Think Valentine's and the first thing that comes to mind is chocolate. (Well some of you may think of roses or cuddly toys or a romantic date with a loved one, but to one whose mind is more focused on culinary pleasures, chocolate tops the list.)

And not just any chocolate mind you; Valentine's Day demands more than the regular milk or plain candy bars. Heart-shaped boxes filled with heart-shaped chocolates, presented with a heart-shaped card, or -- if that's too cheesy (should that be chocolatey?) for your taste - foil covered trays filled with an assortment of confectionery are the basic requirement for a Valentine's Day offering.

Of course, if buying chocolate once a year is the only indicator of your strength of love, you might want to move beyond the basics. Come February and chocolate manufacturers give Willy Wonka a run for his money by coming up with the most extravagant, creative and sometimes downright bizarre creations for Valentine's Day presents. For instance, the Chocolate Room!

Designed by a premium chocolate manufacturer, the Chocolate Room is a chocoholic's fantasy run amok, with furniture, paintings, fixtures (the chandelier is hung with tiny chocolate 'pearls') and even the 'logs' in the fireplace all made with the finest Belgian chocolate. The room is part of a promotional campaign and is on display at an upscale Manhattan hotel and will be awarded to the winning couple as a weekend vacation suite — err, make that 'sweet'.

But if you prefer chocolate in a box to being boxed in chocolate you can choose from anything as simple as a cardboard container tied with a ribbon to exquisite tins, studded with diamantes. And if you really want to give your Valentine the best in the whole World Wide Web, there's the four-tier mahogany chest, filled with a selection of the finest handmade chocolate -- at a price of over 200 dollars you wouldn't expect anything less, would you? Clearly, being a thoughtful Valentine is expensive business.

So whose bright idea was it to give chocolates as Valentine gifts? Some say it's due to the inherent properties of chocolate -- the presence of endorphins and serotonin -- which make it a natural mood enhancer; in fact, it is believed that these substances release the same chemicals in the human brain that being in love does. What can be better than that on Valentine's Day? While no one knows for sure when the custom started, it's obvious that this confection was closely associated with the festival as far back as 1861 when Richard Cadbury introduced the very first heart-shaped chocolate box. Today, an estimated 35 million heart-shaped chocolate boxes are sold for Valentine's Day every year!

And it's not just the western world that celebrates Valentine's with a passion. In Japan custom demands that women give chocolates to men -- while men are required to reciprocate with gifts a month later. Astute marketing has made it a mark of honour for every man to receive as many boxes as he can on Valentine's Day, making it imperative for women to spend thousands of Yen on chocolates for all the men she knows -- from friends to colleagues and bosses -- so they don't lose face. However, for the special man in her life a Japanese woman will probably make chocolate at home; Green Tea balls, a confection made with green tea powder and white chocolate is very popular.

But call it what you will — a marketing ploy, an obligatory gesture or a commercialised ritual — chocolate is as much a part of Valentine's Day as Santa is at Christmas. So why fight a good thing? Surprise your Valentine with a box of your favourite chocolates and share the good times.