So here we are, in the month of February, and if you're currently seeing/dating/wooing from afar/married to a special someone, you will no doubt find yourself in the market for some Valentine's Day gifts. Thanks to the billion-dollar advertising budgets of the mass-marketing machine I like to call "Big Chocolate", you'll probably find yourself sleeping on the proverbial couch if the tokens of your love and affection don't include some sinful chocolate confections. But what if your honeybunny is living a low-carb lifestyle? Quite a conundrum indeed considering the average box of Russell Stover chocolates packs almost 20 grams of carbohydrates to a serving (3 pieces)!

Fear not, Romeo (or Juliet!). You may well be able to turn the Chocolate Challenge into a reward by crafting a special assortment of low-carb chocolate confections sure to please his or her palette as well as score mucho thoughtfulness points!

In the interest of research and as a service to CarbHealth readers, I have bravely set out to taste test over a dozen different low-carb chocolate candies ordered from some of the finer low-carb web stores on the 'net (as well as donated from low-carb co-workers with quite the sweet tooth). I know, I know - it's a tough job, but someone has to do it! I found myself very impressed with a few of the treats I sampled, so consider these suggestions:

Pure De-Lite Belgian Chocolate Treasure Bites - Oh my. Do a search on the web for this product - these delightful little treats come in 4 flavors, Milk Chocolate, Dark Chocolate, Milk Chocolate Almond, and Milk Chocolate Crisp. My personal favorite was the Milk Chocolate Crisp. You'll truly believe you're eating a lot more than 1 gram of carbs per serving!

CarboLite Peanut Butter Cups - a pal from work turned me on to these and warned me they're hard to come by since they're one of the best-tasting low-carb chocolate treats around. Sure enough, I was a believer after trying one, and sure enough, had to surf a number of web stores to find them available!

Ross Dark Chocolate Bar - After reading several rave reviews on the 'net I decided to sample some Ross bars. Ross makes 10 different varieties of chocolate bars, but I was blown away by the Dark Chocolate Bar. At just 1 gram of carbs per bar, this is the perfect centerpiece of a custom-made low-carb Valentines' assortment.