BY NATALIE HAUGHTON >FOOD EDITOR

CHOCOLATE! Indulgent, rich, decadent. What would Valentine's Day be without it?

"Americans are having a love affair with chocolate,'' points out Joan Steuer, a Los Angeles-based chocolate expert and founding editor of Chocolatier magazine, ``and much of it has been driven by the news that dark chocolate is so heart-healthy in the last three years.''

"Additionally, there is great interest in the local foods movement … and that in turn has created many local chocolate artisans and retail boutiques which have become the darlings of the chocolate revolution and particularly a cause for indulgence in Los Angeles,'' she says.

"Chocolate lovers crave fresh hand-crafted chocolates ... more than ever before and are willing to pay premium prices to feed their passion.''

Sophisticated chocolate connoisseurs … the purists … tend to desire the deepest, darkest, richest chocolate and often single-origin. The chocolate adventurers, on the other hand, are seeking the most exotic combinations with chocolate … herbs, spices, peppers, flowers, fruits, teas, nuts, bacon and the like.

"There is also new interest in dark milk chocolate that has a higher cocoa percentage (32 to 50 percent) than traditional milk chocolate (12 to 25 percent),'' says Steuer. ``It is a hybrid between milk and dark.''

Even though Feb. 14 is the year's largest single sales day for boxed chocolate, chocolate has moved from special-occasion treat to everyday staple. Chocolate candy was No. 8 in the lineup of the top 10 consumer goods in 2007. Americans consumed about 14 pounds per capita in 2006.

Gourmandise Paris
156 S. Beverly Drive, Beverly Hills
(310) 271-3366

Owned by two Parisians, this newcomer, which opened in December, carries chocolates that are custom-made for the shop and imported from France. Two sizes of pink metal heart-shaped boxes filled with custom-packed chocolates ($20 to $60) are available. A dark chocolate heart filled with six chocolate pieces is $18. The store stocks 30 chocolates, including truffles, chocolate with fruit ganache, chocolate-coated marzipan, hazelnut praline with gianduja in a chocolate shell along with mendiant - a small round piece of dark or milk chocolate topped with caramelized dried fruit - along with individual pieces of 99 percent cocoaforte chocolates decorated with gold dust ($1.90 each).

Madame Chocolat
212 N. Canon Drive, Beverly Hills
(310) 247-9990; www.madame-chocolat.com

Owned by Hasty Khoei Torres, wife of New York chocolatier Jacques Torres, this shop, decorated Louis XVI style, opened in 2006. For Valentine's, an elegant red wooden lacquer box filled with 30 bonbons and truffles will set you back $100. For $50, you can pick up a pair of dark or milk chocolate pumps with gold-dusted heels in a shoe box and two bonbons in a paper purse box. For $15, there's a heart-shaped, rose-shaped or lip-shaped chocolate box, each filled with six small XOXO chocolate pieces and two chocolate lips. A 12-piece box of chocolates is $24. The store offers a selection of more than 20 chocolates, including caramel and rum hearts, passion fruit and dark chocolate truffles. Chocolate-covered Cheerios, pretzels, macadamia nuts, malt balls or orange peel are also available. Everything is handmade on the premises with Belgian chocolate.

Chocolates a la Carte
28455 Livingston Ave., Valencia
(800) 818-2462; www.chocolatesontheweb.com

Started by Rena and Rick Pocrass more than two decades ago, this company makes and sells all kinds of chocolates and novelty items both retail and wholesale. Drop by the factory store (go to the front lobby) today and Friday (10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.; after that the store will be closing until fall) to pick up chocolate lollipops hearts ($2 each), a 16-piece assorted-flavor truffle box ($12), an edible chocolate heart truffle box ($20), small chocolate champagne bottle ($3.50 each) or other chocolates all made on the premises using domestic and European chocolates.

See's Candies
3431 S. La Cienega Blvd., (next to the See's Candy factory), Los Angeles(310) 559-4919; www.sees.com; (800) 347-7337

See's started making chocolate candy in Los Angeles in 1921. If you pass by the factory on La Cienega Boulevard when it's in production, you'll smell chocolate perfuming the air. Valentine offerings include a pink woven ribbon heart box (1 pound, 6 ounces of assorted chocolates, $33.50), a Scotch mallow chocolate heart (1 ounce, $1.20), decorated small milk chocolate bordeaux, dark chocolate raspberry or milk chocolate butter walnut hearts (each 3 ounces; $4 each), tuxedo heart (1 pound; $23) and red velvet heart (4 pounds, $118). More than 100 varieties of assorted chocolates can be custom-packed and wrapped. See's uses Guittard (domestic) chocolate.

(other locations throughout Southern California)

Valerie Confections
3360 W. First St., Los Angeles
(213) 739-8149; www.valerieconfections.com

Three heart-shaped chocolates - bittersweet ganache topped with a 23-karat-gold applique, milk chocolate with gianduja rocher and bittersweet chocolate with almond toffee bits - are available packed in nine-, 18- or 36-piece rectangular ivory boxes tied with red ribbon ($20, $40, $80 respectively; the two larger sizes come with a hand-printed valentine card). Rose petal petits fours ($48 a dozen) dipped in white chocolate are also offered. Chocolate-enrobed toffee - in almond, fleur del sel and orange, ginger, mint and classic flavors - is the company's signature sweet. A collection of salt and black pepper truffles (16-piece box, $35) is the newest offering. Chocolates are made on the premises with imported Valrhona and some domestic chocolates. The company was started in 2004 by Valerie Gordon and Stan Weightman Jr.

Jin Patisserie
1202 Abbot Kinney Blvd., Venice
(310) 399-8801; www.jinpatisserie.com

Kristy Choo, owner and pastry chef, makes 25 different flavors at the shop - among them lavender, passion fruit, mango-lime, sea salt caramel, espresso, lemon grass and chrysanthemum, all cloaked in dark chocolate from France or Switzerland. For Valentine's Day, a dark chocolate box with nine praline-flavored chocolate pieces is available ($42) along with a six-piece pink silk box ($23) and custom-packed boxes (four to 32 pieces, $10 to $60.50). Choo's most popular chocolates are sea salt caramels dipped in chocolate and coated with cocoa powder.

L'Artisan du Chocolat
3364 W. 1st St., Los Angeles, (213) 252-8712 www.lartisanduchocolat.com

Pick up a dark chocolate heart box filled with assorted chocolates ($45) here. Also offered are red heart-shaped boxes filled with chocolates made on site using imported French chocolate, one with a magnetic closure ($40) and the other with a see-through window ($35). A selection of 40 to 50 chocolates, including simple dark chocolate ganache hearts, can be custom-packed. Whajung Park, from Korea is the chocolate maker and owns the company with her husband, Christian Alexandre.

Boule Atelier
408 N. La Cienega Blvd., Los Angeles
(310) 289-9977; www.bouleatelier.com

Heart-shaped chocolates in white chocolate with raspberry rose ganache, milk chocolate with apricot lavender ganache and dark chocolate with candied orange elder flower liqueur are available ($7 to $55 per box). A heart marshmallow (packs of three for $3) is also offered. The shop's 25 different kinds of dark, milk and white chocolates and six truffle flavors can be custom packed. Chocolates are made on site with Valrhona chocolate.

Edelweiss Chocolates
444 N. Canon Drive, Beverly Hills
(310) 275-0341 or (888) 615-8800; www.edelweisschocolates.com (Also in Brentwood Country Mart, 225 26th St., Brentwood, 310-656-0306.)

Satin and velvet heart boxes in 1/4-pound, 1/2-pound and 1-pound - and up to 8 pounds - are offered pre- or custom-packed ($12 to $295). You'll find a choice of more than 85 different chocolates, including truffles, fruits, nuts, chews or creams or assorted sugar-free chocolates here. Chocolate-covered marshmallows are a signature item. In business since 1942, chocolates are handmade on the premises using Swiss chocolate. A tour of the factory is possible if you ask.

LaMill Coffee Boutique
1636 Silver Lake Blvd., Los Angeles
(323) 663-4441 or (323) 663-4442; www.lamillcoffee.com.

Adrian Vasquez, pastry chef at Providence restaurant on Melrose Avenue, offers his new line of chocolates here. With colored cocoa butter on top, the confections come in flavors such as white chocolate passion fruit mint, mushroom (chanterelle) caramel, Earl Grey chocolate, crimson berry chocolate, coffee urfa (Turkish pepper), milk chocolate whiskey ganache and more. Custom-packed black boxes of six ($15) or 12 ($26) pieces or individual pieces ($2 each) offered.

>NATALIE HAUGHTON