10 Best Gourmet Chocolates All Dressed Up For Valentine's Day

Gourmet chocolate is every bit about the taste, but presentation is a very close second. Designing a chocolate -- it's shape, color, markings, dust, sparkle, even it's inside layering -- is an art in itself. On Valentine's Day, the biggest day of the year to celebrate CHOCOLATE, it's also about the dressing!

Here are 10 Valentine delights from some of the world's most highly rated gourmet chocolatiers that will put sparkles in your Valentine's eyes and tastebuds!

(There is no ranking in this list. The following chocolatiers have a selection of Valentine's gifts wide enough to accommodate all budgets.)

1. Recchiuti Confections: Valentine Motif Chocolates

Recchiuti of San Francisco has the most marvelous burnt carmael chocolates! Here they are lusciously decorated and tastefully boxed for the big day!

2. Leonidas Belgian Chocolates: Velvet Valentine's Heart

If your loved one can get passed the deep red velvet lid, he'll find quite a selection of milk, dark, and white chocolate Belgium delicacies. Shown is a box of 30 pieces, but the Velvet Heart also comes in a 20 piece box and a 49 piece box. There is also a special promotion offered at Amazon.

3. Lake Champlain Chocolates: Sweetheart Valentine Assortment

Outrageous "passports to chocolate heaven" including cherry and peanut butter, maple crunch, evergreen mint, honey caramels... Keep me from myself! A gluten-free, all natural 18 piece, 2 layer loving box of sweets for your heart's true love. Sweetheart's Assortment available  from Lake  Champlain or from Amazon.

Here's my buddy, the Be Mine Chocolate Frog from Lake Champlain Chocolates. This guy is the cutest, and I bet the most delicious, frog ever! He stands 4 inches tall and is made of milk chocolate with hand painted dark chocolate markings. A great Valentine's gift for budget watchers.

4. Richart Paris: La Perle de Mon Coeur Valentine Assortment

So refined, perfectly understated and every bit as delectable as... well, fine chocolate. This 42 piece Valentine special includes 24 Micro-Hearts in Milk Chocolate Almond Praline, 16 Micro-Hearts in Dark Venezuelan Cocoa Ganache, 1 Dark Chocolate card (73% Ivory Coast), 1 Pink Heart Shape and 3 Suger Silver Pearls. La Perle de Mon Coeur.

Not exactly intended for Valentine's Day, but for Richart's "celebration of RED," my pick for Valentine's Day would be Richart's Ultra-Fine Discovery Ballotin with 36 pieces of seven naturally flavored chocolates, including Banyuls Grand Cru wine grapes, black currant, and blood orange....

5. Chocolat Moderne: Mysteries of Love Valentine Assortement

A dual layer, 24 piece, chocolate lover's to-die-for! Each hand painted heart has a mysterie to reveal.... For example, there's The Lover (passion fruit and cardamom caramel), MadameXtasy(sea salted Illy espresso and dark chocolate caramel), Caramel Caresse (Poire Williams Pear and Eau de Vie caramel)... Should I continue tempting you? No, but I will let you in on a little secret... smaller assortments are available here too!