Harvard Square Chocolate

[wamcadoo]

So what is the best chocolate in Harvard Square area?

[Prav]

Burdicks? or get something from Cardullos..

[lipoff]

I'm not a fan of Burdick's, but Cardullo's has some very excellent options. I know it's not Harvard Square, but that little gourmet store, I believe called Gourmet Botique, in the Westin Copley Place (right next to the walkway to the Copley Place Mall, also has a really terrific selection of chocolate.

[southie_chick]

Not a huge fan of the chocolates at Burdick's either - not into the fruit & chocolate combos that most of the chocolates are made up of. Also don't like nuts in my chocolates either. That said, they do make the BEST hot chocolate - and you can have it with either milk,dark, or white chocolate. This time of year, it's great to grab & take a walk around while you enjoy it.

[bear]

Love that Burdick's dark hot chocolate with a dollop of whipped cream. It's hard to justify paying $46/lb or something similar for their chocolates, though.

[southie_chick]

The only thing worse than spending all that is having a husband who thinks the hot cocoa mix is a "snack" - & at $38 a bag, I get a little upset when he eats it!
If I were going to spend the money on chocolates, I'd go to Phillips Candy House in Dorchester. You get to pick the pieces/kinds you want, & they are one of the few places you can find penuce fudge. It smells like chocolate heaven in there, & I feel like I'm 10 years old again whenever I go there.

[bear]

We sent a bag (small one...under $20) of the hot chocolate mix home with an out-of-state chocolate-loving friend. He stuck a spoon in it and said every time he walked by it, he grabbed a spoonful and polished off the bag in no time. I'm pretty sure it's finely grated sweet chocolate, so it melts nicely in your mouth. Dangerous stuff, and with the little whisk on the side, the smaller bag makes an affordable gift.

[ineemeeny]

Yeah, Cardullo's is probably the best option.

[scratchie]

These people are on crack. L.A. Burdick's is the best chocolate in Harvard Square.

[winedude]

I agree with at least half of this. LA Burdick's is far and away the best chocolate in the Square. Personally, I'm a huge fan of their single origin bars, at $7 a piece.

[BarmyFotheringayPhipps]

If that's true, then Harvard Square is desperately in need of some good chocolate, because I'd rather eat a six-year-old Nestles Crunch bar than Burdick's chocolate.

[winedude]

Really? I don't understand the hatin' on Burdick's. It's not the greatest ever, and I don't get the cult of the mice (cute, but not worth the $$$), but it's at least very, very good chocolate, not "Nestles Crunch."

[BarmyFotheringayPhipps]

Caramels with no flavor whatsoever enrobed in chocolate the consistency of sealing wax do not meet my personal standard of very, very good.

[winedude]

OK, where do you like the chocolates from? While I'm sure I can name 10 places around the country or in Europe that I prefer, (i.e. XOX Truffles in SF, Jaques Torres in NY, Genevieve Grandbois in MTL, Maison du Chocolat in Paris, or many places in Brussels), we're talking abou the best chocolate in Harvard Square. I'd say the only other choice is buying one of the potentially stale Michel Cluizel bars from Cardullo's.

[dtremit]

The NYT compared the recently-opened Burdick's in NYC favorably to Torres, for whatever that's worth.

They must magically taste better when served in the utopia that is Manhattan.

(Personally, I like Burdick's, but have a huge weakness for Recchiuti in SF.)

[winedude]

Recchiuti, good call. Best s'mores (with a caramelized marshmallow) I ever had

[opinionatedchef]

dtremit. clever name. i am COMPLETELY on your bus w/ recchiuti. unfortunately, it is so superior-in quality of their dark chocolate and in flavor options- to any others that i have had- that i don't bother to eat chocs except theirs when we do our annual visit there. they can be web ordered but not the particular ones i prefer.

[BarmyFotheringayPhipps]

Me, I'd go for one of the Lake Champlain Five-Star bars from Cardullo's.

But if you're honestly asking who I think has better chocolate in the local area -- despite the excessive hipster hype and a disturbing level of tweeness in some products, the Hotel Chocolat store on Newbury Street has markedly better chocolate than Burdick (including some of the best white chocolate I've ever had, if you're into that sort of thing), although personally, I would generally prefer to skip the pretentiousness altogether and go someplace that does simpler chocolates -- all of them made in-house -- at a higher level of consistency and quality: Serenade in Brookline Village.

If you like Burdick, godspeed, but to my tastebuds, their quality has been decreasing as the hype increases.

[southie_chick]

SIGH, I sure do miss the Lake Champlain store that was on Federal Street. AND it was 2 minutes from my office, so I could grab something when I was having a bad day ....... which happened quite often. : )

[opinionatedchef]

BFP, you never cease to amaze me.

[autopi]

i agree, i get burdicks chocolates on a semi-regular basis, and have always found them to be very high quality. and i also am a big fan of the (very rich) hot chocolate. definitely one of my favorite places in the square, particularly in the winter.

[StriperGuy]

Count me a Burdick's fan. BFP's lack of flavor is my subtlety. I think they do some great stuff.

[kimfair1]

My wife gets very upset if there is not a one pound Burdick's assortment under the tree each Christmas. We love their chocolate, and their hot chocolate as well.