Sweethearts -- I * Love * Heart-Shaped Candy

The sweet details on Sweethearts 

The heart-shaped candy that says so much!

Sweethearts were originally invented by Howard B. Stark of the Stark Candy Company, which was purchased by NECCO.

Sweethearts are small heart-shaped candies sold around Valentine's Day. Each heart is printed with a message such as "Be Mine", "Kiss Me", "Call Me", and "Miss You". Sweethearts are made by the New England Confectionery Company, or NECCO. A similar type of candy is sold in the UK under the name Love Hearts. NECCO manufactures nearly 8 billion sweethearts a year.

Sweethearts are made by NECCO 

The sweet scoop about the company

Necco is the popular acronym for the candy company known as the New England Confectionery Company. Initially created by a union of small confectionery companies in the Boston, MA, area in 1901, Necco Sweets, a trade name derived from the company title, has grown into one of the world's largest companies specializing in confectionery-based manufacturing.

Founded by brothers Oliver R. and Silas Edwin Chase in 1847, "Chase and Company" became an integral part of what is now Necco.[1] Having previously invented and patented the first American candy machine, the Chase brothers continued to design and create machinery that made assortments of candy, such as their popular sugar wafers.

Sweethearts UK style -- Love Hearts 

Love Hearts are a type of confectionary manufactured by Swizzels Matlow in the United Kingdom. They are hard, fizzy, tablet-shaped sweets in a variety of fruit flavours featuring a short, love related message on one side of the sweet.

Sweethearts are sold for Valentine's Day 

The sweet scoop on this Holiday ...

Valentine's Day or Saint Valentine's Day is a holiday celebrated on February 14. In the Americas and Europe, it is the traditional day on which lovers express their love for each other by sending Valentine's cards, presenting flowers, or offering confectionery. The holiday is named after two among the numerous Early Christian martyrs named Valentine. The day became associated with romantic love in the circle of Geoffrey Chaucer in the High Middle Ages, when the tradition of courtly love flourished.

The day is most closely associated with the mutual exchange of love notes in the form of "valentines." Modern Valentine symbols include the heart-shaped outline, doves, and the figure of the winged Cupid. Since the 19th century, handwritten notes have largely given way to mass-produced greeting cards.

The sending of Valentines was a fashion in nineteenth-century Great Britain, and, in 1847, Esther Howland developed a successful business in her Worcester, Massachusetts home with hand-made Valentine cards based on British models. The popularity of Valentine cards in 19th-century America was a harbinger of the future commercialization of holidays in the United States.