Chocolatier Pierre Marcolini's seasonal collection includes a very creative 5-pointed holiday star, where each point features a different flavor of ganache filling. Even better, each of the points is split into a milk and dark chocolate section, so in that one item, you get ten different chocolate experiences.
More intriguing, however, is Marcolini's chocolate molecule. Set on a tablet of dark chocolate, the chocolate molecule is represented with chocolate "ions" in a total of four flavors. The White Ion is white chocolate filled with a Moroccan spice-infused milk chocolate center. The Gold Ion features a caramel, roasted pineapple and praline center coated in dark chocolate and accented with gold. The Brown Ion is dark chocolate with a dark chocolate and caramel canter. The Bronze Ion has a gingerbread-spiced ganache coated in milk chocolate. At $80 for each molecule, this is not an inexpensive indulgence, but it is significantly larger than a real molecule and clearly an ideal gift for someone interested in the sciences.














