Love Hearts – Messenger of Fine Taste
There is a strange connectivity between love and confectioneries. No sooner than a man is in love, he will send chocolates and sweet candies for his ladylove. And this will be accepted with great pleasure and appreciation of gesture. Perhaps the makers of love hearts aided this feeling among people that combined beautiful messages with the taste of candies. The company is Swizzels Matlow and the year was 1954. It was launched as a freebie in cracker packets. Such was the popularity of this sweet delight that production was started for its independent packaging and selling in the latter years of the 1950s.
Love hearts came as a tablet shaped candy that was combined with a fruity flavor in each piece. The other remarkable inclusion in this candy was the messages imprinted on them. They were usual love messages like ‘I love you’ and ‘I miss you’ but have been changed with many innovations over the years. But first let me say a little more about the candies. The sweet is chewable and mostly sucked while one enjoys the flavors in the mouth. However when it is chewed the sweet quickly comes to a powdery consistency dissolving almost immediately. In the same variation of fruity flavors given to love hearts, these are available in various colors. The colors and flavors are safe for health and approved for consumption.
At present, there are six flavors of love hearts are available.These are vanilla, lemon, lime, orange, cherry and berry. Likewise their colors are selected to match the flavors – white, yellow, green, orange, red and purple respectively. These are small and round in shape with a three dimensional effect. There are embossed decorations on both sides – on one side there is an outline of a heart drawn with a message in the center. This is also highlighted with the use of the red color. On the other side, the candies have only the outlined design of the heart.
Now let me talk about the messages. This love depicting candy is famous for its messages just as much as the design of the candies and the tastes each flavor carries. People are almost mesmerized with the warmth and emotions expressed in these messages. However there are several batches of production seen by these candies with unique and very different kind of love messages too. It is usual to find competition-winning messages like ‘First Love’ or ‘Happy Days’; but there are messages that say ‘Fax Me’ or use of modern SMS message type like ‘Luv U 24/7’ really played wonders with imaginations of the connoisseurs. Some of the competition-winning messages are really unique – ‘Granny P’, ‘Me Julie Best Mum’ and ‘Forever Together’ among many others.
Swizzels Matlow has always maintained the excitement that was there about love hearts. They have always worked for more messages of love that broke all kinds of monotony. Messages like ‘Just Say No’ and ‘I Surrender’ only made the candy popular further among its buyers and patrons. There was production for a special edition in 1981 that was in celebration of the wedding of Prince Charles and Princess Diana. The age of the Flower Power saw the launch of the Hippy Bits in the years of 1970s. In this range of candies,the messages were changed from those of love to the popular flower power times.
