Airports & Chocolates
 

Which airport duty free shops have folks discovered great chocolates for gift-giving? When I was a kid, my uncle gave me a flower-shaped chocolate while connecting through AMS. While it is difficult to find liquor-filled chocolate in the States, I have found them in the past at the SYD and LGW duty-free shops.

Airports & Chocolates
 

As you might imagine, Brussels Intl has a large selection, both in duty free and dedicated chocolate shops. Booze-filled, you name it! AMS still good too.

Airports & Chocolates
 

Zürich has a great Lindt & Sprüngli Shop. Great place

Schipol in Amsterdam had the best overall run of duty free and gift shops I've seen, and a wide range of chocolates was one of the things I purchased (albeit not as gifts, other than to myself)

Airports & Chocolates
 

ZRH can't be beat for duty free shopping for Chocolate

Airports & Chocolates
 

+1 for ZRH
LHR and LGW: Cadbury
VIE: Mozart chocolate balls
SFO and LAX: See's and Ghirardelli
BNA: Goo Goo clusters
HKG: Dragon Beard Candy (though not chocolate, it's worth a mention)

Airports & Chocolates
 

NRT - can't go wrong buying crazy flavored Kit Kats

Brussels is overrun with corporate Chocolate shops masquerading as boutique, and they're what you'll tend to find at BRU. The chocolates are certainly head and shoulders above most all US chocolate, but still not the same as the true artisinal chocolates you'll find if you shop carefully at small shops in town.

NRT & HND (probably KIX & NGO also)

Shiroi Koibito Langue de Chat
http://www.ishiya.co.jp/sp/item/shiroi/
White chocolate sandwiched in cats tongue biscuits

For me they just have the edge over the Yoku Moku chocolate biscuits. Just. Mmmmm... Yoku Moku...

+1. The problem is that all of these brands are available worldwide (thank you Nestle) so I never understand the point of the purchase.

Las Vegas: Ethel M. Yummy

Airside chocolate is very expensive in Germany relative to real world German pricing. Fortunately, there are two Edeka and one Müller at MUC landside which are easy to reach on a layover. FRA has two grocery stores (the Rewe City is the better of the two, but neither are as convenient as the stores at MUC) The ordinary, run of the mill chocolate tends to be considered head and shoulders above American chocolate, but it's to us just ordinary. There are however great ranges of midrange chocolate including a good variety of alcohol filled ones.

And not on airport, but if near SZG then one can make a quick run across the border to the Reber factory where they have a kiosk onsite including factory seconds.

It's all relative as I've never found anything worthwhile at AMS or BRU for instance, yet some of you seem to rave about it.

Why shucks, I guess I'm just not as soffistercated as y'all Yuropeans, but I've found some of the Belgian brands such as Galler or Daskalides entirely sufficient to my airport needs. They're cheaper there than in the US, and they're not that easy to find here. And although I'm kind of surprised to hear that Laurent Gerbaud, Pierre Marcolin, et al aren't actually on the premises at BRU lovingly hand-crafting pralines, I'm afraid they're out of my price range, anyway.

I'm not above eating midrange chocolate (and will admit to having a Jeff de Bruges in front of me at the moment which is a hazard of having one down the road from my flat), but I just won't bother wasting calories on the really ordinary stuff.

And as someone mentioned upthread, a lot of what is sold in airports is pretty mediocre, found almost anywhere type of chocolate, especially in the duty free.

Definitely not SXM, the chocolate shop never opened before the morning AA MIA flight boarded.

Haven't been to Zürich but I can vouch for Lindt duty free being excellent. I can never walk past them without buying something and if you find one that does the hot chocolate... get one!

That's not the chocolate, it's the booze.

SFO - Ghirardelli
LAX - See's

And the Dulce Chocolate Bar at FRA

SEA has a Dilettante kiosk (although I like their hot chocolate and giant biscotti more than their confections), and a couple of the other shops (Fireworks, and Made in Washington) carry some of our other local favored brands like Fran's and Theo.

My clear favorite is the sakura matcha (cherry blossom green tea), but challengers are welcome. Besides wasabi, I haven't seen any other "crazy" flavors at NRT, unless you mean anything but the original is crazy.

Both are good, as well as hakuun no hotori.

GVA - one large shop land-side just before you got through departures and then 2 other specialist shops airside (one of which is Sprungli). There's also a further shop in the railway station below the airport and the regular duty-free stores air-side also have a selection of chocolate options.

I did once note that AMS charged 5 euros for Mozartballs that FRA charged 3 euros for

Not chocolate though. A favourite of mine is kind of similar to hakuun no hotori (I think I'm confusing hakuun no hotori with aya shirabe 彩しらべ which I tried quite recently) but has a thin white chocolate coating. Probably hard to find at NRT or HND but easy enough to locate at Sendai Airport.
Kamome no tamago - seagull eggs
http://www.portal.sendai-airport.co....id=43&catid=18

CPH - Peter Beier Chocolate (amazing!)
http://www.cph.dk/CPH/UK/Newsroom/Ne.../Beier+Eng.htm

Indeed, but it really needed to be mentioned somewhere!

Thanks for the Sendai/Minamoto Kitchoan links. Shucks, the NY outlet of Kitchoan doesn't have ayashirabe...time to go back to Tokyo.

yuck.
If you're at SFO and leaving directly out of the US, you have access to Belgian Neuhaus in the Duty Free shop. Stopping at anywhere like PDX on the way out disqualifies one from making the purchase.
The next nearest regular appearance of Neuhaus in the Americas is either in Vancouver, and then Hawaii or Virginia. There's some question as to the availability of freshly flown-in chocolate at these locations.
I suppose that you can mail order too.
Galler and Corne become trickier to obtain.
#19:Is it easy to find? I must try it. How about at MUC or TXL?
#7: Yes. The green tea Kit Kats were tasty. I should have bought some. I'll be back soon enough.

+1 how could I forget Ethel M, and I'm from Vegas!

Best one I had was Honeydew Melon flavored, green colored.

More on BRU: if you want to buy just chocolate (tablets), there is a Delhaize supermarket on the arrivals level. They also have beer. Prices a little inflated compared to other supermarkets but still reasonable. Be aware: most foodstuffs (including chocolate and beer) will not be allowed in your carry-on, you will need to check it in.

Why doesn't BRU allow chocolate in carry-on? I have never experienced this issue after 9/11 even with chocolate filled with liquor.

Security likes to keep the chocolate for themselves.:p
While not explicitly prohibited, some agents would argue that they fall into the "liquids and gels" category (like cheese).
The chocolate bought after security is allowed of course.

I usually buy anywhere from 15-20 400 gram bars of toblerone chocolate from the duty free at LGW whenever I go to the subcontinent.This means that I might have upto 8 kg of toblerone chocolate in my carry on :D:D.

I know its cheaper outside but since I buy the chocolate after check in, its not included in my luggage allowance. The big 400g bars in the subcontinent cost at least 3-4 times the price at LGW and are always appreciated by everyone I give it to.

MXP now has Venchi... one of my favorites!!!

I've never had an issue taking food/chocolates through security, including the ones with liquid centers.

In terms of buying chocolates at BRU, the major brands are all represented, but if you're going to the trouble don't buy a major brand but instead seek on one of the fantastic local shops in Brussels instead. Handmade and fresh - many of the major brands are produced in large factories. They're still good, but not quite "as good".

I once picked up a fantastic variety pack of KitKats at NRT. Very much fun, but the last time I only saw the green tea.

WAW has a nice selection of Polish candies, many of which are very good and something unusual to take home. I'm quite fond of the chocolate covered flavored marshmallows.