History of Conversation Hearts

• At one time, conversation candies were made into many shapes including horseshoes, baseballs and watches
• About 8 billion hearts will be produced this year; that’s enough candy to stretch from Rome, Italy to Valentine, Ariz. and back again 20 times
• The peak selling season for conversation hearts last only six weeks, but confectioners produce the candy for nearly eleven months of the year
• Walter Marshall, who is responsible for developing the sayings on NECCO candy hearts, gets suggestions from his nine grandchildren to reflect the attitude young people have toward love. Recent additions include “You Go Girl” and “Yeah Right.”

In celebration of Valentine’s day we decided to post this random tidbit of Valentine’s-day related information.

History of the Candy

In Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Queen Gertrude offers the now-loved sentiment “Sweets to the Sweet.” Perhaps this is the origin of the tradition of giving candy to a loved one. Early American colonists made homemade candies with love notes scratched on the surface for Valentine’s Day. New England Confectionary Company (NECCO) expanded upon the colonists’ idea and created the conversation heart in the mid-1800s.

The technology to print on candies was invented in 1860 – but not used to send love messages until 1900. The early version of the “Conversation Hearts” were quite different from today’s version. Not only did they lack the hip “Fax Me.” or the ultra-trendy “IM me”, but they also lacked the small heart shape. Early Sweet Hearts (as they were called) had phrases such as “How long shall I have to wait? Pray be considerate.” printed on shapes like horeshoes and baseballs. With the modern advances in confectionary manufacturing, and a modern slackening of the English language, candy hearts and their corresponding messages have shrunk down to the size we now are familar with.

History according to the National Confecioners Association