Sweet Treats for Valentine’s Day

Celebrate Valentine’s Day in style with chocolates that are as beautiful as they are delicious. In honor of the romantic holiday, the pastry chefs and chocolatiers at Michel Cluizel have created three sumptuous new heart-shaped sweets: a  dark chocolate heart box in two sizes, filled with chocolate truffles wrapped in pink and red foil; a luscious pastry with a dark chocolate base filled with raspberry mousse, topped with raspberry coulis and a macaron; and a surprise heart—a woven, heart-shaped box of dark chocolate whose lid, carrying the message “I Love You”, hides two delicious macarons.

Cluizel, who began his career in 1948 by making truffles for neighbors in the attic of his home in Normandy, has since progressed to become one of the world’s rare “cacaofévriers”—meaning he transforms cacao all the way from bean to bar. Seeking out the world’s best cacao plantations, he has formed longstanding relationships with growers, whose beans are shipped to his Normandy workshops. A team of 200 employees roasts and processes them, mixing cocoa paste and cocoa butter with cane sugar and vanilla beans, and hand finishing them into a wide range of chocolate indulgences: ganaches; truffles; bars of dark, milk or white chocolate; single-origin bars; chocolates filled with Calvados, Cointreau, Poire William and other liquors; special holiday items and many other sweet treats.

Michel’s daughter Catherine runs the Paris boutique, a landmark on the rue Saint Honoré, where a copper fountain overflows with molten chocolate. 201 rue St-Honoré, 1st, Métro: Tuileries, 01.42.44.11.66.

The company’s only US retail store is in New York where, on Valentine’s Day, a Cluizel chef will offer complimentary customization of chocolate heart-shaped boxes, writing a personalized message to your Valentine in white chocolate. What sweeter way to say “Je t’aime”?

584 Fifth Avenue (between 47th and 48th Streets), (646) 415-9126.

Valentine’s Day items can be ordered by phone from the New York store at (646) 415-9126.

You can order other Cluizel chocolates online: website