On Valentine’s Day, you can show your love through a dozen red roses, a heart-shaped box of chocolates, or a love letter, but why not make your gesture a little sweeter with a box of Sweethearts conversation hearts? These classic treats are the only ones to state right on the candy how much you adore that special person in your life, sharing simple messages such as “Kiss Me” and “Be Mine” with your valentine. These heart-shaped confections originated in the mid-19th century, so let’s take a look back at the history of one of the most popular ways to share a Valentine’s Day message.
In 1847, a pharmacist named Oliver R. Chase invented a machine to make cutting lozenges more efficient. The clove- and cinnamon-flavored treats that contained tons of sugar to mask the taste of medicine were a big hit. Eventually, the pharmacist cut out any medicine and started Chase and Company with his brothers to sell candy only.
The Chases conceived of new ways to market their products, including hand-printing messages on each lozenge (drawing inspiration from a British candy called “cockles,” which contained paper sayings tucked inside each one). In 1866, Daniel Chase developed a machine that made the printing process more efficient, using a felt roller pad and some vegetable dye to imprint messages on the candy. Around 1901, Chase and Company merged with several other candy companies to create the New England Confectionary Company — or Necco, as it was known throughout the 20th century until its bankruptcy in 2018.
The messages were initially printed onto candies of various shapes, such as a scallop shell, a baseball, and a horseshoe. In 1902, the iconic heart-shaped variety made its debut. The earliest hearts were larger than the dime-size ones available today, with plenty of space for relationship advice. Examples of these early hearts read: “Married in White, you have chosen right” and “Married in Pink, he’ll take to drink.” That type of advice disappeared as the hearts shrank in size, but shorter phrases from that era are still around today, including “Be Mine” and “Kiss Me.”
In a 2011 interview with TIME magazine, Necco marketing director Aimee Scott talked about how the company tried to incorporate a novel candy heart theme every year, adding in new phrases and carrying over some old ones. Scott claimed they “keep about 30 to 35 of the older ones” and “try to have about 20 new sayings,” which was largely dependent on popular flirtatious terminology at any given time.
Some past themes include weather (e.g., “Chill Out,” “Cloud 9”), technology (“Tweet Me” or “Text Me”), and also Spanish varieties (“Te Amo”). Some older candy hearts are clear relics of decades gone by, including groovy phrases from the 1970s and 1980s, such as “Dig Me” and “Hep Cat.” “Fax Me” notably debuted in the 1990s, though the candy heart phrase hasn’t appeared in recent years.
While Necco declared bankruptcy in 2018, Spangler Candy acquired the company and began to produce candy hearts again in 2020. The treat almost immediately reclaimed its market share as the most popular non-chocolate Valentine’s Day sweet. Continuing the Necco tradition of evolving on a theme, you can take your situationship one step further with Sweethearts “commitment” hearts, featuring messages such as “Marry Me” and “4EVER EVER?”
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