The Best Holiday Chocolate To Buy At The Grocery Store In 2024

Let's just admit it: Everyone loves holiday chocolates from the grocery store. While handcrafted offerings from local chocolatiers have a well-deserved place in gift-giving, sometimes we just want an everyday splurge or some simple stocking stuffers for family and coworkers. That's where mainstream holiday chocolates come in handy. They're easily accessible while picking up weekly groceries, and most producers go all-out with special holiday flavors, foils wrappings, and shapes — from bars to bells, balls, miniature reindeers, and stamped holiday scenes. It's all glitter-and-gold, as the saying goes, but in the end, what distinguishes them all is the taste. 

That's why Tasting Table testers did some nibbling on your behalf, putting together an assortment of top supermarket chocolates clad in winter-holiday decor. Many are everyday chocolates repackaged in festive shapes and colors, but some introduce limited edition chocolates solely for the season. Of the 15 grocery store holiday chocolates chosen for our 2024 ranking, one checked all the yummy boxes, landing in the top spot: the Ghirardelli Holiday Chocolate Assortment. 

These festive Ghirardelli squares are a much-anticipated annual release, with the selection varying from year to year. There's also some variation within the Ghirardelli holiday collections. The assortment we chose to rank packs three different holiday square offerings into decorative bags, available from most major grocers and retailers. The trio includes the company's peppermint bark, a milk chocolate mint cookie, and a year-round favorite, the milk chocolate caramel square. Here's a look at why this assortment makes for the best holiday chocolate this year. 

The first of the three Ghirardelli holiday squares in our chosen collection is a seasonal favorite: the peppermint bark. It carries a mild minty tone that's light and tingly, though we do feel it overpowered the sweet chocolate flavors a bit. No worries in that regard on the next holiday square: the milk chocolate mint cookie. The smooth milk chocolate in this soft-yet-crispy square is front-facing, perked up by the crunchy cookie texture and undertones of mint. Finally, the collection brings in a stalwart of the Ghirardelli family of chocolate square flavors: the milk chocolate caramel square. This sweetheart isn't too bold or sassy, just a smooth, rich chocolate oozing with creamy caramel. 

Ghirardelli is practically a household name with a prevalent presence in grocery store aisles and holiday displays, but it's worth noting that this brand is very much a "hometown" chocolatier. The name is strongly associated with San Francisco, where entrepreneur Domingo Ghirardelli, an immigrant from Italy, set up a small confectionery shop in the mid-1800s. With help from his three sons, it gradually morphed into today's Ghirardelli Chocolate Company. The 170-year-old company is considered the longest continually operating chocolatier in the country, and Ghirardelli Square holds a listing on the National Historic Register. The enormous illuminated Ghirardelli sign serves as city landmark and a beacon to ships gliding the Golden Gate straight. It's an American story through and through, with some lingering Italian secrets tucked into those little holiday squares.