Chocolates for your sweet: dandy candy.(up front)

Our trained tasters have identified eight of the most delectable gift-boxed confections you'll find. Each is unique, but they share just-made freshness, smooth chocolate, hints of real butter and cream, and fruit fillings and herbal infusions that taste like the real thing.

Sad to say, the best sweets don't come cheap. You'll pay $41 to $89 per box (12 to 21 ounces). Add shipping if you order online or by phone--which you'll probably have to--because they are sold in few stores. Many makers require priority or overnight delivery to maintain freshness. That said, a high price doesn't guarantee satisfaction. Les Petits Richart Intense Collection, $62 for a mere 7 ounces, didn't make our cut (many pieces had jarring flavors).

You'd pay about $9 a box for Hershey's, Russell Stover, or Whitman's, but they're unlikely to elicit a "yum." They were quite sweet, not very chocolatey, and had artificial flavors. Sometimes nuts were stale, caramels and nougats very firm.

Chocolate is not health food--a few pieces have 170 to 250 calories--but the stearic acid (a saturated fat) in chocolate doesn't seem to elevate "bad" cholesterol. And polyphenols in dark chocolate can expand arteries, possibly guarding against cardiovascular disease.

CR's take. There's a box of chocolates to delight almost any target of Cupid's arrow. See the descriptions below, and sniff out the recipient's preferences. (It would be a shame for anyone to toss a $2 chocolate after one nibble.) Some chocolatiers let you make substitutions.

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Other very good choices that won't break the bank are listed under the chart. Among them, Godiva's New Gold Ballotin and See's Famous Old Time Assorted. Ordering info for those chocolates is on page 60.