Valentine's Day

What’s the Story of Conversation Hearts?

Kristin Appenbrink
Kristin Appenbrink
Kristin is the co-founder of Part Time Vegan and Silent Book Club. As a former editor at Real Simple, she is compulsively organized and loves solving people's problems. She has a weakness for desserts, especially ice cream.
published Feb 12, 2015
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Conversation hearts are our candy of choice for Valentine’s Day. (You can eat chocolate any other day of the year, after all.)

But how much do you know about the delightfully chalky, message-filled candies? Mental Floss, in their quest to explain everything, has a guide to the history of the sweet treat.

Here are a few things we learned:

  • The messages were first written on the candies in 1866 using vegetable dye — a process developed by Daniel Chase, whose brother started the NECCO wafer company.
  • Each year NECCO makes nearly 100,000 pounds of the hearts.
  • Six new phrases are being introduced this year. They are: girl power, pugs & kittens, luv 2 dance, BFF, te amo, and je t’aime. There will also be two new icon conversation hearts: a smiley face and a mustache.

→ Read more: The History of the Conversation Heart from Mental Floss

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Candy
Dessert