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Monday, February 11, 2008
Necco Conversation Hearts (Sweethearts)If there’s an all-ages emblem of modern Valentines candy, it’s conversation hearts. The first “Motto Lozenges” were invented in 1860 based on Necco’s already popular Necco Wafers. They were shell shaped and then later assortments included both mottos and expressions of love and came in a variety of shapes such as horseshoes, baseballs and of course hearts. Eventually they were made smaller and thicker and had briefer messages evolving into the current Necco Sweethearts.
I’ve spent years avoiding a review of them. So I bought a couple of boxes this year (why not, they were on sale for 20 cents each). I actually like Necco Wafers. I know that sounds odd, because they’re so dry and chalky. (I did not like the Necco Smoothies, though.)
In an effort to be exhaustive (and sorry if I exhaust you), I’ve fully documented a random box of Sweethearts. They weigh one ounce and mine contained 36 hearts (one rather crushed though). There are six colors and they broke down in the following assortment:
 Each year Necco adds new mottos to the little hearts. They always seem to be a little out of step with the modern world, but I think we forgive that lameness and just call them classics. (I didn’t find any that said Fax Me this year!)
There were three others that I couldn’t figure out. This year featured an “eco” theme with the addition of the mottos like “Wild Life” and “Heat Wave”. What’s nice is that there is a wide variety of mottos. In the second box I opened I found others that I didn’t have in this box (IM Me, Real Love, Marry Me and Sun Shine). I have to say, I think the quality control isn’t very good on these. There were quite a few that were intelligible, like having a conversation while the garbage disposal is on. Some are a little bumpy and irregular in shape as well. But hey, they were twenty cents and come in a box ready for your own personal message to give as a Valentine, cheaper than a card.
In the Necco Wafers the purple is Clove (I also find that bitter too, but in a more natural way), Pink is Cinnamon and Yellow is Lemon (and there’s a Brown Chocolate one and a Black Licorice one). The changeup in the hearts is understandable, but the Red #40 is probably what I’m tasting ... my husband can’t taste it, so your mileage may vary. While I tend to lump Sweethearts in with the other “chalk” candies, they’re not compressed dextrose like many other mints and sour tablet candies are. They’re actually made from a real sugar-based wet dough (that also includes gelatin, my vegetarian friends). This gives it a bit denser feel and also a deeper sweetness than dextrose (a monsaccharide instead of a disaccharide). Having these reminded me that I prefer Necco Wafers. I like the tablet shape and how they clink together and are easy to crunch or dissolve. There are too many flavors that I don’t eat in this mix as well ... so I’ll stick with Necco Wafers. But I still might pick these up every year ... especially on sale after Valentines. They also come in: Spanish , Sour and Chocolate (one version is just the chalky chocolate and they also have foil wrapped actual chocolate hearts on the website, but I’ve never seen them in person). I was wishing I had a cute story about an experience with Necco Sweethearts ... but I bet some reader has a great one about these or some other conversation hearts. Related Candies
POSTED BY Cybele AT 10:33 am 
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Meticulously photographed and documented reviews of candy from around the world. And the occasional other sweet adventures. Open your mouth, expand your mind.
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COPYRIGHT NOTICEAll content (text and photos unless otherwise credited) is copyright 2005-2008 by Cybele MayPlease do not use my photos on your own site without permission directly from me, they represent what I ate in preparation for these reviews and are not to be used for other purposes. Design by Hop StudiosPowered by ExpressionEngine
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Hi Cybele these look remarkably similar to something called ‘lovehearts’ in the uk....funnily enough unlike these they arent shaped as hearts and are just round.
I would have a guess at them being 99% Sugar 1% Flavourings :S cant say im too tempted myself.
I for one do not find your like of Necco wafers strange - I really like them myself, especially the chocolate ones, which you can get in a roll of only chocolate. They are pretty low in calories too I think.
I’ve always hated these.
Yeah, not a big fan of these. It never seemed like they were supposed to actually taste very good, but people buy them because of the nostalgic connection with Valentine’s Day and the little messages I guess.
A cute story? Hmm, I don’t know about “cute,” but I do have a vivid memory from elementary school (4th grade? 6th grade?) where my teacher made every student go up in front of the class, dig around in a bowl of various brands of conversation hearts, and choose another student of the opposite sex to read the message to. It was completely mortifying, and I have no idea how she thought this was a good idea. I remember mine was “U 2 Kid” (yeah...I don’t know, either) and she made me choose someone who hadn’t gotten a message yet so I read it to this one boy, Vincent. After every message, the whole class went “ooooh” like we were admitting some kind of secret crush, but I barely knew this kid. Sooo embarrassing.
These are like candy corn to me. Only for a certain season. And I would not think to buy them, or even claim to like them, but will eat them by the handful if they are in a candy jar. The white ones are nasty - toothpasty. But otherwise I like the soft texture on the hearts and the mild flavors. Once a year.
I love candy hearts. They ‘chew’ perfectly...lol...must be a childhood fond memory or something.
My grandmother sends me a box of these every year for valentines. It’s cute.
The white ones are the best ones.
Also, these were the only way my parents could get me to eat that nasty chewable Tylenol. Just eat the one chewable Tylenol and then you can have TEN conversation hearts!
They would keep boxes of them hidden all year for this purpose, and you know, when you’re six, you don’t care that they’re stale. Totally stealing that trick for my as-yet-imaginary kids.
I don’t have a particularly cute story, just a somewhat pathetic one. When my (now) husband and I were in a long-distance relationship, I mailed him a valentine with a bunch of these hearts that I’d picked out (they were ones that I thought he’d find funny for one reason or another). Well, apparently these don’t do too well in the mail: they arrived late, pulverized, and with insufficient postage--he had to pay for his own valentine full of conversation heart dust!
Tee hee. Guess I’m lucky he still married me!
Conversation Hearts are one of my seasonal candy favorites, but I only buy one specific brand, and one specific type, because of one of the comments many people have about the Sweetheart brand hearts (and other brands as well) - they’re dry, hard, and chalky.
I always get Brachs Large Conversation Hearts. They always seem to be fresh and nearly melt in your mouth. Instead of being hard and chalky, they’re almost soft, although there is some resistance to chewing them. If you’re familiar with Necco wafers, they’re much softer than those.
The orange ones are my favorites.
When my husband proposed to me, he bought two bags of conversation hearts, and he and his best friend sorted through them to try to find a “Marry Me” heart-- but not a single one in both bags! He refused to buy yet another bag of candies neither of us liked.
Anyway, we had gone out to dinner, and after dinner, walking back to our hotel room, he said he’d brought some candy to eat for dessert, and he pulled out a handful of conversation hearts. (I was thinking, “I skipped real dessert for THIS?") He gave me three- “Girlfriend”, “Love You”, “Forever”, then pulled out the ring. Of course I said yes, and we went back to our hotel, where he had chocolates and champagne waiting.
The white ones are definitely the best.
Also, I don’t think the horrible taste of the red hearts is due to Red #40, because they’ve always tasted awful and bitter to me and I can never really taste Red #40.
so on a trip to Target last night, i saw the Conversation Heart Sours mentioned here, and for $2 i got 8 boxes. I figured why not and picked up a pack.
ive always like the regular conversation hearts ok i guess, and i like Necco wafers best just because of the funky flavors like licorice. so i opened a box of the sours on the way home, and popped one in my mouth.
at first, they werent too bad, especially if you had them one at a time. but as i tried to eat a few different ones at once(which i do with the regular hearts), the flavors got worse. maybe with sourness tastes get amplified (especially the bad flavor), but after about half a box i really hated these. and they had a wicked aftertaste that got worse the longer it sat on the tounge. i actually hated these so much i gave them out the remaining boxes at work today, which originally i was going to keep them for myself. if i give away candy, you KNOW it must be bad.
Bleh. I don’t really like these, but for some reason I buy them every year. I always have to throw away the purple and pink ones.
It’s funny cause I read this on the day you published it and was thinking “I haven’t had a candy message heart in many years” and then yesterday the child I am a nanny for gave me a box of them for valentine’s day.
I’ve tasted every flavor and to me the orange and green are the best...my box had MANY MANY unlegible hearts though and the ones I could read, most of them were very off center...there were also quite a few broken ones.
I think these are great for nostalgia and not much else.
Cybele, I had to write a quiz about candy hearts for work a few weeks ago (see my link), so I bought a few different brands for research. The ONLY candy hearts I find edible are the SweetTart ones, but those only have like five different slogans, so they weren’t much help on the quiz. (The SweetTart hearts were also the only candy hearts I found with decent quality control.) The Necco ones, and the other brands I bought were almost all misprinted and hard to read.
I was recently given a bag of what I’m assuming are the king-size version of these candy hearts, and I must say that they’re even worse than the normal-sized ones. They even had stupider sayings: the majority just said “Thank You,” and then I had about 10 more that said “Nature Love,” and then a lot of unintelligible ones. I’m with you: Necco Wafers will always be the best.
I’ve always loved these - but only Necco, not the Brach’s. One year I hid them all over my boyfriend’s dorm room - in pockets and such - he was still finding them months later. (And he married me, so it didn’t traumatize him!) My son’s preschool teacher gave them each a box of these and then had them make a bar chart showing the distribution - it varied quite a lot throughout the class! My favorites are the orange and yellow - if I’m just buying one box, I’ll look at them carefully to check the color distribution…
Like the last poster, I only like Necco’s hearts and not Brach’s. I also prefer my hearts in a box and not in a bag. I like them to be crunchy. In fact, I take the bagged ones and let them sit out for a few days so that they become crunchier. Anyone else think the same?
Also, I noticed that the messages seem sloppier than ever this year. Mangled ink, off center, pressed in too hard, etc. It’s almost a rarity when they’re legible. I don’t remember this being a problem before.
Delicious is all I have to say. Why wouldn’t anyone loves these?
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