how the items are made, the brand's chocolate sustainability and trade models, and opportunities to learn more about chocolate while enjoying our deliveries.
The Gourmet Chocolate of the Month Club provided through monthlyclubs.com works with professionals at the esteemed Zingerman's Delicatessen in Ann Arbor, Michigan to offer a curated assortment of chocolates, including bonbons and bars. Zingerman's prides itself on a thorough product selection that sources chocolates from international, small-batch chocolatiers.
It's noteworthy and respectable that these chocolates are sourced from eco-friendly, fair-trade producers you can feel good about supporting. Past boxes have even included some of our top picks mentioned above. Best of all, each delivery comes with an educational newsletter containing tasting notes, background reading material, and product information, so you'll get more out of your subscription than just really really delicious chocolate.
Buy from monthlyclubs.com
Neuhaus Chocolates
Vegan chocolate bars are a dime a dozen nowadays. After all, dark chocolate is innately dairy-free. But creating rich, creamy fillings without the dairy is a whole other feat, and Neuhaus Belgian Chocolates rises to the challenge. Its vegan bonbons, filled with impossibly velvety caramel in a variety of flavors, rival butter- and cream-laden counterparts. Silky ganaches burst with distinctive, bold notes, like the yuzu and ginger or Earl Grey tea and mandarin. Each confection is decorated with a simple yet elegant disc of chocolate in warm, earthy tones, its hue hinting at the flavors within.
Neuhaus achieves these decadent, dairy-free fillings against all odds by masterfully using natural, recognizable ingredients like chickpea protein, pea protein, and coconut oil in place of the milk fats and protein found in dairy.
Its dairy-free options extend beyond the designated vegan bonbon collection. The Carré Origin box features individually wrapped, delicately thin tiles of divine chocolate sourced from around the world. Neuhaus also offers dark chocolate enrobed toasted almonds and bittersweet orange peels, further proving that indulgence without dairy is not only possible — it's exceptional.
Worth a try:
Dandelion Chocolate Factory; iStock; Gilbert Espinoza/Business Insider
While I am a chocolatier, I've lived previous lives in both scientific research and recipe development. My education in the hard sciences, the savory culinary arts, and my work as a chocolatier have all been in preparation for the daunting task of selecting the best chocolates. I cut no corners and left no truffle unturned.
I started by reading about top brands in the chocolate industry, then taste-tested countless confections, evaluating their flavors, textures, and presentation. In all, I sampled more than 100 products from 45 brands for this guide. Here is how I tested:
| Consideration | Notes |
| Flavor | Growing conditions of cacao impact the flavor, as do ingredients used to make confections. Rancid chocolate will have a soapy or cheesy flavor |
| Freshness | Chocolates should taste and look fresh. They should be free from a chalky or overly dry mouthfeel, with no signs of melting and re-solidifying |
| Texture | Correctly tempered chocolate should be firm and "snap" when bitten into and melt smoothly |
| Presentation | Packaging must protect the chocolates and be beautiful as a gift |
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