Hearts, Chocolate Kisses

Diamonds are forever, but on Valentine’s Day, you can get off more cheaply than that. If, say, all you can spend is 75 cents, you can still come up with a world-class Godiva chocolate heart for your love. It may be tiny--only 1 1/4 inches from curves to point--but the fillings (chocolate cream or praline) and the coatings (light, dark or ivory) are luscious.

Double the 75 cents and you can take away a three-inch, solid milk chocolate heart wrapped in red foil. Spend 100 times the 75 cents and you’re entitled to the most romantic gift imaginable--Godiva’s floral-patterned tapestry hat box filled with little gold boxes as rich in their candy contents as in their color.

The tapestry pattern that appears on the hat box also embellishes red velvet hearts packed with assorted chocolates. The hearts come in three sizes: nine ounces for $32; 14 ounces for $45 and 20 ounces for $65.

By the way, those 75-cent chocolate hearts can be packaged by Godiva in any container you supply--a crystal dish, an antique teacup or maybe a Victorian plate--at no extra charge. The price for the tiny hearts is $25 a pound.

Godiva Chocolatier, 6th floor, Beverly Center, 8500 Beverly Blvd., Los Angeles. (213) 651-0697.

The Ultimate Nut & Candy Co. offers molded chocolate hearts in two colors--white and milk chocolate. The white heart is embossed with a pair of doves mounted on a small heart, and the milk chocolate variation sprouts flowers. They’re made of solid Guittard chocolate. Packaged in transparent boxes wrapped with bright ribbons, the hearts are $9.99.

Ultimate Nut & Candy Co., 11849 Ventura Blvd., Studio City, (818) 766-5259. Other locations in the Farmers Market and Century City Marketplace.

The shy giver can say it with a kiss, a 12-ounce chocolate kiss from the Cerreta Candy Co. in Phoenix. And if words fail, the golden box containing the candy supplies them: “A Big Kiss for You,” it reads. Made of Guittard milk chocolate, the kisses are available at Allen Wertz candy stores, 3070 Los Feliz Blvd. and 6334 West 3rd St., Los Angeles. Wrapped in foil and white tissue paper, the kisses and box are $4.95, or Allen Wertz will add multicolored ribbons and a Valentine decoration for a total of $5.75.