The Candy Wrapper Museum

Conversation hearts are, of course, the cornerstone of the Valentine's Day candy experience. They stem back all the way to 1866, when Daniel Chase, a member of Necco’s founding family, invented "Conversation Candies." These early candy novelties were cut into all kinds of shapes, including postcards, baseballs, or horseshoes and embossed with curlicues. These shapes allowed for much longer, extremely quaint sayings, such as "Please send a lock of your hair by return mail," or "How long shall I have to wait? Pray be considerate."

Although conversation hearts originated with Necco’s founding family, the Sweethearts brand of conversation hearts were made by Milwaukee’s Howard B. Stark company. Stark came on strong with the Baby Boomer kids in the 1950s and 1960s with their Sweethearts for Valentine’s Day and candy cigarettes and candy coins for Halloween. Despite this success, Stark faced financial problems as the decades wore on, and Necco acquired them in 1990, thus keeping Sweethearts alive.

When Necco went bankrupt in 2018, Spangler acquired Sweethearts and brought them back to stores in a limited release just in time for Valentine’s Day 2020. However, due technical problems, many of the conversation hearts had nothing to say! There was either no text printed on them, or the text was indecipherable. On one hand, it’s admirable that Spangler tried. On the other hand, what is the point of conversation hearts with no conversation? Plus, printing text on candy is a technology that has been around for over 150 years! Well, hopefully this problem will be rectified soon. In the meantime… I guess I’ll take roses for Valentine’s Day.


	Conversation Hearts Home Sweethearts Sweethearts Tarts Chocolate Sweethearts Corazones Dulces Brach's Hearts CyberSpeak Plastic Hearts Conversation Beans SweeTarts Hearts Love Hearts Return to Valentines	-- Conversation hearts are, of course, the cornerstone of the Valentine's Day candy experience. They stem back all the way to 1866, when Daniel Chase, a member of Necco’s founding family, invented "Conversation Candies." These early candy novelties were cut into all kinds of shapes, including postcards, baseballs, or horseshoes and embossed with curlicues. These shapes allowed for much longer, extremely quaint sayings, such as "Please send a lock of your hair by return mail," or "How long shall I have to wait? Pray be considerate." Although conversation hearts originated with Necco’s founding family, the Sweethearts brand of conversation hearts were made by Milwaukee’s Howard B. Stark company. Stark came on strong with the Baby Boomer kids in the 1950s and 1960s with their Sweethearts for Valentine’s Day and candy cigarettes and candy coins for Halloween. Despite this success, Stark faced financial problems as the decades wore on, and Necco acquired them in 1990, thus keeping Sweethearts alive. When Necco went bankrupt in 2018, Spangler acquired Sweethearts and brought them back to stores in a limited release just in time for Valentine’s Day 2020. However, due technical problems, many of the conversation hearts had nothing to say! There was either no text printed on them, or the text was indecipherable. On one hand, it’s admirable that Spangler tried. On the other hand, what is the point of conversation hearts with no conversation? Plus, printing text on candy is a technology that has been around for over 150 years! Well, hopefully this problem will be rectified soon. In the meantime… I guess I’ll take roses for Valentine’s Day.