Chocolate has been wedded to February 14 since 1868, when British chocolatier Richard Cadbury made the first heart-shaped box of chocolates to sell on Valentine’s Day. Though they may be a time-tested way to show love and affection, receiving plain old chocolates every Valentine’s Day can get a little boring. Luckily for your loved ones, confectioners the world over have come up with countless outside-the-box ways to turn cocoa beans into a sweet treat.
In the Soviet Union, food shortages forced pastry chefs to make chocolate kartoshka, or “potatoes,” out of leftover crumbs bound together with butter, condensed milk, cocoa powder, and liquor. In Scotland, chocolatiers have devised an offal-free tribute to the country’s beloved haggis by adding cloves, allspice, nutmeg, black pepper and oats to the candy.
If your beloved’s sweet tooth needs a break, they might like a chocolate where sugar is balanced by savoriness. Estonians and Hungarians gobble up cheese curds covered in melted chocolate that some say taste like chocolate cheesecake.
Even if you can’t make it to Hungary or Scotland, most of these sweets are available online or at specialty stores. Here are ten unusual ways to tell someone “I love you” with chocolate.
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