Godiva was founded in Brussels, Belgium in 1926 by Joseph Draps. A master marketer as well as chocolate maker, Draps’ use of the Godiva story quickly helped establish the company’s reputation. Introduced to the United States in 1966 (the Campbell Soup Company secured North American distribution rights in that year) Campbell’s purchased Godiva outright in 1972. Today Godiva/Campbell has over 200 boutiques and 1000 retail outlets in the United States alone.

Type(s): Gourmet Chocolatier, Mass Market Premium Chocolatier
Style: European
Taste Rating: Poor
Overall Value Rating: Poor

While Godiva positions itself as a prestige chocolatier, its price point in its boutiques and its presence in mass-market locations such as Barnes & Noble positions it squarely in the low-to-middle tier of the gourmet category. Godiva is not classified as a mass-market chocolatier simply because I can’t find them in my local CVS. If/when I do, the rating will change.

And, while it prides itself on a history and tradition of hand-made Belgian craftsmanship, the ingredients list on one of their pre-pack ballotins (see the review) and the sheer quantity of product they have to produce, definitely keeps Godiva out of the ranks of the world’s best.

I suppose someone could quibble over the fact that I placed Godiva in the Gourmet American Chocolatier category instead of European, but the Godiva site states that most of the production for the US is done here in the US. And, Godiva is owned by an American company.

Godiva appears to be a case where brand perception overcomes the reality of the product being sold. Godiva is the only major gourmet chocolatier engaging in brand advertising at the national level, and it is apparent that, at least in that regard, it is very successful.

Original Review Posting Date, November 26, 2002

Godiva markets itself as a prestige chocolatier, but its price point ($34/lb in its NYC boutiques) and its presence in mass-market locations such as Barnes & Noble peg it squarely in the gourmet class. Even then, the message is confusing, for in some retail outlets, the price is higher than it is in the boutiques!

For the consumer, this means confusion, which is compounded by wondering if the chocolate in the boutique display case is the same in the ballotins in the book store. If it is, the storage guidelines on Godiva’s web site are not to be believed, because retailers require that the shelf life of boxed chocolates in a store be one year, while the Godiva web site claims two weeks.

A look at the ingredients of a 4-pc Truffle Assortment ballotin ($7.00 for 2.5 ozs, or $45/lb) purchased in a NYC gourmet store (Balducci’s near Lincoln Center) shows the following ingredients list:

Bittersweet Chocolate (Sugar, Chocolate (Processed with Alkali), Cocoa Butter, Butter Oil, Soya Lecithin-an Emulsifier, Milk, Vanillin-an Artificial Flavoring), Milk Chocolate (Sugar, Cocoa Butter, Milk, Chocolate, Soya Lecithin-an Emulsifier, Vanillin-an Artificial Flavoring), Corn Syrup, Almonds, Sugar, Butter, Heavy Cream, Partially Hydrogenated Vegetable Oil (Palm Kernel, Soybean, and Cottonseed), Sweetened Condensed Milk (Milk, Sugar), Cocoa Butter, Pecans, Butter Oil, Milk, Lemon Juice, Skim Milk, Lime Juice, Natural Flavoring, Invert Cane Syrup, Chocolate, Salt, Soya Lecithin, Potassium Sorbate (to protect flavor), Invertase, Tocopherols (antioxidants).

There are a number of ingredients in this list that should give consumers pause. The first two are the presence of butter oil and vanillin in the bittersweet chocolate that is the main ingredient. The next warning flag is partially hydrogenated vegetable oils (hydrogenation creates trans-fatty acids, the worst kind) including palm kernel oil, one of the worst tropical oils when it comes to saturated fat. Finally, the truffles contain potassium sorbate, a preservative, which is one key that these truffles were produced to have an extended shelf life of about a year.

The $45 price puts these truffles in the Prestige category, but the ingredients put them in the Mass Market/Mass Market Premium Premium categories.

Ingredients aside, how do they taste?

In addition to the ballotin I purchased at Balducci’s, I went to the Godiva boutique in Grand Central Station where I asked one of the counter staff if the truffles in the case were the same as the truffles in the ballotins. I was told yes, except that the ballotins contain the standard assortment while the case had the seasonal items. Makes sense. However, if they are the same truffles, the message about quality ingredients and storage is definitely misleading.

But back to the taste. I found Godiva truffles to have enrobings (the chocolate that covers the ganache center) to be way too thick for my taste. They truffles are chewy, even at the correct eating temperature, and I always found a small residue of chewy chocolate in my mouth after the ganache was gone. So, the texture is not right, especially for a company that wants to position its wares as prestige products.

The flavors of the fillings themselves were actually pretty clear, which was surprising to me, but the taste balance between the fillings and the coatings was off, due to the thickness of the enrobing. And, most of the fillings were too sweet for my taste; after all there is sugar in the milk chocolate, corn syrup, and invert cane syrup along with sweetened condensed milk. I think the praline suffered the most in this respect as the almond flavor was muted. Aftertastes were also pretty clean with only a slight astringency under the tongue after a couple of minutes (this would not be discernible if you drank anything, even plain water, after consuming the truffle).

Presentation was a little disappointing in the ballotin selection as some of the nuts decorating the outside of one piece flaked off and there were little bits of nuts on other pieces in the box.

Conclusion

In the end, I couldn’t discern any meaningful difference between the truffles I purchased in the boutique (which were supposedly fresh and had a limited shelf life) and the truffles I purchased in a pre-pack ballotin at a gourmet store for $10/lb more.

This leads me to believe that the truffles may, in fact, be the same, and this is one reason for the poor value rating. At $34/lb, Godiva products are poor, both in taste and in value. At $45/lb, the quality/value ratio is even more out of whack.

The “Poor” taste rating was given instantly for the ingredients used. Anywhere in the gourmet segment of the market we would expect chocolates to be free of hydrogenated vegetable fats and artificial vanilla. The taste/texture imbalance also contributes to the poor rating.

The value rating is also “Poor” and is given in part because the chocolates do not live up to the marketing image of the company as a prestige chocolatier. Godiva does itself a disservice in this respect, selling what the consumer can justly perceive to be identical products in both upscale boutiques and down-market retail locations at very different prices.

Company Information:

Website: http://www.godiva.com/