At first, the Aztecs punished their enemies by pouring hot chocolate down their throats, until the proud warriors found out their foes actually liked it and promptly switched to molten gold. Relive the pleasure of those lucky few conquistadors with today's Groupon: for $10, you get $20 worth of personalized chocolate bars from Chocomize. This Groupon is only valid online and does not include shipping (a $5.95 flat rate, $6.95 during the summer).

Chocomize is the first customizable chocolate-bar business in North America, letting customers mix premium Belgian chocolate with hundreds of fine ingredients to create more than 30 billion possible permutations. After snapping on surgical gloves, customers can play mad candy scientist at Chocomize's online creation station by throwing a handmade Belgian dark, milk, or white chocolate bar ($3.85–$3.95) onto their computer screen's operating table and doctoring it with up to five choices from the nut, fruit, herbs, candy, and pickled-alien-tentacle categories ($0.40–$3.25 each). Stick with a favorite formula such as Hawaiian sunset (milk chocolate, macadamia nuts, 23-karat gold flakes, coconut flakes, and pineapple; $8.35), or throw caution to the cocoa-scented wind and devise your own diabolical concoction. Fans of savory flavors may steer toward potato chips, beef jerky, and vegetarian bacon, while bona-fide sweet teeth will wriggle around their mouths with delight at the thought of caramel pieces, butter-toasted peanuts, cookie dough, toffee, and gummi bears. More postmodern palates, meanwhile, can take candy bars to strange new places by overloading their sugary slabs with Runts, Pop Rocks, crystallized rose petals, strawberry gushers, hot curry powder, goji berries, and Corn Nuts. It takes a day or two to make your bar and another one to three business days before it arrives at your home to be stroked, serenaded with sousaphones, and finally devoured.

Chocomize was founded in 2009 by three college buddies who—daunted by finding jobs in a recession—decided to devote their days to giving birth to sweet, sweet chocolate. A portion of all proceeds benefits charities such as Doctors Without Borders and Action Against Hunger. Whether you plan to use your custom chocolate bars as party favors, Valentine's Day gifts, or cochlear implants, buying from Chocomize lets you give back to the world that's given you so many exotic movie backdrops and opportunities to try sushi.

Reviews

CNN Living and ABC6 News featured Chocomize, and more than 3,500 Facebookers are fans. O, The Oprah Magazine mentioned the chocolate bars, and Brides.com also recommends it:

• Today in our office everyone is going to town on these chocolate bars from Chocomize that we just received. The company allows you to create your own custom chocolate bar with a seemingly endless supply of toppings (our favorites include the Corn Nuts and crystallized rose petals). For your wedding you can also format the packaging to your liking as well as design your own label and candy packaging and create custom graphics on the chocolate itself. – Brides.com