The Best Boxed Chocolates
Why they’re great: It only makes sense that one of America’s premier bean-to-bar chocolatiers would put out outstanding truffles that showcase the nuances of single-origin chocolate. Each bonbon is a uniform, Brutalist cube filled with ganache made with chocolate sourced from one of five distinct locales, from Madagascar to Belize (a bonbon’s coating is the same single-origin chocolate as the filling). Though these truffles are all ostensibly the same flavor (chocolate), what’s remarkable is that they taste discernibly different. A pamphlet supplies evocative characterizations of each one, complete with harvest date. One might wonder how much the power of suggestion dictates the experience (does the Maya Mountain, Belize bonbon really have notes of “European drinking chocolate and strawberry coulis”?), but the proof was in the fillings. Our panelists found the chocolates to be true to their descriptions, sometimes uncannily so. The Maya Mountain, Belize truffle was indeed bright and fruity, with prominent strawberry flavor. And it was entirely unlike the Ambanja, Madagascar truffle, which sang with the promised essence of pineapple.