"mr chocolate" news and stories

Still looking for some chocolaty Valentine's Day gift ideas? Why not try some kisses? We're not talking about Hershey's Kisses, although they are offering plenty of Valentine's themed candies, including Chocolate Truffle-filled kisses and Cherry Cordial Creme kisses. We're talking about upmarket kisses from Jacques Torres.

This Valentine's Day, Jacques Torres is offering a lot of sweet treats for lovers. In his stores, the offerings will include Jolie Kiss Chocolate Boxes (pictured) which are hollow kisses in dark, milk and white chocolate filled with chocolate X's, O's, hearts and mini kisses. He will also have Champagne Kiss Truffles, which are made with Taittinger Rosé champagne and chocolate ganache, then topped with a pink lip graphic. For those doing their shopping online, the Champagne Kiss truffles can also be purchased here.

Other, non-kiss treats include heart-shaped boxes filled with romance bonbons and other lovely truffles, three types of body butters - Love Tonic, Caramel Body Butter, and Raspberry Body Paint - to share with your significant other, and a huge basket called the Sweetheart collection for those who can't narrow down their options.

In the newest issue of Real Simple, the magazine's taste-testers turned their taste buds to hot chocolate mixes. They compared over 40 varieties of hot cocoas and hot chocolates. Hot chocolates typically have real pieces of chocolate in addition to cocoa powder in them, while hot cocoas are sweetened cocoa. They broke the competitors down into categories by price and picked their winners.

In the under $5 category, the milk chocolaty Land o'Lakes Classics Supreme was the top choice, followed by Swiss Miss Chocolate Sensation, both of which you should be able to find at your local supermarket. In the $10-15 dollar range, Godiva's Dark Chocolate Truffle ranked supreme, followed by the dark and intense Schokinag Extreme Dark. For the bigger spenders, Jacques Torres Wicked, a spicy mixture with chocolate, ancho and chipotle peppers, ranked highest in the over $15 category, followed by Mariebelle Aztec.

Now, if only they'd have a marshmallow testing.