November 05, 2024

The Best Boxed Chocolates

Recchiuti Confections in New York Times Wirecutter

If you’re looking for a truly special box of luxurious chocolates to give someone, you can’t go wrong with the 16-piece Recchiuti Confections Black Box.

Over the years, we’ve enlisted food experts and staffers to evaluate 36 brands of chocolate in taste tests. We’ve found Recchiuti’s flavors, craftsmanship, and packaging to be nothing short of sophisticated—and, for the right occasion, maybe even a little seductive.

With perfectly executed flavors and an eye-popping array of shapes and textures, the Recchiuti Black Box chocolates were our tasters’ top choice, beating a lineup of new- and old-world boutique chocolates.

Who these are for: Adventurous chocolate lovers and traditionalists alike—those who will appreciate creative riffs on a classic chocolate selection.

Why they’re great: Unlike many of the chocolate boxes we’ve tried, the 16-piece Recchiuti Confections Black Box offers a full sensory experience—which is part of the reason for giving boxed chocolates in the first place. Every piece is memorable. Classic concoctions, such as Burnt Caramel and Piedmont Hazelnut, offer just the right balance of sweet and bitter. Adventurous flavors, like Tarragon Grapefruit or Star Anise & Pink Peppercorn, are never overpowering. One of our favorites, the Sesame Nougat, has the perfect texture of chewy caramel, a little crunch from toasted sesame seeds, and the snap of perfectly tempered dark chocolate.

We found the chocolate itself to be of high quality, with the subtle, long flavor that comes from great cacao. The bonbons aren’t too sweet, either.

Among all of the chocolates we tested, the Recchiuti bonbons come in the most intriguing shapes and designs. No two chocolates are alike. Some have intricate patterns, while others look like little sculptures, and the visual variety adds excitement to this experience.

To top it off, the Recchiuti packaging—a matte black box that’s sexy, without being excessive or too obvious—is among the most elegant we encountered in our testing. It includes a minimally designed booklet explaining the flavors, with black-and-white illustrations of each chocolate. We found this much easier to decipher than keys for many of the other brands.