Buying Chocolate Truffles in China: Fakes Aplenty

Truffettes de France brand truffles marketed on a Chinese web site as French truffle chocolate. Actually made in Canada

A friend has asked me which French chocolates are best: Defeisi 德菲斯松露 or Feiluolun songlu 费罗伦松露. It was clear that she was confused and needed help. In providing her help it was clear that much deception occurs with Chinese suppliers and fakes are everywhere. As it turned out, neither are from France, and they may not be truffles, and one is only available from Chinese web site. These Chinese web sites are pretty sketchy. Add to this that Google search is unavailable in China, so Chinese people are not able to cross-check products, and the low level of English in China, makes it pretty easy to cheat Chinese consumers.

法国德菲斯松露巧克力和法国费罗伦松露巧克力

Feiluolun songlu / Ferrero Truffles
Feiluolun songlu 费罗伦松露巧克力 is pretty close to Ferrero Truffles, but that is not what I found on a Google search and Amazon. It has the same packaging as in North America, but with Chinese writing. The Chinese website has nice graphics of a box of truffles, but they are actually labelled “Truffettes de France” as the brand name, and are made in Canada and not France. The Chinese name “Feluolun”, close to the more famous Ferrero brand chocolate, as nothing to do with its actual brand name “Truffettes de France”. Chinese people, however, cannot read English so they can be easily fooled.

Truffettes de France brand truffles marketed on a Chinese web site as French truffle chocolate. Actually made in Canada. Brand name in Chinese is Ferrero.

Truffettes de France brand truffles marketed on a Chinese web site as French truffle chocolate. Actually made in Canada. Brand name in Chinese is Ferrero.

Truffettes de France brand truffles marketed on a Chinese web site as French truffle chocolate. Actually made in Canada. Brand name in Chinese is Ferrero.

Truffettes de France brand truffles marketed on a Chinese web site as French truffle chocolate. Actually made in Canada. Chinese description actually says France truffles chocolate. Brand name in Chinese is Ferrero.

French Defeisi Truffle Chocolate
法国德菲斯松露巧克力

I actually had to look at the Chinese web site page defeise.tmall.com to find the English brand name, because there were no hits of Google search. The reason is that they may be made in China and not available elsewhere.

French Defeisi Truffle Chocolate, advertised on a Chinese web site. The brand is actually G&L, maybe made in China.

French Defeisi Truffle Chocolate, advertised on a Chinese web site. The brand is actually G&L, maybe made in China. Available from Taobao, but not French and may not be actual truffles.

The web site looks gorgeous, but the chocolates are not from France. The web page says they are from Europe. Yet another Chinese site says they are from Belgium. I could not corroborate their origin.

French Defeisi Truffle Chocolate, from a Chinese web site in Chengdu, says it is from Belgium, but cannot find web pages for this Belgian chocolate.

Google searches do not yield any such Belgian chocolate called G&L. This name is probably fake and only used within China or Asia.

As Google is banned in China there is no way that Chinese people can cross-check the validity of Chinese web sites. Anything can be faked in China. As well, most Chinese people have a very poor grasp of English, making them easy to trick and cheat.

It is sad that Chinese people have lots of money but not the tools to research that purchased products are genuine. Access to international information would prevent a lot of fraud and cheating within China, against Chinese people.