“Be Mine,” “Kiss me,” “Sweet Talk.” The brightly colored hearts with the familiar sayings have been a Valentine’s Day treat since 1902. Their manufacturer, NECCO, the New England Confectionery Company, in business since 1847, expects to sell more than 8 billion candy conversation hearts this year.
The original candies with printed sayings were called “motto hearts.” The sayings have been updated over the years with new ones added periodically. The candy is quite popular — NECCO sells out of their hearts,100,000 pounds a day, in six weeks.
NECCO has introduced new flavors and sayings for 2010. New flavors are strawberry, green apple, lemon, grape, orange, and blue raspberry and new sayings include “Tweet Me,” “Text Me,” “You Rock,” “Soul Mate,” “Love Bug,” and “Me + You.”
Although you’d be hard pressed to call them nutritious, they are fat free, sodium free, and a caloric bargain at about 3 calories apiece for the small hearts and about 6 calories apiece for the larger “Motto” hearts.
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