Did You Know-Conversation Sweethearts
The History of Conversation Sweethearts
It all started in the 1840s when a Boston pharmacist named Oliver Chase invented a machine that made it easier to create apothecary lozenges. Chase’s lozenge cutter is credited as the first American candy machine. He started off making medicinal lozenges for sore throats and bad breath, but later turned to creating candy.
These candy lozenges would go on to become the Necco Wafers that are still around today.
Soon after inventing the wafers, Chase teamed up with his brother, Silas Edwin, to create Chase and Company, which then became the New England Confectionary Company, or NECCO.
Necco Wafers’ popularity took off during the Civil War and continued to be a popular candy for decades. Because they were portable and wouldn’t melt, they were often shipped overseas.
So what do Necco Wafers have to do with conversation hearts?
The more plausible explanation, however, is that the idea for conversation hearts came from the candy’s predecessor, a scalloped candy that had a message written on colored paper tucked inside like a fortune cookie.
In the 1860s, another Chase brother, Daniel, developed a machine that stamped words directly on the candies with red vegetable dye. Back then, the candies came in all different shapes, like baseballs, horseshoes, and watches, and they featured much longer sayings. (Hearts weren’t added to the lineup until 1901.)
By the early 1900s, the candies had scaled down in size and began to feature one-liners, like the ones seen today. The original mottos of “Be Mine” and “Kiss Me” still remain popular, but some of the other phrases on conversation hearts have not withstood the test of time, like “Fax Me” or “Dig Me.” NECCO even produced special Twilight hearts, with phrases like “Bite Me,” and Spanish-language Sweethearts, with phrases like “Te Amo.”
NECCO’s Sweethearts became the most popular non-chocolate candy sold for Valentine’s Day with over eight billion hearts sold in the six weeks leading up to the holiday. To make that many candy hearts, production took NECCO 11 months to complete. Unfortunately, NECCO declared bankruptcy and shut its doors in 2018. Spangler Candy acquired the rights to the candy in 2019.
Because of this, Necco Wafers and Sweethearts were not produced for two years, but both were brought back in 2020 due to popular demand. Today, Sweethearts are officially back on the shelves and have re-staked their claim as the most popular non-chocolate candy for Valentine’s Day.
Image: Photoroom
Source: http://www.allrecipes.com
http://www.InDianesKitchen.com
Share this:
Categories: Candy, Did You Know
wow – long history to then go bankrupt – and then come back again
I know, but the new owners changed some of the flavors in the sweethearts. I haven’t had the wafers since they sold the company but I used to love them too.
oh yeah – thsoe companies do make changes and often not for the better
Fascinating
Thank you Derrick!
Thanks for the history lesson. Its always good to know the “why” behind a product’s creation – there’s always a story. I’m going to share this story with the women in my “goal planning community”
You’re very welcome Georgetta!
oh, thanks for this, I’ve always wondered
You’re welcome Beth!
I think these will always be around!
They better be, it’s my tradition to fill a candy dish for guests.
Thanks for sharing Ned!
History is great, interesting read and I have never heard of Conversation Hearts but I like them !
That surprises me Susan, I thought they were in every state. Thank you!
I’m in Canada so maybe that’s why😊
Goddess, you never cease to amaze
Right back at you!
This most made me smile – I have loved conversation hearts and Neccos since I was a kid. they are very special to me. 🙂
One year for Christmas I had my husband gift me the NECCO Wafers that he bought from a retro company. They even came in a tin can that I still have.
That is awesome!
This is so fun! I loved NECCO wafers as a child, and I used the Sweethearts with both reading and math lessons on Valentine’s Day.
Oh yes the wafers were the best. I haven’t had them in years but the sweethearts just don’t taste the same to me, maybe it’s old age. Lol
Oh, this is so good! I’m grateful for his invention each year at Valentine’s Day! ❤️❤️❤️
I agree Mary! I make sure we get a bag every year whether they get eaten or not. Reminds me of grade school when we made big paper heart bags to tape to our desk. Then we put those silly Valentines card in everyone’s bag. I remember the boys didn’t get the “love” ones. Lol
I remember these! Too bad Necco shut down after so many years in the business. Good thing another company picked up the rights to produce them!
They said selling the company still uses the same ingredients but I would have to disagree. I buy them every year and have since a child. The wafers are the best!
I didn’t know that Necco went bankrupt and they weren’t around anymore. I wasn’t allowed to eat candy as a kid, but remember seeing them through the years. I enjoyed this story about the sweetheart candy hearts. What a novel idea he had, not to mention sweet.
They are still around, somebody bought the company and after a two year closure, the new person started it up again. I buy a bag every year for my little guests and MIL.
I used to buy them for the candy dish too, when I used to decorate for the holidays. I used to buy the Palmer chocolate candies for the candy dishes for various holidays at home and I used to have candy dishes for the holidays at work. They used to have it at Meijer in the bulk food area, along with the Voortman cookies.
Does Meijer sell bulk candy? I don’t get out much but the only place I see it bulk is in Amish country.
No, Meijer doesn’t have bulk anything anymore … too bad as I always got the Voortman’s cookies for Christmas when my mom didn’t bake as much in later years. Rather than buying the separate packages of Voortman’s cookies, I just got some of each of our favorites and there’s no more Palmer chocolate in bulk either. I don’t know if they sell it in the bags though. They used to sell nuts in bulk years ago when I fed the backyard squirrels and they had whole walnuts – nothing like that anymore. Probably people had too many samples. Remember how Brach’s Bulk Candy stand had a lockbox and you paid for “samples”? I don’t remember how much it was – I want to say a nickel. Maybe they eliminated the bulk stuff at Meijer after the pandemic began?
How times have changed! My great grandmother took me to the grocery store when I was young and we sampled anything like grapes. I thought that is just what you do. My mom corrected that action! 🤣
Your mom thought you and she may get arrested. 🙂 I see people munching on grapes now or opening plastic boxes of berries and munching on them.
I will never do that now, I wash all my produce.
Yes, too many things to worry about nowadays. Heck, you remember the ranch dressing with the potting soil bags in the dressing. I still have the bottle and even though it wasn’t part of the recall, I don’t want to use it. I was just going to mix it with tuna or salmon.
I don’t remember that one Linda.
And today, I was eating applesauce and found a fruit fly in it. I wasn’t happy about it, but it was so small … nothing like the big fly in the Del Monte creamed corn that I had already eaten before putting it into the pot to cook it.
You can’t win Linda! Think of it as extra protein. Just think of the things we miss. 🥴
Yes, that’s how to think of it Diane. It was light and airy, not chewy or anything like that. 🙂
Wow. That was fascinating. And I never would have guessed those were around for so long or that NECCO wafers started so very long ago. They do have the taste of older candy, though. 😛
Thanks so much for the fun history lesson, Diane!
I think they taste different since the new company took over but maybe it’s just me. You’re welcome Ilsa!