• Limited Edition True Love Gold Heart (15 pc.): $25

Sure, they’re in malls across the country. But do you really know the history of this company?

Lady Godiva, a ruler of Coventry hundreds of year ago, was renowned for her beauty, purity and unwavering dedication to the impoverished and stricken. In a bargain with her husband, she agreed to ride naked through the streets of Coventry to lift an oppressive tax draped on her people. Her husband would lift the tax as long as the people could resist looking at her beauty as she passed. She rode, no one looked, and the tax was lifted amid cheers. Godiva Chocolates, which began in Belgium, signifies this woman’s beauty, purity and spirit.

The Valentine’s Day chocolates arrived in a box dedicated to the company’s partnership with the Elton John AIDS Foundation. We didn’t immediately understand the significance of the additional wrapping, and, though, generous and sticking true to the company’s founding ideals, we found it a bit too commercial.

The chocolates inside were quite good – spot on with what you have grown accustomed to sampling and smelling as you shop. We would be delighted to get these for Valentine’s Day, but in a different, more ornamental box that still gives to charity yet doesn’t feel the need to trumpet it from the rooftops – or ride naked through the streets.

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