12 Things You Might Not Know About Conversation Hearts

Every year, once the Christmas decorations and candy are put away at your local supermarket or department store, Valentine's Day-themed items come rolling out in all their red and pink glory. Among the heart-shaped boxes filled with chocolates and stuffed animals with oversized eyes and saccharine-sweet notes written on their bellies are the small, multi-colored candy hearts we've come to call conversation hearts.

Love them or hate them, the sugary and slightly powdery candy hearts have become a symbol of the holiday of love. They're so tied to Valentine's Day that decor like conversation heart throw pillows and other V-day treats like Krispy Kreme conversation heart doughnuts have taken on their iconic shape for the season. You've probably had your fair share of conversation hearts in your lifetime, but have you ever stopped to wonder how they are made, what inspired their creation, or just how popular they really are? It turns out, there's a lot you might not know about these tiny, message-covered candies and their long history. So whether they've just popped up in your local stores seemingly overnight or they've already disappeared just as quickly as they arrived, let's take a moment to appreciate the wonder of these classic candies.

While bright-colored candy with witty phrases may seem like a modern invention, conversation hearts can be counted among those candies that have been around longer than you'd think. The first candy hearts came from the New England Confectionery Company (Necco) over 100 years ago. The Massachusetts-based company (then called Chase and Co.) was founded in 1847 by Oliver Chase, who invented machinery to crush sugar and cut lozenges. Just over a decade later, in 1866, Chase's brother Daniel invented a new process that allowed words to be stamped onto the candy with red dye, leading to the production of what they called motto lozenges or motto wafers. Still, it wasn't until 1902 that the stamped candy started being cut into heart shapes, and conversation hearts (also called motto hearts or love hearts at the time) were born.

To say they've remained popular over the years would be an understatement. In 2011, Necco's marketing director spoke with Time and revealed that, at the time, the company produced between 10 million and 14 million pounds of candy hearts every year. That translates to 4.8 to 6.7 billion (yes, with a b) candies! Quite the feat for a candy that only came in at No. 9 (out of 15) in our ranking of Valentine's Day candies.

Believe it or not, motto lozenges weren't Oliver Chase's first foray into candy with messages. In the company's early days, Chase and Co. made cockles — scallop shell-shaped crisp candy with a paper message tucked inside like a fortune cookie. But what inspired Chase's brother to seek out a way to print messages directly on the company's wafer lozenges may have been rooted in the Civil War.

The debated legend goes that Union soldiers, probably beginning with those from Massachusetts, carried Hub wafers (later called Necco wafers) with them during the war. That tendency paired with the popularity of the messages inside cockles supposedly led to Daniel Chase's invention of the candy stamping machine a year after the end of the Civil War, and the creation of Hub wafers with mini love letters on them. Others doubt the Civil War connection and suggest that Esther Howland's commercialization of Valentine's cards in the 1850s and 1860s paved the way for romantic messages on heart-shaped candy.

Regardless of their origin, the original stamped love candies were popular at weddings and among young couples, and the messages were much longer than today's "Be Mine" and "Marry Me" conversation heart phrases. According to National Geographic, some standouts from the time included, "How long shall I have to wait? Please be considerate;" "Married in satin, love will not be lasting;" and "Married in pink, he will take to drink." Subtle.

In the nearly 40 years between when Daniel Chase invented the process for stamping words onto Chase and Co. confections and when they were first cut into heart shapes, conversation candy came in other sizes and shapes. After all, those first romantic (or, as we've discovered, not so romantic) phrases were long, so the candy had to be large to accommodate them. While the motto wafers first came in the basic circle shape now associated only with motto-less Necco wafers, for a time they also came in shapes like shells, baseballs, horseshoes, postcards, and watches.

In 1902, the small heart shape debuted with shorter phrases, some of which are still used on the hearts today, such as, "Be Mine," "Be True," and "Kiss Me." The hearts quickly became the motto candy of choice, but were eventually relegated to the Valentine's season rather than being sold year-round. 

Although candy conversation hearts are only in stores for a short time, they are made nearly year-round to meet the demand in that brief window. Luckily, the company has the process down to a science, and Necco's then-marketing director Aimee Scott told Time in 2011 that it's the same one used since the candy was invented. All the ingredients are mixed to form a batter that is put on a machine to be pulled and rolled until it's smooth and of the right thickness. Then, before the dough is cut, the letters are stamped on using a print plate with movable letters. Finally, the dough is cut into heart shapes, which dry for a few days before the different colors are mixed and bagged.

Candy conversation hearts are only available in stores during the lead-up to Valentine's Day each year, but you can scratch the itch (at least somewhat) year-round with Necco wafers. That's because the candy hearts originally made by Necco are made from a very similar batter as the company's eponymous wafers — the same ingredients, just in different proportions.

While today's conversation hearts no longer include the long, elaborate messages seen in the early days of motto candy, the one- or two-line messages have still managed to communicate plenty. Once the candies took their smaller, heart-shaped form and only allowed for a word or two, the messages continued to evolve with the times. In 2011, about 80 different sayings were included on then-Necco conversation hearts each year — approximately 30-35 classic phrases from the candy's early days, 20 brand new phrases that reflect popular culture, and 20-25 that are a mixture of previous years' newer phrases that proved popular.

Over the years, Necco sourced the new phrases from customer suggestions (there were over 10,000 submissions the first year they asked customers for input) and different themes. The technology theme yielded "Tweet Me" and "Text Me" while 2011's theme "Get Moving" theme prompted the additions of actions like "Boogie" and "Shake It." Other relatively recent iterations included hashtagged phrases and a partnership with the "Twilight" franchise that resulted in "Bite Me" and "Live 4Ever," perfect for a "Twilight"-themed party or movie night. The most popular saying, however, remains "Marry Me" — the company regularly receives requests from proposal hopefuls for bags of off-season hearts with the ever-important question.

While the New England Confectionery Company is credited with creating the iconic Sweethearts Valentine's Day candy, Necco is not the only producer of conversation hearts. Candy company Brach's got into the conversation heart game in the 1950s. Unlike Sweethearts, on which the sayings are printed by printing plate, Brach's conversation hearts are laser-printed, which the company says leads to more accurate printing. The candy itself, however, is very similar in texture and flavor.

SweeTarts conversation hearts, on the other hand, are a whole different ballgame. Instead of the crunchy, powdery hearts favored by Necco and Brach's, SweeTarts conversation hearts maintain the smooth candy texture of original SweeTarts with the brand's characteristic sweet and sour flavors. These conversation hearts' sayings are also engraved rather than stamped like Necco's hearts or laser-printed like Brach's. Also engraved are the tangy Sour Patch Kids message hearts, which debuted in 2019, while the messages on Smarties love hearts are embossed.

With so many candy brands branching out into conversation hearts for the season of love, it's no wonder that conversation hearts take up such a large segment of the Valentine's Day candy display at your local retailer. In 2011, Necco's Sweethearts alone made up 40% of the Valentine's Day candy market. Among bulk candy retailers, conversation hearts in general have been the top-selling Valentine's Day candy most years since 2017, only recently being edged out by boxes of assorted chocolate in 2024.

This is particularly significant when you consider that candy is the most popular gift for Valentine's Day. According to the National Retail Federation's 2024 Valentine's Day Spending Survey, 57% of people surveyed planned to give candy as a Valentine's Day gift. The next most popular gifts were greeting cards (40%) and flowers (39%), showing that Halloween isn't the only candy-centric holiday worth celebrating.

If you haven't eaten conversation hearts since you were a kid, you're not alone. While adults often associate Valentine's Day with chocolate and roses, conversation hearts are a longstanding tradition at children's Valentine's Day parties. As Necco's then-marketing director, Aimee Scott, told Smithsonian Magazine in 2011, "Our main market is in classrooms — kids, teachers, and moms." Scott suggested that even the adults who love the iconic candy primarily do so because of fond memories. "Our adult customer usually remembers the candies from their youth and it strikes a nostalgic chord," she said.

It makes sense, then, that some of the most commonly sold packaging for conversation hearts is individual boxes that can be easily passed out by teachers as a seasonal incentive or with Valentine's cards by students. If you're looking to purchase the candy for decorative purposes like making a DIY Valentine's Day table centerpiece and don't want to open box after tiny box, fear not! You can still buy large bags of just about every brand's conversation hearts.

The difference between the adult and child consumers of conversation hearts was arguably never more apparent than in 2010 when Necco changed the recipe for its Sweethearts for the first time in over 140 years. The new recipe not only made the hearts much bolder in color, but it also led to new bold flavors like green apple and blue raspberry. It also saw the nixing of flavors like wintergreen and banana. 

Necco's then-vice president Dave Smith told NPR, "The original Sweethearts were a bit chalky. Some people really like eating chalky, but the idea is that the new flavors and textures are much more candy-like, and you can enjoy them more because they taste a little better." Still, not everyone was happy with the new flavors. That segment of consumers who buy the candy out of a sense of nostalgia expressed their displeasure on social media, including creating Facebook groups dedicated to trying to bring the old recipe back.

It turns out that making a seasonal product one of the main focuses of your company may not be very lucrative, no matter how popular it is. Despite creating the now-iconic candy hearts, the New England Confectionery Company filed for bankruptcy in 2018. Spangler Candy Company purchased the Necco brand and its confections, but shut down the Revere, Massachusetts factory, leaving the future of the candy in question. After the Necco factory was shuttered, people started panic buying Necco wafers and whatever Sweethearts they could get their hands on in the off-season.

Although Spangler said in a statement at the time that it intended to continue producing conversation hearts, it would take time to get production up and running. In 2019, there were no new Sweethearts for the Valentine's season, which caused a decrease in sales of more than 24% for the entire conversation hearts market that year.

While Spangler's goal was to bring back Sweethearts in all their glory for Valentine's Day in 2020, they ran into unexpected issues with transporting the equipment from the former Massachusetts Necco factory to the new Spangler factory. The machine used to print the sayings on the hearts needed to be replaced, but the new one was damaged during production. Instead of forgoing the entire run of Sweethearts for a second year, Spangler decided to ship some of the heart-shaped candies blank and to limit the supply to large retailers. While it wasn't exactly what the company or consumers wanted, at least it meant Sweethearts were back.

One good thing that came out of the process of moving everything from one factory to another was that the original recipe for Sweethearts was unearthed. That's right, we can thank Spangler for not only saving Sweethearts candy hearts (and Necco wafers, for that matter), but also for bringing back the original recipe for the candy, including banana and wintergreen flavors.

In 2025, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration reversed its stance on a popular food dye, Red No. 3. With this change, the dye will no longer be approved for use in foods or beverages, beginning in 2027. Many popular foods contain Red 3 and will need to rework their ingredients to comply with the change. With their vibrant color and red printed sayings, candy hearts might seem like an obvious candidate for the dye, but the original Necco (now Spangler) Sweethearts do not contain Red 3. Neither do Smarties love hearts, nor the sweet and tangy conversation hearts made by SweeTarts or Sour Patch Kids. 

That doesn't mean that all candy hearts on the shelf are free from the dye, however. Both the tiny and large versions of Brach's conversation hearts contain Red 3. So do both sizes of Taboom conversation hearts. Whether the necessary change to the ingredients will alter the flavor of these hearts is unclear, but at least consumers will have several brands with unchanged recipes to choose from either way.