Love Hearts facts for kids
Love Hearts are a famous type of hard, fizzy candy made in the United Kingdom by a company called Swizzels Matlow. These small, tablet-shaped sweets are known for the short, sweet messages printed on them, like "BE MINE" or "LOVE YOU". They are a modern take on a type of candy from the Victorian era called conversation lozenges, which also had messages on them.
Contents
The Story of Love Hearts
The first Love Hearts were made in 1954. The company that makes them, Swizzels, started in Canning Town, London. During the Blitz in World War II, when London was being bombed, the factory had to move for safety. It moved to an old mill in New Mills, Derbyshire, and it's still there today!
How Are Love Hearts Made?
Making Love Hearts is a cool process, similar to how some medicine tablets are made.
First, granulated sugar is ground into a very fine powder. This powder is then separated into different lines for each flavor. Next, colors and flavorings are mixed in. This mixture is then put into a special machine that presses it together with a lot of pressure, forming the hard candy tablet.
As the candy is being pressed, a stamp imprints the famous message onto the front. To make the message easy to read, it's highlighted with a red food dye. Finally, all the different colors and flavors are mixed together and put into packages, so you get a fun variety in every roll.
What Do They Look and Taste Like?
Love Hearts are small, round candies. Each one is about 19 millimeters across and 5 millimeters thick. They have a big heart shape on the back and a message inside a heart on the front.
The candy itself comes in six different colors: white, yellow, orange, green, purple, and red. When you chew a Love Heart, it breaks down into a fizzy, powdery texture.
The Famous Messages
There are many different messages you can find on a Love Heart. Most are about love, like "Be Mine," "Love You," and "I Surrender." The words are written in capital letters. Sometimes the letters are stretched or squeezed to fit perfectly inside the heart shape.
Love Hearts can even be made with special messages. For their wedding in 2008, soccer star Wayne and his wife Coleen Rooney had special sweets made that said "Wayne and Coleen." When Prince William and Kate Middleton got married in 2011, special edition Love Hearts were also created for the event.
In 2008, Swizzels held a contest to find 10 new messages. The winning ideas included "Happy Harry," "Best Mum," and "Heart Baby."
More recently, in 2022, the sweets were temporarily renamed "Kind Hearts." This was done in partnership with a charity called YoungMinds. These special packs had eight new positive messages:
"Be You", "You're Loved", "Dream Big", "Positive Vibes", "Respect", "Stay Strong", "Love Yourself", and "Be Kind".
Packaging
Love Hearts are usually sold in a roll, or tube, with 20 sweets inside. The packaging is a clear wrapper twisted at both ends, with a paper label around the middle. The label shows the "Love Hearts" name surrounded by pictures of little hearts. Over the years, different sizes have been sold, including giant and tiny Love Hearts.
Other Versions
The supermarket Asda sells its own version of these sweets called 'Whatevers'. They are also made by Swizzels Matlow but feature funny British slang words instead of love messages.
See also
- Sweethearts (the US equivalent)
- List of confectionery brands
