Is your mom famous for her sweet tooth and her impeccable taste? Does she have strategically located chocolate stashes in her life? Maybe she even has a top-secret emergency reserve? 

This Mother’s Day, give her the treasure that is finely crafted artisan chocolate and confections… it’s what she really wants! 

We spoke to our resident candy expert, Allison Schraf, retail and marketing manager at Zingerman’s Candy Manufactory, to get the low down on the top ten most covetable chocolate and confections available. 

Here’s a complete list of Allison’s top ten mom-worthy gift picks:

• Willie’s Cacao Raspberry Praline Truffles, box of 12
  These luxurious truffles come in a beautiful ready-to-gift box. Crafted from roasted almonds, white chocolate made from natural cocoa butter, raw cane sugar, and milk powder, these truffles have a deliciously stunning liquid center made from honey and freeze-dried raspberry.
• Fruition Brown Butter Bourbon Caramel-Filled Chocolates, box of 9
  In Ari’s words, these chocolates are, “Small, handcrafted shells of dark 68% chocolate from Hispaniola, filled with a brown butter caramel that’s spiked with local Hudson Valley “bourbon.” The chocolate itself is excellent—the cacao comes from small farms in the Dominican Republic. When you bite into one of the dark chocolate shells the exceptionally rich center coats your entire mouth. Big, big flavors from such a small confectionary bite. There’s a bit of toasty bitterness of the brown butter, the sweetness of the sugar in the caramel, and the warming, smoky impact of the barrel-aged whiskey. Pretty powerfully awesome. Plus they come in a beautiful gate-fold black gift box!”
• Mother’s Day Superzzang!
  Zingerman’s Candy Manufactory’s most popular candy since day one, made by hand in small batches (though the SuperZzang! Is nearly a half-pound)! Aromatic honey & peanut butter nougat, complex Muscovado brown sugar caramel, crunchy jumbo runner peanuts roasted with butter and sea salt, covered with 63% dark chocolate. A Tour de Force of the confectioner’s art.

• Candy Bar Fancy Bites Box, 15 pc
  Zingerman’s Candy Manufactory has adorned its Bites Collection box wrap with pretty flowers for Mother’s Day! The beautiful foil-stamped box is filled with 15 assorted fresh candy bars sized for the perfect bite! All our best sellers are included: Zzang!, Peanut Butter Crush, What the Fudge?, and Cashew Cow. Moms of every kind will love it!
• Paris Caramels Assorted Caramels 28 piece box
  Rich butter caramels made just outside Paris! This pretty 28-piece box is filled with an assortment of chocolate, vanilla, coffee, and hazelnut caramels. They are individually wrapped in shiny foil in a clear box, looking fancy and modern.
• Ritual “Berries & Bubbly” Chocolate Bar
  This special bar is made by first soaking the Madagascar cacao in sparkling white wine in a wine barrel where it absorbs and retains flavor when the nibs are ground and conched into a smooth, fruity 70% dark chocolate. Then it’s topped with bright freeze-dried raspberries. Celebrate Mom with this celebratory bar!
• ROZSAVOLGYI CSOKOLADE Milk Chocolate with Caramelized Lavender & Star Anise
  Nobody was more surprised than me when I fell in love with this chocolate bar, Lavender and star anise are both aggressive flavors that can throw an otherwise great chocolate off balance, but in retrospect I really should have trusted the excellent skills and instincts of Budapest chocolate makers Zsolt Szabad and Katalin Csiszar. Little crunchy bits of caramelized lavender flowers complement the rich milk chocolate and there’s just a haunting hint of star anise. Just gorgeous. (Plus the packaging and the bar itself are gorgeous too so great to gift!)

  

• Askinosie Chocolate Covered Malt Balls
  In Ari’s words, “The centers of Shawn Askinosie’s Malt Balls are spun in dark Tanzania chocolate for eight hours, so that thin layer after thin layer of cacao covers the soft, crumbly centers. Unlike industrial-commercial versions, they have none of that stuff added to give that shiny smooth look. The aroma is amazing—when you open the tin (which in itself looks lovely—craft cardboard, nice simple label, silver lid), you’ll immediately be hit with the smell of good chocolate. They make a great gift, and they’re about as fun as artisan chocolate can be! They’re not too sweet, and the dark chocolate is almost intoxicating. While I used to think of malted milk balls as cheap movie theater candy, thanks to Shawn, I now see them as a serious confection, a way to showcase quality and the fine flavors of great regional cacao.”
• Goodnow Farms Chocolate bar, “Spiced Apple Cider”
  Monica and Tom Rogan, the innovative founders and chocolate makers of Goodnow Farms Chocolate, soak their single-origin, directly sourced Zorzal Dominican Republic nibs in apple cider from Honey Pot Hill Orchard. When they’ve infused long enough, they are dried and ground into chocolate (along with freshly-pressed Zorzal cocoa butter). Finally, they add dried Macoun apples and just the right amount of Tanzanian cinnamon.The crisp and sweet flavors of the apples are front and center and are perfectly complemented by the complex notes of the Tanzanian Cinnamon, and it’s all beautifully married to the complex, amazing chocolate. Sublime!

• French Broad Chocolate 3-bar bundle.
  Fantastic bean-to-bar chocolate made in Asheville, NC. They come in lovely, elegant gold foil-stamped pale blue boxes.
  • 44% Malted Milk – Delicious caramel notes abound in this beautiful bar made with craft barley malts, organic milk, and craft chocolate
  • 53% Dark Milk – Deep fudgy milk chocolate with fruity notes, made with browned organic butter. Decadent!
  • 70% Peru – Just chocolate and sugar in this single-origin chocolate.
    Tasting notes: cinnamon, cherry and lemon over a creamy cocoa base.

There you have it! This year’s top ten best picks for your sweets-loving mom. We hope this list helps you select the perfect Mother’s Day gift. If you need any help making your selections be sure to visit our temporary pop-up at Zingerman’s Coffee Company.

If you’re ready to buy your gift now, visit Zingerman’s Candy Manufactory’s BRAND NEW web store at: zcob.me/candy-online!