A short, sweet history of Valentine’s Day candy

“Real flowers wilt and die,” All Recipes noted in 2020, when Reese’s introduced a rose-shaped peanut butter cup for Valentine’s Day. “Know what will never wilt and die? The feeling of tastebud joy you experience every time you bite into creamy Reese’s peanut butter surrounded by a snappy shell.”

In the Valentine’s Day matchup between flower and candy marketers, call it a draw. Candy will be the most popular gift for the holiday this year, purchased by 56% of Americans who celebrate, compared to the 40% who purchase flowers, according to a recent survey from the National Retail Federation. But the trade group estimates that the petal peddlers (petallers?) will be the bigger earners, with celebrants spending $2.9 billion on flowers, compared to $2.5 billion on candy.

In the candy biz, success always is sweet, but when it comes to Valentine’s Day, some years have been sweeter than others:

1868

In England, Cadbury is the first to produce a candy assortment in a heart-shaped box, which it markets for Valentine’s Day.

1902

The New England Confectionery Company (Necco) produces its first conversation hearts, including some expressions that continue today, including “Be Mine” and “Kiss Me.” (Other early sayings have been long-retired including the inexplicable “23 Skidoo” and “Excuse My Dust.”)

1907

Hershey’s Kisses introduced. While not developed for Valentine’s Day, it’s no wonder why their smoochiness would become so associated with the holiday, even if it would take nearly eight decades (see 1986) for the brand to market a version specifically for Valentine’s.

1934

In the Walt Disney cartoon, “Mickey’s Steam Roller,” Mickey Mouse presents Minnie Mouse with two conversation hearts, “I Love You” and “Kiss Me.”

1952

Elizabeth Taylor is featured in print advertisements for Whitman’s pitching its chocolate assortments for Valentine’s Day. Tagline: “A woman never forgets the man who remembers.”

1960

Brach’s introduces its own version of conversation hearts.

1986

Nearly eight decades after Hershey’s Kisses were invented, a Valentine’s Day version is introduced, with the delectables wrapped in red and pink foil.

1996

Pez introduces a Valentine’s Day dispenser where the “head” is a heart.

Embracing cutting-edge modern technology, Sweethearts introduces the saying “Fax Me.”

2000

Heart candy meets heartthrobs: Sweethearts introduces a special edition, *NSYNC Cool Candy, with sayings including “‘’N 2-U,” “‘’Njoy,” and “Justin.”

Peeps enters the fray, introducing its first heart-shaped marshmallow treat.

2007

Playing off the urban myth that green M&M’s are aphrodisiacal, the brand introduces a Valentine’s Day package that contains only green candies. “Consumption of The Green Ones may result in elevated romance levels,” the package warns. “If you experience this effect, contact your significant other immediately.”

2010

A Parks and Recreation episode introduces a new holiday, Galentine’s Day, which according to Leslie Knope (Amy Poehler) falls on February 13 and celebrates friendship among women. The idea caught on and is still celebrated widely today, as evidenced by a recent BuzzFeed headline, “36 Gifts To Spoil Your Besties For Galentine’s Day,” which includes a box of Japanese snacks.

In the same year that the third Twilight movie, Eclipse, is released, so are the conversation hearts tie-in, Sweethearts Twilight Forbidden Fruits. Sayings include, naturally, “Bite Me.”

2012

At long last, the wait for thrash metal conversation hearts is finally over, thanks to Slayer. “Spread a little hate worldwide,” Slayer’s website enthused at the time. Among the sayings printed on the candies: “Kill,” “Hate,” and—be still my heart—“Destroy.”

2013

Since it’s so challenging to print legibly on tiny pieces of candy, a Necco executive tells The Atlantic (via Yahoo) one way in which the Sweethearts brand never tempts fate. “Our Ps sometimes look like Fs,” he said, “so we can’t say anything like “Pucker Up.” (In 2023, the brand will turn this bug into a feature.)

2016

Necco reports that it makes 8 billion conversation hearts a year.

2017

With February also Black History Month, Saturday Night Live airs a Russell Stover parody commercial for a “Black History Heart Shaped Box.” Cringe as white men present them to their appalled Black partners. The box includes 28 chocolates that resemble luminaries including Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., whose filling is described as “I have a cream,” and a white-chocolate outlier: Bill Clinton.

Altoids Love Tins introduced, with the curiously strong mints iconic tin box in the shape of—you’ll never guess—a heart.

With Valentine’s Day approaching, on his late-night show, Jimmy Kimmel asks Tracy Morgan what he’s getting for his then-wife, Megan Wollover. Replied Morgan: “I’m gonna give my wife a bag of medical weed and a Snicker.”

2018

Necco, parent company of original conversation brand Sweethearts, files for bankruptcy, then is purchased by the Spangler Candy Company, maker of Dum Dum lollipops and Circus Peanuts.

2019

Smarties Candy Co’s take on conversation hearts, Love Hearts, adds the sayings “Swipe Right,” “Text Me,” and “YOLO.”

2020

Kit Kat introduces a pink Raspberry Creme variety available only for Valentine’s Day.

Rather than looking at the map of the fillings on the box, 13% of monsters consumers admit to biting off a piece’s corner and 6% to poking a fingernail into the bottom (before returning unwanted candies to the box), according to a National Confectioners Association survey.

2021

Kraft Macaroni & Cheese partners with Sweethearts to introduce a version for Valentine’s Day that includes a candy flavor packet that turns the mac and cheese pink and imbues it with—please, for the love of God, make it stop—“hints of sweet candy flavor.”

2022

Sweethearts announces two licensing deals: With Crocs, which makes a plush red shoe with conversation-hearts shaped Jibbitz charms adorning them; and with Kellogg’s Froot Loops, with the cereal shaped like hearts.

Twelve years after a Parks and Recreation episode invented Galentine’s Day (and seven years after the show’s finale), it’s still a marketing peg for candy brands, including this year’s Hershey’s Kisses BFF Gift boxes, with packages printed with “Besties Forever.” CandyUSA.com notes that “the product is aimed at Galentine’s Day gifting.”

2023

The Brach’s version of conversation hearts introduces a version based on sayings from the series Friends, with sayings printed on the hearts including “UR My Lbstr,” “Moo Point,” and, “On A Break.”

2024

Sweethearts addresses the fact that sayings are sometimes indistinct on its conversation hearts by…making them even blurrier. To embrace “situationships,” those non-exclusive hard-to-define relationships thought to be popular among younger singles, the brand introduces Situationships Boxes. When barely legible, sayings on the candies including “True Love” and “Only You” are as ambivalent as they are heartfelt. Text on the box promises, “Messages as blurry as your relationship.”

Here comes a savory interloper. Meathearts, heart-shaped beef jerky treats from *thumps chest* Manly Man Co., inject protein into the festivities. Printed sayings include “Meat Me” and “Beef Mine.” (Nobody asked, but we’d add “Beau Vine.”)

2025

The Dash brand, which makes a popular line of miniature waffle irons, teams up with Sweethearts to make a small heart-shaped waffle maker whose waffles come out with typical sayings from the brand like “Cutie Pie” and “I Luv You.”

Kit Kat releases its first Valentine’s shape (as opposed to just a flavor—see 2020) in the US, a bear holding a heart against its chest.

Rata-phooey: The FDA bans the Red 3 dye from foods after some studies show it causes cancer in rats, with food brands required to stop using the dye by 2027. Until then, you might not want to feed your pet rat Brach’s conversation hearts, which contain the dye; the Sweethearts brand, once made by Necco and today made by Spangler, contains Red 40, which is not banned.