Chocolate lovers beware! The price of your favorite treat is on the rise.

Growing demand in emerging markets and bad weather in major cocoa producing countries is pushing up the cost of key ingredients, leaving manufacturers little choice but to pass on some of that pain to consumers.

The price of cocoa butter, for example, stands at a four-year high, having risen by 70% over the past 12 months, according to Mintec commodity consultant Liliana Gonzalez.
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Kate Krader (@kkrader on Twitter) is Food & Wine's restaurant editor. When she tells us where to find our culinary heart's desire, we listen up.

Let’s crunch some numbers on America’s Easter candy consumption. The National Confectioners Association offers the following stats:
 

  
I’m a loyal fan of classic Easter candy; you’d have to measure all the Cadbury eggs and jelly beans I’ve consumed by the metric ton. But that doesn’t mean I don’t want to try new things, especially on a major candy holiday. Here are some suggestions of artisans doing interesting things in one of my favorite mediums, chocolate.
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Kate Krader (@kkrader on Twitter) is Food & Wine's restaurant editor. When she tells us where to find our culinary heart's desire, we listen up.

On Valentine’s Day, the question isn’t whether you’re going to eat any chocolate; the question is how much? If you need something to strive for, the record for the world’s largest chocolate heart is waiting to be broken: It was set back in 2004 in Madrid, by the seven metric ton heart from Match.com.

But there are infinite kinds of chocolate to indulge in on this great holiday; you don’t need to confine yourself to hearts. The following is a gift guide for all kinds of chocolate lovers, from the pizza fanatics to the sports junkies to the very, very rich.
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Step aside, Willy Wonka. According to its creator, Vosges chocolate is not just chocolate, it's "an experiential chocolate story-telling vehicle that's meant to be indulgent and sensual and opening to the mind."

More than that, 38-year-old company founder Katrina Markoff intends to "break down stereotypes through chocolate."

Having traveled around the world, Markoff's goal is to get people to try the exotic flavors she discovered, something that's more achievable if those flavors are enrobed in chocolate.
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