Leave that box of chocolates to Forrest Gump to give out for Valentine’s Day — He was a simpleton, and you’re not.  Being the savvy T-town shopper you are, you know the best ways to give that most decadent of treats synonymous with love. 

Or maybe you don’t, because you’re heading into the grocery store to get a bag of Hershey’s Kisses to put in a pink coffee cup with a heart on it.  Whoa, wait, stop!
There are entirely too many options available to settle for mundane and uninspired chocolate delivery devices, ranging from the edible and unusual to the succulently inedible.

For the edible varieties, it would be imprudent to overlook possibly the gold standard of chocolate dates — The Melting Pot.  Pretty much it’s hard to beat skewered treats dipped in melted chocolate; though, Affairs in University Place is aiming to do just that with its $20 Valentine’s Dessert Buffet.  While this event is happening only on Valentine’s night, from 5 to 9 p.m., you can wander in at any other time and find a truffle or two to show your love.  The variety is staggering with combinations guaranteed to please any kind of chocolate lover. If you don’t want to head out to UP, Ranko’s Drugs also has a selection of these decadent beauties.
Chocolate doesn’t just come in truffle form at Sweets, Treats, and Designs in West Tacoma though there is a wide selection of amazing truffles from San Francisco to choose from. The non-truffle choices there include homemade treats such as the truly divine white chocolate covered cashews (I don’t know why they taste so good, they just do!) as well as chocolate-dipped licorice ropes and my favorite — white chocolate covered fortune cookies.  These cookies can be customized for weddings and will be on hand with Valentine’s messages in them just in time for the national day of love coming up.

While in Sweets, Treats and Designs look for the nonedible, non-chocolate love-in-a-tube called Jaqua Buttercream Frosting hand lotion.  My taste buds ached for a taste as I rubbed this lotion on my hands, and the scent stayed with me, haunting me like a good melody. As soon as that scent left me, I fired up the private-label dark chocolate candle the store carries and was swept to a chocolate oasis not unlike the one I go to when I dip a bite of homemade double chocolate Kahlua biscotti into Bailey’s hot cocoa. Yum.

This is, I’m told, a bit like the sensation one experiences when bathing with philosophy’s red velvet cake shampoo, shower gel, and body bath. The beautiful thing about this single product, available at Nordstrom or Nordstrom.com, is that it works for all three of the aforementioned uses so a person can limit spending while giving three products. 

And this, given while sharing an actual slice of red velvet cake at Corina Bakery, home of many more sweet treats involving chocolate love, can make for a sweet date in more ways than one.
But let’s say you want to immerse your valentine — or yourself — in more of an all-encompassing wet-chocolate fantasy.

Look no farther than Brassfield’s Salon and DaySpa in University Place.  Here, for a limited time, you can purchase and enjoy a chocolate body scrub or a chocolate pedicure — or both — and give your valentine (even if that person is yourself) the ultimate in choco-luxury.

Bear in mind — or bare in mind — that the scrub, which is a relaxing body-rubbing treatment involving a sugar and oil mixture, involves lying naked on a table while steam envelops you and a whole body Vichy shower sprays away every last concern you may possibly have. 
There is, I suspect, a magic sort of chocolate crack infused into the body scrub and lotion used in this treatment as it’s painfully addictive. But that’s OK, because you can get your product “fix” out in the lobby, where the product is sold for your at-home use.

The pedicure, featuring equally decadent smells and products used on your well-worn tootsies that are probably desperate for love after a long winter, is equally decadent. And it’s all in the spirit of chocolate overindulgence — without the pesky waistline aftereffects.

[The Melting Pot, 2121 Pacific Ave., Tacoma, 253.535.3939]
[Affairs Cafe & Balery, 2811 Bridgeport Way W., University Place, 253.565.8604]
[Ranko’s Drugs, 101 N. Tacoma Ave., Tacoma, 253.383.2411]
[Sweets, Treats, and Designs, 2209 N. Pearl St. # 103, Tacoma, 253.752.7343]
[Brassfields, 7326 27th St. W., University Place, 253.565.9800]