Heart Candy

Heart Candy Options

Heart candy comes in so many different varieties, it may be difficult to decide which one to buy for your sweetheart!

1. Heart-shaped chocolate candy
2. Hard candy with heart designs
4. Heart-shaped lollipops
5. Candy in heart-shaped containers
6. Candy with hearts printed on the wrapper

Deciding what heart candy to buy your loved one is easy: what kind of candy do they like? No matter what they're favorite candy is, chances are good that you can find a heart version of it, especially around Valentine's Day.

Isn't Love Delicious?

Heart candy is one of the most iconic symbols of love around, but do you ever wonder where it came from and why we now all clamor for heart candy on Valentine's Day ¿ or any day, for that matter? The history of candy shaped like hearts is an interesting one, with plenty of interesting history!

The History of Heart Candy

Chocolate used to be sipped as a drink instead of as a candy, so it wasn't until "eating chocolate" hit the scene that anyone started thinking about using chocolate candy as a way to express love. In the 1840s, chocolate started appearing in decorated boxes shaped as hearts. These boxes were so pretty that they were typically kept by recipients as a place to hold love letters or other small mementos.

It wasn't long before chocolate makers realized they could manipulate the candy into varying shapes, and since chocolate was already considered a symbol of love, pressing the candy into heart shapes made sense.

Conversation Hearts History

Though chocolate still reigns supreme as symbols of romantic love, the quintessential Valentine's Day candy is the Conversation Hearts. These popular candies had their beginning in the mid-1800s when a pharmacist created a machine to simplify the making of throat lozenges. When his brother figured out how to press words into the lozenges, they both decided to shift their focus to candy.

It wasn't until 1902 that the candy became heart-shaped (up until then, they were discs). The discs were larger and could hold longer sayings than the candy hearts of today. According to historians, parties with single people would often start with handing one half of a disc to each guest and it was their task to find the other half. Once the couple found each other, they were considered "matched" for the remainder of the party.

Candy hearts still top the list of best-selling Valentine's Day candy. Considering over a billion dollars is spent annually on candy every Valentine's Day, that's a lot of candy hearts!