Discover 9 Of L.A.'s Finest Chocolatiers And Confectioners In Time For V-Day

Editor's note: This story was first published in February 2018 and has been updated in time for Valentine's Day 2024.

We've gone on record with our dislike of fancy, prix fixe restaurant meals on Valentine's Day. Waiters hate the holiday as much as we do. We are, however, 100% pro-chocolate, not just on V-Day but on any day that ends in a 'Y.'

This guide you're about to devour features chocolatiers and confectioners who founded or base their businesses in Los Angeles.

This is an utterly subjective list based on our preferences and on suggestions from our readers. We've included as many places as we can without going into a sugar coma. And if we missed your favorite place, let us know, and we may include it.

Valerie Confections

Valerie Confections not only makes some of the best cakes around (have you never had a Blum's Coffee Cake? Go now!), she makes amazing chocolate bars, truffles and toffee. Studded with roasted almonds and cocoa nibs and sprinkled with hickory smoked salt, her Durango chocolate bark is also a thing of beauty ($20). If you like it dark, she has a Bittersweet Bar that's 72% chocolate. If you prefer white chocolate, the Blushing Berry Bar is filled with raspberries, pistachios and rose petals. There are also plenty of options in between, including milk chocolate and almond toffee, and all are in the $10-12 range. Stop us now because we want to eat everything. If you have your heart — heh, heh — set on something, call ahead to make sure it will be in stock, because the V-day specialities are flying off the shelves.

Compartés Chocolate

Jonathan Graham of Compartés is like the chocolate world's Yves Saint Laurent. The chocolatier crafts delicate truffles and bars with chic designs, both on the chocolates themselves and on the packaging. They're ideal for the most aesthetically discriminating person you know. If you like a traditional heart look, there's the "Essentials," $79.95: "Filled with a delightful assortment of our best chocolates, including rich chocolate-dipped fruits, chocolate covered nuts, and scrumptious cookies, peanut butter cups, marshmallows and more, each piece promises a delicious chocolate experience." Or, you can go off script and go for gourmet peanut butter cups ($69.95) or double dunked Oreos ($49.95) Or, a box of chocolates that spell out "I LOVE YOU," $69.95.

Chocovivo

Patricia Tsai gave up a career in accounting to launch ChocoVivo, where she makes bean-to-bar chocolate. Working with a grower in Tabasco, Mexico, she wants to change the way you see chocolate, not simply as candy but as food. (And skincare.) Check out their variety of nibs and bars, which are in the $6-$10 range. Gift sets are in the $50-$90 ranch. Note that unfortunately the Sex & Chocolate Kit, $79.99, is temporarily sold out. So maybe you can do an "I.O.U." certificate for that one... This is for people who are serious about chocolate! The Culver City chocolate factory also offers tours & tastings ($95) where you will learn about the origins of history and chocolate. Other tour highlights: "We will share how we stone-grind our single-origin organic cacao and the benefits of eating and drinking chocolate. Enjoy a tasting of 7 different chocolates..." Yes, please!

See's Candies

Old fashioned in all the best ways, See's Candies was founded in Los Angeles in 1921. The company still produces its signature walnut squares, molasses chips, truffles and Scotch kisses in a factory on La Cienega Blvd., between Baldwin Hills and Culver City. The company has many other stores located throughout Southern California. Most heart boxes start at $12.50 and most seem to be in the $23-$38 range, but there are "go big or go home alone" options that are $87 and $140.

andSons Chocolatiers

In 1983, Aviva Covitz opened Teuscher Chocolates & Cafe, a small Beverly Hills shop that imported chocolates from Switzerland. More than three decades later, her sons, Marc and Phil, took over the space, brought in pastry chef Kriss Harvey, (previously of The Bazaar) and revamped it into andSons Chocolatiers. Now, they use organic ingredients to hand make gorgeous truffles in flavors like speculoos cookie, passion fruit, hibiscus honey, double yuzu, pistachio rose, hazelnut praline, black forest and PB&J. A small four piece box is $20, and the signature collections runs from $25 to $250.

John Kelly Chocolates

They're two guys, John and Kelly, who left gigs in luxury retail and branding to launch John Kelly Chocolates with their killer fudge recipe. They now make 19 variations on their "truffle fudge," which are essentially truffles filled with fudge instead of ganache: chocolate habanero chili, rocky road, peppermint, coconut, bourbon and more. The 12-piece signature box for Valentine's Day is $55.50.

Milla Chocolates

Elegance in a jet black box. Using single origin or organic chocolates from the Dominican Republic, Peru or Venezuela, chocolatier Christine Sull Sarioz has become semi-famous for her hazelnut praline bar and caramelized almonds coated in chocolate. At Milla Chocolates, her raspberry bon bons are a favorite, filled with a dark chocolate and raspberry ganache and coated in the darkest dark chocolate you can imagine. Milla is also known for its chocolate-covered dragée tubes that come in many flavors, including mesquite pistachios, and Turkish coffee hazelnuts, $20 for a set of six. You can find Milla's confections at stores around Southern California and at its Culver City shop. A six-piece BonBon box is $26.

LetterPress Chocolate

In 2014, David and Cory Menkes left their jobs (him: visual effects industry; her: finance) to launch LetterPress Chocolate, a bean-to-bar chocolate company. They source cacao from all over — Honduras, Ghana, Ecuador, Sao Tome, Trinidad — and turn it into rich, carefully made bars, such as their beloved raspberry white chocolate bars, $14. A Stay Warm Valentine's Day Spicy & Sweet Set is $24, and includes a raspberry white chocolate, a spicy chili chocolate, and hot drinking chocolate. You can also take a 45-minute tour of their factory for $20.

• • 2835 S. Robertson Blvd., South Robertson, 424-240-8580 (Note that they do not regularly pick up the phone, and ask that you leave a voicemail.)

Bar Au Chocolat

After operating as a boutique chocolatemaker since 2010, Nicole Trutanich is owner of Manhattan Beach outpost Bar Au Chocolat. You can get her chocolate bars, $15, in flavors such as date-sweeetened Trinidad Dark, and a truffle, caramel and whipped cream, and chocolate sweet-hearts, $15, dark or deep milk chocolate.