The classic "I love you" gift is a heart-shaped box of assorted chocolates. Though See's has always offered traditional themed boxes, its pink woven heart box sampler offers 1 pound of milk, dark and white chocolates, along with fruity truffles, and nuts and chews ($33.50; at sees.com or retail stores).

Emeryville's Charles Chocolates' heart-shaped velvet box contains either raspberry, passion fruit and mojito ganache-filled chocolates, or the classic assortment of our favorite fleur de sel caramels. Boxes ordered online can also be filled with a customized assortment. ($30 small box, $60 large box; 6529 Hollis St., Emeryville or retail stores).

Chocolatiers continue to combine savory or spicy flavors with dark chocolate, but we kept going back to classic combos that have subtle twists, like the burnt caramel chocolate from San Francisco's Michael Recchiuti (nine-piece Valentine's motif box, pictured at right, for $25, available at recchiuti.com or retail stores).

Feeling guilty about giving in to your sweet tooth? Alter Eco, an international company with headquarters in San Francisco, and Divine, a Washington, D.C., company offer fair trade chocolates. We loved both Alter Eco and Divine's creamy milk chocolate bars with crunchy roasted hazelnuts (Alter Eco, $4.29 per 3.5-ounce bar; altereco-usa.com; Divine, 3.5-ounce bars available in sets, $4.20-$18, at agreatergift.org).

Ghirardelli has a new line of filled chocolate bars based on its squares. We liked the 60 percent cacao dark chocolate with caramel and dark chocolate with raspberry ($2.29 per 3.5-ounce bar at retail stores).

Amid all the red and pink products crowding the candy shelves of drugstores, Mars Snackfood introduced its limited-edition green M&M's, which are available until the end of February.

A fun alternative to purchasing chocolates is to make your own. Anne Walker and Kris Hoogerhyde from Bi-Rite Creamery will host a truffle-making class where apprentice chocolatiers will learn how to make ganache and take home a box of chocolates they've made. The class will be 6:30-8:30 p.m. Monday at Bluespace, 593 Guerrero St., in San Francisco. Cost is $45 per person; sign up at Bi-Rite Market (3639 18th St.) or e-mail sfbluespace@gmail.com.

This article appeared on page F - 2 of the San Francisco Chronicle