Chocolate Gift Baskets
Chocolate gift baskets have long been a favorite gift to give and receive, whether truffles, nougats, or fudge with nuts. Chocolate shops sell these gifts and various other chocolate items such as candy, flavored beverages, and specialty desserts in their holiday gift baskets.
Chocolate is a food made from the beans of cocoa trees that are native to Central America. The cocoa bean is intensely bitter on its own, but through a series of processes it comes to be the chocolate we know and love in the USA. The middle of the cocoa bean is ground up into a non-alcoholic liquid known as chocolate liquor. Cocoa butter is the fat extracted from the chocolate liquor. Cocoa powder is the solid left after pressing the cocoa butter out of the liquor. This powder may undergo a Dutch process, which reduces its acidity, making it into the cocoa that is best for hot chocolate.
Before purchasing a chocolate gift basket, become familiar with the varied
types of chocolate that are used in chocolate foods and confections.
Gift baskets and boxes may include various types of chocolate, ranging from
unsweetened chocolate, bittersweet chocolate, and semi-sweet chocolate to
dark chocolate, milk chocolate, and white chocolate.
Unsweetened chocolate, the solid form of chocolate liquor, is often used
in baking. Bittersweet chocolate is also most often used in baking;
it has a minimum of 50% chocolate liquor, while semi-sweet chocolate
contains a minimum of 35% chocolate liquor. Dark chocolate contains
only 15% chocolate liquor, as well as sweeteners and cocoa butter.
By far the sweetest of the darker chocolates, milk chocolate has at least
10% chocolate liquor and 12% milk solids mixed with sugar, vanilla, and
cocoa butter. White chocolate is made from cocoa butter, sugar, and
milk solids; it lacks the brown color of other chocolates because it does
not contain any cocoa solids.
Everyone loves receiving gourmet chocolate gifts, but chocolate varies in quality and taste because of recipe differences and the use of natural or artificial flavors. The fine chocolatiers listed below offer a selection of chocolate confections and gift baskets for every occasion.
Chocolate Confectioners
- Godiva offers a variety of fine gourmet chocolates, truffles, cocoa, and gift baskets. Godiva Chocolate is a perfect gift for holidays, birthdays, and business occasions.
- Lake Champlain Chocolates offers gourmet chocolate truffles, chocolate gift baskets, and Kosher chocolates.
- Hauser Chocolates creates world class confections using select blends of pure chocolates and fine ingredients.
- Nantucket Clipper infuses old family recipes with inspiration and fine ingredients to bring you exquisite gourmet chocolate gifts.
- Bissinger's is a European style chocolatier who offers fine handmade, gourmet chocolate.
- Hershey's Gifts offers personalized chocolate cards, candy gifts and chocolate gifts.
Related Sites
- Chocolate Shop features a selection of online chocolate shops which offer a wider range of chocolate products and gift items.
- Gourmet Gifts features convenient access to popular online gourmet gift shops.