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Doesn't the box in the middle look like the mask from Scream? But which one is the best buy?

Let's say you like someone, but not enough to get him a $100 box of chocolates from La Maison du Chocolat. Or maybe you only hooked up with her once, and not satisfactorily, either. Or perhaps you're too lazy or too late to get a box of Jacques Torres, and end up popping into a Duane Reade just as you're about to pick up your date for, say, dinner at McDonald's.

FiTR has found itself in similar situations, and figured that what all of us needed was an accurate guide to the cheap and garishly sentimental end of the chocolate continuum, you know, boxes of chocolates with big sloppy dogs pictured on the front, and assortments so small, they could be eaten by a rat (not you, hopefully) in seconds. So here's your guide to cheap Valentine's chocolates, with descriptive material and a scorecard.

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Was Prince Polo actual royalty?

Mention the name, and it conjures up images of an heir from some forgotten European grand duchy, brandishing a mallet and dressed head-to-toe in a royal blue polo outfit, complete with equestrian helmet. Well, sadly, there never was a person known as Prince Polo. Instead, it's a candy bar introduced in Poland in 1955, soon after that country went communist.

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notcot.org

Hungry for some chocolate death?

This from the blog Incredible Things: When Montreal artist Marina Malvada came into the temporary possession of a human skull in 2005, she had a crazy idea.

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Lauren Shockey

A dragon's beard is similar to Santa's beard. Promise.

Candy canes and gingerbread men might get all the love when it comes to sating your sweet tooth with Christmas candy, but it's worth heading down to Chinatown to discover the tasty traditional Chinese sweet that resembles wintry, snow-covered logs: Yao's Dragon Beard Candy.

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With nothing between you and the sugar and artificial flavoring, lollipops have long been a Halloween favorite.

Halloween is America's number-one candy holiday -- way ahead of Christmas, and slightly ahead of Easter. Kids dream about it for weeks beforehand, and spend weeks afterward parsing and trading their candy. In some affluent neighborhoods, children have been known to bring several bags, and stash the full ones in the bushes along the way. Parents may try to eat some, or throw most of it away, but the piles are still prodigious. Here are the most-desired Halloween treats of the last few decades.

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Liz Gutman, co-founder of Liddabit Sweets, fishes around in her new infernal contraption.

Founded in 2009 by Liz Gutman and Jen King, Brooklyn's Liddabit Sweets brought the local and sustainable ethos to candy making. It also brought us habit forming, individually wrapped sea-salt caramels. And now a new product has appeared at the Liddabit booth in the New Amsterdam Market, one that is somewhat more perishable than the caramels.

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Robert Sietsema

Coming soon in cake form

Candy is dandy, but what about candy-flavored cakes? Pretty effing rad, don't you think? British sweets shop the London Candy Company will be making life even sweeter, since it'll soon be adding candy-bar-flavored cakes to its roster of sugary delights.

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The candy has a rather dusty appearance.

That's "horehound," not "whore hound" -- though the joke works if you say it out loud, rather than see the word written. While the former might suggest an overly promiscuous feral dog, the latter is an herb that was used long ago to make hard candy.

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March 20 is going to be an exciting day, and not just because it's the vernal equinox. It's also Macaron Day. Is that a fake holiday, you cry? Well, yes, sort of. In 2010, François Payard organized New York's first annual Macaron Day, inspired by -- and coinciding annually with -- the Jour du Macaron in Paris (in part created by Pierre Hermé). Those kooky pastry chefs, creating holidays left and right. But Macaron Day will bring forth free macarons!

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doobybrain.com

Happy Valentine's Day! And especially to all the candy and chocolate retailers out there -- this year, people will be spending more on the holiday this year than last year.

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