In the spirit of Valentine’s Day, I would like to direct your attention to the odd arms race happening in chocolate design. Chocolate and V-Day have always gone together. Whether you are giving a box or bar of chocolate to your lover or sitting alone eating them all by yourself- chocolate always seems like the right thing to do.

A revolution is happening in chocolate packaging. New brands are popping up left and right and their main method of differentiation is the design of their paper and foil wrapper. It is a surprising new trend, a surprisingly heated chocolatey arms race, a competition of one-upmanship to see who can design the most intriguing, engaging wrapper. And as things have heated up, we have raced to a place that oddly, isn’t even about chocolate anymore. These wrappers have become so aesthetic they are purchased as objects, as decorations or toppers to gifts.

For this Dieline Investigative report, I rolled up my sleeve and dove into the bubbling brimming bowl of chocolate. It was hard work, but I tasted a lot of chocolate on your behalf, to help you determine which is the right chocolate for every occasion, which is the right one to woo and which is the best if it’s just you.