WITH only 66 shopping days to Christmas and counting, it's no wonder that department stores and gift shops all over town are getting ready for the traditional festive period rush by stocking up on the usual assortment of consumer goods that have always been favoured at this time of year.

That age-old standby - a box of fine chocolates - still works for most people, but there's a twist. It's no longer necessary to buy a beautifully gift-wrapped box of assorted pralines weeks, or even days, in advance. With the advent of gourmet quality, made-in-Singapore chocolates in recent years, more and consumers are taking the customised, fresh-is-best approach.

But how do local chocolates stack up against an imported brand with a hard-to-pronounce foreign name and a 100-year-old tradition? It all depends, of course. There'll always be a market - and marketing is the name of the game for many of the top brands - for chocolates that originate in, say, Belgium or Switzerland. Nowadays, though, chocolate connoisseurs won't shy away from picking at a selection by one of a growing breed of Singapore and Singapore-based producers such as Frenchman Laurent Bernard, who started his artisan-style store about two years ago.

Short of making a pilgrimage to the Paris institution La Maison du Chocolat, the boutique chocolatier Jean-Paul Hevin on Rue Saint-Honore (also in Paris), or perhaps Le Chocolat de H in Tokyo's Roppongi Hills - with its chocolate-viewing room and gold leaf-covered designer edibles - chocolate lovers are not destined for disappointment in Singapore.

From a primitive drink in 16th-century Mexico and cocoa beans that were once used as currency by Latin American tribes, high-end chocolate consumption has not only come a long way, it's a growing trend - according to some of the people who both make and market them. But what exactly do we look for in a good chocolate?

'The real connoisseur likes dark chocolate,' says Verena Raveton de Castelmur, whose luxury French gourmet store Hediard carries a selection of fine chocolates (at $23 per 100 gm). 'French chocolates are maybe more pure, while Belgian brands are universally known. Locally-made chocolates are risky in the sense that you don't have 100 per cent guarantee of the brand - there's no guarantee of consistency.'

Something is happening with chocolate in Singapore, she says. 'It's like wine culture - we're still behind, but it's a kind of positioning of yourself - it's the elegant thing to do.' The criteria for a good chocolate, she adds, is that first it must be fresh. Then it must not be too sweet, and the taste should linger in the mouth. It should also be moist and soft enough to melt in the mouth and the surface must be thin, while the colour (for dark chocolate) should be closer to mahogany than black. Finally, the taste itself should be a nice balance among bitterness, acidity and sweetness.

'Gourmet chocolate consumption is definitely growing and will continue to grow - it's like the fine-dining scene here,' says Pang Kok Keong, Chef Patissier at Canele, which offers a selection of in-house chocolates (above), using high-quality cacao to make interesting and unusual flavours, such as a black sesame praline and basil and tomato ganache (or filling). Canele, part of the Les Amis group, has two outlets now, with plans to open two more by the end of the year.

When the patisserie first opened three years ago, Pang estimates that chocolate consumption was only about 15 kg per month. Now, he produces about 100 kg each month, priced at $2.50 a piece. 'We don't have any fancy designs, we just concentrate on the taste,' says Pang, who trained with the Spanish maestro Paco Torreblanca of Pasteleria Totel, who is regarded as one of the best pastry chefs in the world.

'At the moment, we are seeing more of imported chocolates, but if you were to take what we produce here at Canele and put it side by side with different brands and scrutinise them, there will be a lot of difference,' he says, adding that the chocolate cover should be as thin as possible, not more than about one millimetre thick.

'Taste is paramount - our chocolates are more French in style, we don't use moulds to make them.' He adds: 'A lot of the big brands are better at marketing than making good chocolate. The Swiss and Belgium brands are sweeter and creamier, while the French have redefined what is good chocolate.'

Over at Thos S.B. Raffles (left), the gourmet store run by Raffles Hotel, chocolatier Then Chui Foong is adept at making chocolates in the French style, albeit with Asian flavours as well, such as pandan-kaya, lemon and basis, jasmine tea or coconut and manjari (a single-origin bean from Madagasgar). The chocolates are priced at $2.50 per piece, or $18 per 100 gm, comparable to the top imported brands like Leonidas ($17 per 100 gm), Neuhaus ($19.40) and Godiva ($22 to $32).

'My chocolates are less sweet, not too heavy in texture,' says Then, who has been making chocolates by hand since 1993. 'I use a lot of fresh ingredients like herbs, fruit purees an cream, rather than essences or compounds.' She adds: 'When everything is done by hand, the most difficult thing is the consistency - if someone tells me that my chocolates are always the same, then I'm happy.'

Then has a certain disdain for chocolates that don't make the grade. 'When they have to be imported and put on the shelf for a few months, it's not the same - it's more like plastic to me than something edible,' she says. 'We are trying to get the message across, treat chocolate like sashimi - eat it fresh.'

Good chocolate is good chocolate, says Francoise De Smet, who opened a Leonidas store here in 1998, the first outlet in Asia for the well-known Belgian brand. Earlier this year, she sold the business to local company Chocz, where she is now business manager. 'There was no good chocolate here,' says De Smet, a Belgian and long-time Singapore resident. 'All these years, there was only a (Swiss brand) Teuscher counter at Tangs. If we go for Leonidas, it means freshness, quality, good volume.'

Chocolate temptations at Leonidas, Takashimaya Food Hall

She adds: 'From a pure gift-based product, chocolate has become a consumer product. For quality, I think we stand out above anybody else. Leonidas produces two-thirds of all Belgian chocolate and we have air shipments once a week. We've been doing about four to five tonnes a year in Singapore and we're going to try to double that.'

Perhaps the biggest concentration of imported chocolate brands can be found in the basement food hall of Takashimaya Department Store, where the likes of Neuhaus, Royce, Godiva and Leonidas are clustered conveniently together. A new brand - Patchi, a Lebanese brand which is linked to a gift business - joined them about three weeks ago, lending credence to the notion that gourmet chocolates are here to stay.

'There is a very strong chocolate scene here - the demand is strong and people understand the difference between high-end and supermarket chocolates,' says Ram Nanwani, managing director of Patchi. The brand is available in stores like Harrods but positions itself as a part of a gift package - all the chocolates come individually wrapped.

Benny Chua, owner of Singapore brand Chocz, the biggest retailer of gourmet chocolates here, says his company is able to produce chocolate that is equal in quality to the imports. Chocz has been manufacturing in Malaysia since 2003 and in Singapore since 2005, with both wholesale and retail operations. 'Our strong point is that we are able to create certain local recipes - chilli, durian, lemongrass - in the European style,' he says.

'Because we manufacture in Singapore, we are serving the freshest products,' he adds. 'High-end gourmet chocolates should be eaten fresh - there will be better aroma and texture, with that soft, moist taste. If a chocolate is more than two or three months old, there will be a loss of moisture and the taste will be compromised.'

Chua says the outlook for chocolate culture here is 'very positive - there is more knowledge by local consumers at the high end, and demand is rising every year. Since day one, our volume has increased more than 10 times in five years. 'Nowadays people are going for quality instead of quantity - it's not just Kit Kat bars anymore. The appreciation level is like wine. We're not just selling a product, we're selling a lifestyle.'

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