The chocolate covered fruit doesn't stop there – we also swirl and drizzle our chocolate covered strawberries with delicious milk, dark and white chocolate, and top them with chocolate chips, nuts, and more treats that they're guaranteed to love.

With Valentine's Day fast approaching, Cold Stone Creamery has announced the return of the popular Chocolate-Dipped Strawberry ice cream, a combination of fresh strawberry ice cream mixed with ribbons of fudge ganache.

We pack each berry by hand in protective packaging, complete with ice packs, to keep the fruit sweet and cool.

While both chocolate and strawberries have been around for a while, it wasn't until the 1960s that the idea to combine them was born. A woman working at a gourmet store in Chicago, Lorraine Lorusso of the Stop 'N' Shop, is said to be the inventor of this delicious treat.

People quite like textural contrast in food, and chocolate is great for that because you can bite into it, but then it melts in the mouth. Crunchy things with a soft interior tend to be highly liked. This may also explain the extra special appeal of a chocolate-coated strawberry."

It's time for romance: Chocolate-covered strawberries

• Increases one's good cholesterol (HDL)
• Lowers bad cholesterol (LDL)
• Lowers blood pressure.

Each center is dropped by hand into a dipping pot and scooped out by the “dipper” using hand-crafted tools; scoops, loops, forks depending on the shape of the center. The temperature of the chocolate is constantly monitored to ensure a thick, lustrous coating on every piece.

Bakers temper chocolate over low heat, melting it to a velvety smooth consistency to make a drizzle topping for ice cream or cupcakes or a dipping sauce for other foods. You can use white, milk, and dark chocolate for this dipping sauce, turning a simple dessert into an interactive experience.

Clamshell packaging is the go-to packaging type for strawberries. These containers are made from rigid plastics and will come with a lid made from the same material. Usually, the lid will be attached to the container itself, preventing it from being misplaced.

Strawberries are hand-picked and packed in the field, directly into the “clamshell” containers. Because of this, an occasional bug or worm is not unusual and may find its way into a package and go undetected until the berries are ready for use.

Strawberry is rich in Vitamin C and iron. Some varieties viz. Olympus, Hood & Shuksan having high flavour and bright red colour are suitable for ice-cream making. Other varieties like Midway, Midland, Cardinal, Hood, Redchief and Beauty are ideal for processing.

A woman working at a gourmet store in Chicago, Lorraine Lorusso of the Stop 'N' Shop, is said to be the inventor of this delicious treat. She took some of the store's gourmet chocolate and dipped fresh strawberries into the mixture, selling them to customers after the chocolate shell hardened.

The garden strawberry (or simply strawberry; Fragaria × ananassa) is a widely grown hybrid species of the genus Fragaria, collectively known as the strawberries, which are cultivated worldwide for their fruit. The fruit is widely appreciated for its characteristic aroma, bright red color, juicy texture, and sweetness.

On it's own, chocolate has some health benefits – if we don't overindulge. But what about chocolate covered strawberries? The answer is YES! Chocolate and strawberries contain antioxidants which are linked to improved risk of infection and cancer and thought to improve our bodies' immune function.

Despite being one of the easiest and cheapest desserts to make, chocolate covered strawberries are one of those fancy, bite-size desserts that everyone loves. They're beautiful and impressive looking, but they're incredibly simple.

The difference between “hand-dipped” and “soft serve” is fairly significant. Hand-dipped is basically what it sounds like- your ice cream is in a container along with some other flavors, and a worker will “dip” it for you, meaning that they will scoop it into a cup themselves.