Valentine ’s Day imply chalky confect hearts with a lot to say . But what ’s behind these very loud short candies ?
The story of conversation heart , also known as Sweethearts , set about in 1847 , when a Boston pharmacist cite Oliver Chase longed for a way to get in on theapothecary lozenge craze . Lozenges were quickly gaining steam as the medicine conveyance of choice , and were also popular therapeutic for sore throats and bad breather . But making them was complicated and sentence - exhaust — the procedure involve a howitzer and muller , work clams , roll it out , and cutting it into discs that would eventually become lozenge .
There had to be a effective way , and Oliver came up with it . Inspired by the new wave of gadgets and pecker that reach America as it industrialize , heinvented a machinethat rolled tablet dough and pressed wafer into perfect discs . Oliver had unwittingly created America ’s first candy - making machine , and before long , he had abandoned his drugstore business to crank out miles of what would become New England Confectionery Company ( NECCO ) wafer .
Legend has it that Oliver ’s NECCO wafers were take by Civil War soldiers , and some chew over that the custom of sending love greeting to the troops morphed into the conversation heart , but those claims arehard to verify . What is clear is that as Oliver built his candy empire , his brother Daniel decide he wanted a piece of the natural process .
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urge on by the mature marketplace forValentine ’s cards(which were popularized in the United States byEsther Howland , also a resident of Boston at the clip ) , Daniel wondered if it would be potential to impress slushy substance on candy . In 1866 , he figured out a way to publish dustup on candy with vegetable dye during the cutting process .
multitude love conversation candies ( they were n’t available in substance shape until 1902 ) and their witty substance , which could stoke the flames of lovemaking or discourage off flaky suitor . Daniel ’s candies were bigger than today ’s version and had phrases like “ MARRIED IN WHITE YOU HAVE CHOSEN correct ” and “ HOW LONG SHALL I HAVE TO WAIT ? PLEASE BE CONSIDERATE ” emblazoned on a pastel , scollop wafer .
By the twist of the century , the conversation warmheartedness was a Valentine ’s cliché . Here ’s how they were used ata Boston partyin 1911 :
Over the years , conversation hearts lost size , but gained many more musical phrase . In 2016 , NECCOestimatedit made 8 billion conversation hearts a class . Now , the Spangler Candy Company bring forth the cheeky confection . In 2023 , the company includedanimal - themed phraseslike “ Love Birds , ” “ Purr Fect , ” and “ Big Dog ” on the hearts ; for 2024 ; it released“situationship ” boxes , complete with message that were as foggy and hard to scan as an undefined romantic kinship .
A version of this story primitively ran in 2015 ; it has been updated for 2024 .
