A Review of Boston’s Beacon Hill Chocolates

I had to give this an update, because on a recent business trip to Massachusetts, I talked about this place nonstop for an entire week, and then snuck in a 30-minute stop here on my way back to the airport. The shop employees were so kind in packaging everything up tightly for me with bubble wrap and cold packs to go into my luggage.

To my distress, I now have more favorites than will fit in a 30-piece box, so my next order will involve some tough decisions!

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While in Boston, we stopped in a beautiful little chocolate shop with truffles imported from around the world. I brought home about $100 in chocolate, the bulk of which was spent on a box of 30 assorted truffles of my choosing. I also bought a box of seven pumpkin pie truffles and one ruby chocolate bar with raspberries and pistachios in it. (Note: I have since placed an online order and had even more of these delivered to me because they were so darn good.)

Normally, I would share anything and everything with my fiance. But because I spent so much, and because I picked out each individual piece with my own tastes in mind, I informed him as kindly as possible that I would not be sharing any of the chocolates from that particular box. He looked ever-so-slightly offended, but as a peace offering (and a test), I gave him one of my seven pumpkin pie truffles. After he ate it, I asked him what he thought of it.

He responded, predictably, “Meh. It was all right,” with a little shrug.

“And that is exactly why I am not sharing any of my other ones with you. Because you don’t appreciate these the way I do.”

He thought that was fair enough. Truly, I suspect it’s all the same to him whether he’s eating something gourmet like these, a Lindor Truffle, or a Hershey’s Kiss. To me, the quality is significantly different. So I don’t feel badly about my decision not to share.

A couple nights later, I sat down beside him in front of the television with my box of 30 in hand, eager to start eating some of them. He took one look at me and then got up and went into the other room, emerging a moment later with a box of Russell Stover chocolates, then sat dramatically down on the couch and began eating them like it was a performance. I was still giggling a few days later.

Normally, if it was the only chocolate around, I’d go crazy for some Russell Stovers and would be begging until he took pity and gave me one, but they can’t compare with Beacon Hill Chocolates. Here’s what I tried and how I liked them. ***I starred my favorites like this.

Classic Flavors

• Almond Butter Crunch: Surprisingly not crunchy apart from the shell, but I didn’t really want it to be. Slightly chewy like caramel. Good mouthfeel; packed in a lot. Nice, sweet flavor.
• ***Amarena Cherry: Sublime. This is what I wanted the chocolate-covered cherry to be. Chewy, sweet, and tart!
• ***Bees & Flowers Truffle: Very smooth honey, very subtle orange taste.
• ***Biscotti: A chocolate-covered Biscotti? OMG, yes, please!
• ***Blackberry Crumble: Excellent and unique both in flavor and texture! Sort of like picking wild berries and enjoying with cookies.
• Blood Orange: Smooth and perfectly sweet, even with dark chocolate, but not enough orange flavor.
• ***Blueberry Jam: Delicious burst of blueberry, delightfully unique flavor and texture. The bitterness of the dark chocolate was not overpowering because the jam was so nice and sweet-tart.
• ***Butter Almond Toffee Milk: I am such a sucker for toffee. The almonds here gave this bite some added flavorful ‘oomph’. Superb mixture of sweet and salty buttery delight.
• Butterscotch: Smooth and sweet, with a surprising and exciting bitter burst from the dark chocolate.
• Canasta Marzipan: Not as sweet as some marzipan I have had, and I’m not sure if that’s good or bad. I definitely enjoyed it! I think I need to eat more to decide whether I prefer it to other marzipan candies. The texture is crispier, too, and again I’m undecided whether I like that better or worse than what I’ve had in the past.
• ***Cassia: Like chocolate-covered pear drizzled in butter and warm spices. Very strong and satisfying spiced pear flavor.
• ***Cherry Dubai Bonbon: Very complex, with the perfect crunch from the phyllo! Sweet, smooth, and toasty.
• Chocolate-Covered Cherry: Not bad, but also not my favorite I’ve had. I would have gone with milk chocolate here.
• ***Citrus Rosemary: Very unique and distinctive. Has a sort of Christmasy vibe in a way you wouldn’t expect (normally I associate warm spices with Christmas flavors). Love the texture!
• ***Dubonbon: Excellent crisp, on the savory side, delicious.
• ***Dulce de Leche: Bittersweet but also very warm and friendly. Just a well-balanced, all-around good flavor and great texture!
• Dulcymiel: This one was kind of weird to me. I’m not a fan. There was some good honey flavor in the center, but it was hard to find. Not for me.
• Framboisine: This was very good, but it also reminded me just a bit of Turkish delight, which I’ve never been a fan of, so my taste buds were competing with that memory and keeping it from fully becoming a favorite.
• ***Fuego: This was very unique and delicious! It reminded me a bit of something unexpected, like almond paste. Loved the smooth texture and the orange chocolate flavor.
• ***Hibiscus Passion Fruit Heart: A delicious, thirst-quenching sweet-tartness with a unique flavor.
• Key Lime: Light and bright with just the right amount of tanginess. Somehow the white chocolate evokes the pie crust flavor.
• ***Lavender Butterfly: Not shy with the lavender. A rare treat. Sweet, light, and delicate.
• Lemon Truffle: Not bad at all, but I felt like the lemon flavor got buried a little too much.
• ***Olive Oil and Sea Salt: I took a risk with this one, because the description was a little outside my comfort zone of what I feel I would typically enjoy. But I’m so glad I did. This was an incredible combination of flavors, and such a unique concept!
• Palet des Neiges: I’m not usually a fan of white chocolate, but this bite was sweet and delicious. I didn’t taste even a hint of raspberry, though. Wondering if my taster is off, because I notice this is a recurring theme with several of the fruity ones.
• ***Passion Fruit Heart: Excellent flavor! Honey and passion fruit all mixed up in chocolate feels like a very rare treat! This is deliciously, puckeringly tart and tangy with a good, bittersweet finish.
• Pistachio Praline: Crunchy and salty. Nice for when you want an almost savory-sweet little treat with some heft to it!
• Pom Balm: This was really good, and as the website says, “uniquely delicious”! I’m undecided for the moment whether it’s favorite territory for me, as I think the chocolate is just a hair too bitter for me.
• Raspberries & Cream (Dark): So DELICIOUSLY tart and juicy! Excellent flavor, although I feel like the dark chocolate made it too bitter for me. Also creamier than I typically like; I generally prefer more of a ganache than a cream. A bigger fan of dark chocolate, I think, would love it, but my tastebuds are still learning to accept it.
• Strawberry: This one was good and I did not dislike it at all, but it also felt fairly baseline for a good truffle. Perfect for if you want a simple chocolatey strawberry treat!
• Strawberry Fields Forever: Good, but not my favorite. Too sweet and creamy in the middle, too bitter on the outside, not enough strawberry.
• ***Strawberry Jam Bonbon: Exactly what I hoped it would be. Reminds me a little of eating a PB&J with extra J!
• ***Violetta: Sweetly delicate with a satisfying crunch! Very unique flavor and sensation!
• ***Vitamin C: So tart and tangy with excellent, smooth texture.
• Yuzu Ginger: This one had a good, prickly tartness to it, but overall was just too bitter for me. It didn’t feel very balanced, but more like I was eating two completely different competing flavors.

Liquor Flavors

• ***Amaretto: This had everything–chocolate, marzipan, fruit, a little bit of liquor! It’s top-notch tangy fruitness blended with almond-pasty goodness. This might just be the perfect combination of things.
• ***Bananas Foster: Freaking fantastic. Had I been standing, I might have gone weak at the knees and needed to sit. Everything about it was divine. The rum taste greeted me first, loud and proud but not overpowering the smooth taste of bananas. Perfectly blended. Absolutely wonderful! Tastes like a banana daquiri.
• ***Bourbon Truffle: A perfect little ball of smooth, chocolatey whiskey. So much delicious flavor! A wonderful mouthful!
• Cabernet Sauvignon Truffle: Good flavor, though a bit too dark for me. I liked that I could taste a little bit of the tannins.
• Champagne Bon Bon: Good, very faint hint of champagne. Probably would not have recognized it if I hadn’t known what I was eating.
• ***Cognac Truffle: Full-bodied, balanced bittersweet flavor; satisfying soft chew. Another perfectly-concocted combination of flavors!
• ***Gone Mad Whiskey: Surprisingly sweet but perfectly balanced, good mouth-feel, even enjoyed the raisin (I don’t usually like raisins).
• ***Gran Marnier: Amazing! Strong and sweet, even with dark chocolate. Never would have known orange and caramel were so good together! The texture was so smooth and delicious. A wonderful blast of sweet and bittersweet. The liquor is powerful without being overpowering.
• Irish Cream Mocktail: Reminded me of marshmallow. A bit too sweet and creamy. (Good right after eating the too-bitter Mojo Bourbon, though!)
• ***Jamaican Rum: Took me back to the Bahamas! Excellent flavor and consistency.
• Magic Mule: Deliciously tart with a nice hint of warm spice. Perfectly sweet.
• Marc de Champagne Truffle: With the flavor and the powdered sugar, this one was very unique! Perfect amount of sweetness. Not sure if it’s a favorite because it reminded me a bit too much of my first impressions of Turkish delight, before I grew to like it. Just negative associations.
• Mojito: With strong mint and lime flavors, it tastes as pleasantly green as it looks!
• Mojo Bourbon Truffle: Great consistency, but not quite sweet enough for me. I’d probably have preferred this one in milk chocolate. The dark overpowered the bourbon.
• Pinot Noir: This was delicious! The wine was subtle–I knew I could taste something yummy inside, but don’t think I could have identified it as wine.
• ***Port Wine Fig and Plum: Here’s something incredibly unique and tasty! I’d eat an entire box of them! I love the texture with the fruit and the fig seeds. The many flavors remind me a bit of baklava.
• Rye Whiskey Caramel: Sweet and very tasty. Smooth, not too chewy. Can’t really taste the whiskey, though. (To be fair, mine didn’t match the one on the website exactly, so either the design changed or it may be something different.)

Autumn Flavors

• ***Apple Cider: I didn’t know you could make caramel even better, but they found a way to do it with this! So warm and toasty. The amount of tartness from the apple was just perfect.
• ***Apple Pie: Tastes like apple pie in a little chocolate shell! Exactly what I wanted!
• ***Cinnamon Roll: It really is just like eating the yummy “stuff” right out of a cinnamon roll!
• ***Cranberry Orange Smash Bonbon: Sweet-tart with a pleasant berry chew.
• ***Fall Maple Delight: This is like a thin layer of those perfect little maple sugar candies mixed with chocolate and caramel. Melts in your mouth.
• ***Lavender and Lemon: An autumn flavor, but it reminds me of springtime.
• Maple Leaves Truffle: Great flavor and consistency. All-around great piece.
• ***Maple Pecan Crumble: I’ve never had one quite like this before! The perfect mix of sweet and salty AND the perfect mix of smooth and crunchy.
• ***Maple Vanilla: Fantastic! Smooth, sweet, and delicious, it’s the perfect ratio of maple vanilla to chocolate.
• ***Pecan Pie Truffle: Absolutely perfect texture, sweetness, and warm spice. Very creative idea for a chocolate!
• ***Pumpkin’licious: It’s really hard to go wrong with pumpkin–especially when it’s mixed with graham cracker!
• Pumpkin Milk Chocolate: This was a delicious chunk of fudgy, chocolatey goodness. But it was not pumpkin-flavored. It was not bad by any means! But not a favorite because I didn’t expect it to be plain chocolate. (It was originally labeled “Pumpkin Truffle” at the time I ordered it and I think got mixed up with another flavor in the system.)
• ***Pumpkin Patch: (a.k.a. Pumpkin Chai Truffle) So sublime. This huge bite of delicious, spicy, pumpkiny goodness was an absolute delight.
• ***Pumpkin Pie Truffle: Tastes like eating pumpkin pie with chocolate on it! Deliciously thick consistency from the real pumpkin center.
• ***Wildberries and Almond: Delightful berry flavor with a wisp of something floral and a pleasantly light crunch.

Beacon Hill Chocolates was a fantastic experience. I would definitely never say no to a single piece here, but about half of them were clear favorites that I would absolutely order again.

I have also ordered a delivery of these since my first visit here, so I’ve had them three times in all. But let me tell you, it is tricky to send chocolates to Florida. Even with cold packs, even in the middle of February, if they happen to arrive on one of those winter days that isn’t randomly cold and sit outside or in the mailbox for a couple of hours, they will still melt. I got around this once before by having chocolates delivered to the office, where I knew they would come straight inside and sit in the air-conditioning, but now that I am blessedly back to working full-time from home, I have to make absolutely certain they are delivered while I am there, which isn’t always possible. So a visit while I was in there area was unquestionably in order!