Chocolate Treats

It's an ancient gift-giver's quandary: jewelry or chocolate? Now you have a third choice: chocolate jewelry.

Boucheron, the venerable Place Vendôme jeweler, has launched a new line of rings in creamy-brown gold. They were designed by creative director Solange Azagury-Partridge, who was inspired when her research team showed her a sample of the "chocolate" gold.

"I had been coming up with turns of phrase using bouche [the French word for mouth]," Azagury-Partridge says. "Like l'eau à la bouche ... mouth-watering. It's all about being edible and delicious, and that color of gold symbolized it perfectly." She turned the specially treated material into whimsical shapes, like a square of chocolate that seems to melt over the finger, and another that looks as if it's been nibbled.

The rings start at about $700 (there are also $600 versions in plain old yellow gold) and represent Boucheron's first attempt at an "access line" — fashionspeak for "affordable." But if you don't tell, she'll never know.