Chocoholic Gift Baskets

Chocolate…mmmmmm! The very word will make a genuine chocoholic conjure up images of smooth, rich chocolate melting over the tongue and lingering on the pallet long after the confection is consumed.

Not everyone who loves chocolate can be classified among the elite - only those who proudly wear the label of “chocoholic.” True chocoholics are connoisseurs - and not just any chunk of chocolate will do!

Chocoholics are on an endless quest for the very best chocolate, that one bite of chocolate that makes one quiver with a nearly orgasmic response. Chocoholics have an unstoppable will to seek out the most delectable chocolate delicacy to satisfy their need for a melty fix.

A bona fide chocoholic myself, I find it isn’t enough to enjoy fine chocolates alone. I have a compelling urge to share my most treasured finds with my chocoholic friends, business associates, and family members. Fortunately, others share my passion for discovering of the Holy Grail of chocolate, and when one among our coveted group us comes across an exciting new source of heavenly chocolate confections, we make it a point to send along a box or two of them to others we know will delight in the gourmet gift.

The first place we search out when traveling for business or pleasure is a local chocolate shop where perhaps we can locate that special chocolate treat to impress ourselves and our chocoholic cohorts.

In recent years our pursuit of the “Mother of all Chocolates” has been greatly simplified with the wide selection of fine chocolate shops on the Internet. No longer do we need to travel around the globe in search of exotic chocolate sensations. Being the inclusive group of chocoholics that we are, we invite you to visit our 14 favorite websites where you are sure to find a chocolate gift basket, tower, tin, or box of the world’s most excellent chocolate.

Chocolate purveyor to French kings and a must for all true connoisseurs, Debauve & Gallais offers a range of dark chocolates featuring an exceptional grade of aromatic cocoa aimed at an exclusive clientele of chocolate purists.

In the 1830’s founder Sulpice Debauve authored three rules for tasting chocolate. Rule One: Make tasting chocolate a spiritual experience, one of serenity and meditation, a moment that drains the stress of the day away. Rule Two: Heighten your awareness of tastes and aromas while savoring chocolate by eating it when you are not terribly hungry. Rule Three: Perceive and enjoy the details of each chocolate you consume by chewing slowly several times before allowing the confection to melt on your tongue.

Featuring bonbons, Pistoles De Marie Antoinette (pictured), Dulci Tablettes, truffles, Emperor Napolean Almond Clusters, and Sao Tome Chocolate Drops made with the purest African cocoa and vanilla pods from the Bourbon Islands, every chocolate made is considered to be a masterpiece by the Chocolatiers who create them.

Indulgent…that is the word that Australians use to describe chocolates from the Definitely Chocolate web boutique. The Romance Series presents a champagne and chocolate gift package that any adventurous chocoholic will relish. Coffee Cognac, Honey Ganache, Peppermint Creme in dark chocolate, Mango Ganache in milk and dark chocolate, and a variety of other striking flavors along with a half bottle of Moet & Chandon Brut Imperial is sure to impress even the most discerning pallet.

Carefully blended and hand-crafted from the very finest ingredients, this chocolate is quite unlike the mass-manufactured bar whose low cocoa content is masked by various additives. To answer the demand for pure and pretty chocolates, Definitely Chocolate brought together the best ingredients and the artistry of European Chocolatiers to craft these world-class delicacies.

From the San Francisco Bay comes the uber American chocolate, Ghirardelli’s chocolate. At Delightful Deliveries the proprietors believe that chocolate doesn’t need to be expensive to be appreciated. The Chocolate Heaven Gift Basket (pictured) for $41 treats its recipient to chocolate chip cookies, chocolate espresso beans, chocolate dipped sandwich cookies, a chocolate covered graham dunk, and an assortment of Ghirardelli’s® fine chocolates. Ghirardelli’s intense dark chocolate contains 72% pure cacao to provide the chocoholic with “moments of timeless pleasure.”

The greatest challenge at Delightful Deliveries is choosing from the variety of 20 Ghirardelli’s gift baskets on the site. In all of its chocolate products Ghirardelli uses a proprietary blend of cocoa beans that has been refined over the company's 150-year history. Ghirardelli roasts the cocoa beans in-house to ensure the company's signature flavor profile is consistently maintained and uses a different roasting process whereby they remove the shell first and then roast the small nibs inside. Finally, Ghirardelli uses an intensive refining process to ensure that its chocolate truly melts in your mouth smoothly with no grainy feel.

Most chocoholics like a little variety, and at Design It Yourself Gift Baskets variety is their middle name. Exceptional chocolate gifts and boxed chocolates from Ghirardelli, Godiva, Guyliani, Harry and David, Lamms, Lindt, Lindor, Cocoa Pete, and Hershey's can live together in perfect harmony in a unique gift chest or basket that makes a perfect compliment to office or home décor long after the chocolate is merely a memory. Choose from 24 fun, quirky, or elegant chocolate gifts available from the boutique’s standard selection, or create your own basket by filling a designer box or basket with your personal favorites. Shipping from this site is fast and free so you can design and send a last minute treat that will make a lasting impression.

The Indulgence Basket (pictured) is a stunning handmade chest overstuffed with a blissful collection of gourmet chocolates, including the Ghirardelli Masterpiece Collection, Long Grove Assorted Boxed Chocolates, chocolate raspberry malt balls, dreamy chocolate biscotti, milk chocolate turtles, fudge filled shortbread cookies, chocolate toffee covered almonds, French truffles, chocolate cream filled wafer rolls, and more. Yum!

Gevalia has long been known for their fine coffees and teas, but we discovered that they have a little secret that begs to be exposed to chocoholics. Taste the richness of gold in this festive Gold Swirl Gift Box (pictured). This gift includes an assortment of luscious milk and dark chocolates, chocolate chip biscotti, one pound of Gevalia Traditional Roast coffee, and a 14-oz. brown travel mug with stainless steel liner.

With over 100 gift baskets and sets to chose from you are certain to find one that will delight the coffee and chocolate lovers in your life. Baskets range in price from $30-$100 so there is something here to fit every budget. The gift-of-the-month program sponsored by Gevalia is very cool. Just sign up for a 3, 6, or 12 month plan and a gourmet gift will be sent to your chosen recipient each month. Truly this is the gift that keeps on giving.

Nuts! From time to time every chocoholic craves a little crunch in their munch, and what goes better with chocolate than nuts? This “Naughty and Nice” gift from Gourmet Gift Baskets helps offset the guilt that sometimes comes with indulging in a daily helping of chocolaty snacks by offering healthy dried fruits and nuts along with sumptuous truffles. Sinfully delicious, this truffle assortment includes 2 Truffles each of Champagne, Fudge Love, Amaretto, and Double Chocolate, 3 Truffles each of Milk and Dark Fudge Love, 1 Truffle each of Peanut, Pecan, Cashew and Almond Cup. Virtuously nutritious peaches, pears, almonds, cashews, smoky almonds, California colossal pistachios and ruby red plums artistically arranged in a ribboned gift box strike the perfect balance between naughty and nice.

With seven chocolate gift baskets to choose from, the gifting gurus at this site have managed to marry salty and sweet, decadent and delicious, and sensible and sensuous foods together in unique combinations not found on typical gift basket websites.

Fair Trade and Socially Conscious Gifts Online is not a website that chocoholics would tend to visit in search of the best chocolate on the planet, but they should. Boasting decadently rich flavors, Fair Trade Chocolates come from organically grown cocoa in rainforests around the world. Through Fair Trade practices, these chocolates benefit cooperatives and small family farms, allowing for a commitment to social justice as you make a direct contribution to the livelihood of the farmers and workers.

If you are looking for a definitively different gift for a gourmet chocoholic like yourself, consider the Make Your Own Chocolate Kit. If you've dreamed of making your own chocolate, it's now a reality! This all inclusive kit includes: Fair Trade chocolate with certified organic cocoa butter, cocoa powder, confectioner's sugar, starter crystals, a temperature indicator, paper candy liners, instructions and the rainforest story of chocolate. Each box makes eight ounces of dark chocolate using either a stovetop or microwave method. Now how cool is that?

If you would rather leave chocolate making to the experts, you will find a variety of reasonably priced, modestly, yet beautifully packaged chocolate products including gourmet hot chocolate drink mixes, divine chocolate bars, luscious assorted chocolates, dark chocolate minis with lingering flavor, exquisite Swiss chocolate, and festive goal chocolate coins and hearts. Chocolate should be good for everyone, the consumer who benefits from an endorphin rush and the antioxidant cancer fighting power of this miraculous food, and the growers who toil in the groves so that we might indulge in the planet’s most alluring nectar.

From the rainforests to Hotel Chocolat in London, chocolate joys abound. This large Dipping Adventure is tendered at the Hotel Chocolat to seduce your chocolate loving senses. The gift includes: 3 tubs of chocolate – 72% dark, 40% milk & white, mini grissini sticks, toasted crostini, waffles with sesame and sea salt, kirsch-soaked cherries, marshmallows, 6 bamboo dipping skewers, and the Survival Guide to Dipping. Now what chocoholic could ask for more? Warm, silky chocolate swirled gently around a gourmet tidbit and consumed ever so slowly…oh, shiver!

With over 150 fine chocolate products to select from, you will find yourself adding to your shopping basket frequently as you browse this site. If you can’t decide between the hefty chocolate slabs, the melty ganaches, the ultimate marzipan, the Serious Dark Fix, or the spiced chocolate sauce, you might consider joining the Hotel’s Tasting Club. Owning a beautifully scrolled membership certificate allows you to receive a “tasting box” of chocolate monthly for up to five years.

John and Kira’s is a New York based socially conscious chocolate shop. Their story is a common one, boy meets girl at rooftop party, then discover they share a sense of community, a love of food, and an insatiable thirst for fun, so they fall in love, get married, and open a chocolate shop!

Flavored chocolates are John and Kira’s forte, and they have found some zany ways to serve them up. Stylish, joyous and almost too cute to eat, their hand-painted ladybug chocolates (pictured) are the perfect lighthearted gift for a chocoholic. Each unique dark chocolate shell is meticulously colored then filled with signature raspberry, garden mint, or honey lavender Valrhona ganache. The ladybugs come in a set of 12 (four of each flavor) packed in a wood gift box tied with a summer green ribbon.

Browse through pumpkins, bees, and ladybugs to find the chocolate flavors that make your taste buds go tilt. From lighthearted treats to formal, wax sealed, customized corporate gift boxes, John and Kira have combined class and sass so you can distinguish them from their lesser competitors in a New York minute.

Chocoholics of the purist variety will enjoy a visit to Lake Champlain Chocolates, where their goal has always been the creation of something special. The union of their long history of making fine chocolate, their heritage of craftsmanship, and the wonderful flavors of Vermont is accomplished every day at their factory, producing sweet indulgences with pride that goes into each bite. Perhaps that's why The New York Times reveres it as "some of the best chocolate in the country."

Preservative-free and Kosher-certified, Lake Champlain’s chocolate contains no additives or shelf extenders. As chocolate has over 500 flavor components, they feel that anything extra is bound to compromise the flavor. Wander through their chocolate shop to decide between the non-pareils (pictured), gift samplers, chocolate chips, almond butter crunch bars, and chocolate gift baskets presented in hand-woven keepsake baskets. A taste of woodsy New England comes complimentary in every gift.

Nirvana Chocolates imports and distributes only the finest Belgium chocolates that combine the irresistible flavors of the African cocoa bean with pure vanilla, honey, fruits, nuts, and liquors. Forty-five flavors of fresh chocolates are available in a “select you own” style where you can build layers of chocolates in the size box that you select. Classic pralines, passion truffles, Fair Trade java truffles, are among a few of the gourmet samplings available to create a little Nirvana in your own life.

If choosing among so many luscious confections is just more than you can bear, consider selecting the Truffle Collection in the half or one pound box. The truffle assortment includes raspberry, soft caramel, rich amaretto, smooth mocha, champagne, and cointreau. Each elegant gift box includes a delectable assortment of milk, dark, and ivory truffles to please any connoisseur.

Don’t let their limited selection fool you at Organic Bouquet because there is no need for an expansive product line when you carry only the finest in organically grown chocolate. Consider the Berry Infused Chocolates shown here. You may not be able to answer the question, “Which came first in flavor, the berries or the chocolate?” when you finish this mouth-watering treat. These amazing cordials are made of hand-picked, organic berries that inspired the creation of these fruit-filled delicacies. The 12-piece box features molded chocolates made of 68% single origin, organic Costa Rican dark chocolate. Each is filled with an outrageous berry preserve wrapped in a thin gooey layer of berry-flavored cream. Four candies each filled with strawberry, red raspberry and marionberry, a local cross between raspberries and blackberries will make you want to order another box without hesitation.

Decadent and Artisan Truffles, Art Bites, Lavender Caramels, and the ever popular Heavenly Chocolate Trio are also offered at this eco-friendly boutique.

Shop by flavor, collection, or occasion at Richart of Paris and discover that very big taste can be packed in very petite chocolates. The French passion for guilt-free small portions comes across clearly at this Chocolatier whose specialty is tiny chocolates. Richart’s chocolates come with a recommendation as to what time of day they should be served. Our sensory system changes throughout the day and through careful research these ingenious Chocolatiers have targeted the exact times that each of their chocolates will taste best to the most discriminating chocoholic.

Mid-morning and afternoon chocolates, before and after lunch or dinner confections, and before bedtime candies round out the bio-rhythmic offerings of this matchless site. Attention is given to the flavor, texture, and presentation of every morsel of chocolate produced by this sophisticated shop with sensible prices.

Stunning handmade mahogany gift boxes with a diamond engraved brass nameplate houses the world’s finest chocolate truffles at Z Chocolat. Their signature packaging is almost as impressive as the scrumptious confections nestled inside.

Another French Chocolatier, Z Chocolat specializes in upscale corporate gifts and some of the most unique international chocolate flavors available anywhere. Their handmade chocolates are relatively low in fat and sugar content and high in dreamy chocolate taste for a heavenly epicurean experience. Join their VIP club to send elegant chocolate gifts to your business associates, and friends for any occasion.