Sweet Temptations

Joseph Schmidt Confections 3489 16th St . San Francisco, Calif. 94114 (415) 861-8682 UPS charges are included in the price. Brochure available. Check or credit card. “The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it. “

--Oscar Wilde Food fads come and go--but chocolate never goes out of fashion. The Swiss eat it with bread, the Dutch drink it in milk and Americans eat it by the ton.

Truly particular Americans, however, swear by Joseph Schmidt’s chocolate. It is sold at Joseph Schmidt Confections, a tiny San Francisco chocolate shop that started out as a truffle store. These days the store’s shelves are bursting with beautiful edible chocolate sculptures: bowls, flowers, pine cones and other ornaments, each individually hand-decorated.

You’d think anything that looks this pretty couldn’t possible taste good. Not so. Schmidt’s chocolates, made daily from Belgian chocolate and heavy cream, give off a heady chocolate perfume the minute you open the box--and they taste even better than they smell. There’s something special about a box of chocolates packed in its own edible chocolate box; within minutes of its arrival, the nougat hazelnut cup filled with holiday-shaped truffles became this month’s most coveted candy.

Schmidt is always creating new designs from chocolate. The nougat cup (it’s filled with hazelnut puree) is $15; a dozen truffles are $18.