Remember the excitement and anticipation that came with every Valentine’s Day when we were kids? It became almost a competition to see which kid in her classroom managed to get the most flimsy Valentine’s cards with their even flimsier envelopes. Despite the buzz for cards portraying cultural icons from that particular year, the biggest draw of the day was getting Conversation Hearts – the more the merrier. That’s what Valentine’s Day was and still is for most kids.
The idea for Conversation Hearts has been around since the late 1800s. The first “conversation” candies were not shaped like a heart, but rather the shape of seashells. The text was printed on a foil wrapper and not on the actual candy.
The first Motto Candy was invented in 1900, but it was not yet heart-shaped. For some strange reason, perhaps to allow for longer printed phrases, these Sweet Heart candies were shaped like baseballs, horseshoes, postcards, and watches. As time went by, the sayings became shorter and shorter and reduced to one or two lines of sentiment that fit perfectly into a heart-shaped candy.
In 1900, four candy companies merged to become the New England Confectionary Company, or NECCO. Candy companies NECCO, Brachs, and Jelly Belly are the top three makers of Conversation Hearts in the early 21st century. No matter who makes this Valentine’s gift, about 8 billion hearts are produced each year. Although the peak sales season is just 6 weeks, confectionery companies produce the hearts for 11 months of the year. Wow, I wonder what kind of preservative is used to give them such a long shelf life. Maybe I don’t want to know.
Conversation hearts are made by man and machine working together. There are 7 main steps to create these candies:
- Step 1: Combine the sugar, corn syrup, cornstarch, flavors, gums, and colors in the mixing machine;
- Step 2 – The machine mixes the ingredients until they form a dough, very similar to the consistency of Play-Dough ©;
- Step 3 – The dough goes through a machine that presses the dough until it is flat;
- Step 4 – The “conversation” words are applied to the dough and then cut out of the dough into a heart shape. The candy falls onto a conveyor belt;
- Step 5: the hearts take a 30 minute walk through a drying tunnel;
- Step 6: the six different flavors are mixed; Y
- Step 7: The Conversation Hearts are packaged, packaged, and ready to eat.
In 2006, NECCO added a preposition and conjunction to its saying mix so that sweet feelings could be expressed in a more grammatical way. NECCO has tried, over the years, to include sentiments in line with today’s culture. The candies come in 2 sizes: small and large. The small heart has room for approximately two words of four letters each, while the larger hearts can contain two words of five letters each.
Whatever their size or sayings, conversation hearts are and will be timeless.