Candy hearts got their start as medicinal lozenges in Boston.

The Valentine’s Day tradition of little candy hearts began in 19th century New England. In 1847 Boston pharmacist Oliver Chase created a machine to efficiently produce throat lozenges. At the time the standard process to create a lozenge was to grind medicine & sugar by hand and press it into shape. Eventually Chase dropped the medicine part, focused just on the sugar part, and used his “lozenge cutter” to manufacture mint candy wafers. In the process he invented America’s first candy making machine and founded what became the New England Confectionery Company (Necco).

In 1866 Chase’s brother Daniel created a way to press words into the candy lozenges with red vegetable dye. These candies were larger than today’s hearts and instead of hearts they were seashell shaped. Eventually the candies came in a variety of shapes such as horseshoes, watches, postcards, baseballs, etc. Larger shapes meant they could contain longer messages. Hearts were introduced in 1902 and by the mid 20th century Necco settled on small hearts with just enough room for a few words.

In 2018 Necco declared bankruptcy and 2019 was the first year in over a century there we no candy hearts (now called “Sweethearts”) from Necco. By 2020 the Spangler Candy Company had purchased the rights to produce Sweethearts and they were available once more.