Did you know that Swizzels Matlow ‘Love Hearts’ were actually invented as a Christmas novelty?
A composite of two confectionery companies, Swizzels Matlow have been producing sweet treats since 1933 when jelly-sweet makers the Matlow Brothers and fizzy sweet master David Dee of Swizzels combined forces.
Swizzels Matlow’s iconic ‘Love Heart‘ candies are the quintessential Valentines Day confection in the UK. However, they initially were associated with Christmas…
The pressed-powder printed sweets first appeared in novelty Christmas crackers made (and hand-painted) by the company. Initially stamped with the message of ‘I LOVE YOU’, the sweets proved so popular than in 1954 they were officially launched as a stand-alone product.
Over the years the messages have adapted and changed with the times, with quotes such as ‘GROOVY’, ‘COOL’, ‘ZEN’, ‘HEY DADDIO’ and ‘HELLO MUM’ being lost over the decades.
The history of British ‘conversation lozenges’ like ‘Love Hearts‘ go back to the turn of the century. Yorkshire confectioners Joseph Dobson and Jospeh Terry created a series of typographic candies, although their messages of ‘HONOR YOUR PARENTS’ and ‘I WANT A WIFE’ are a little bit dated these days!
In the USA, these types of sweets go back another fifty years or so! In 1866 Boston pharmacist, Oliver Chase and his brother Daniel, applied printed messages to the lozenge-like wafers they had invented twenty years prior. However, they didn’t gain their heat-shaped design until 1902. Over the decades messages such as ‘MARRIED IN WHITE YOU HAVE CHOSEN RIGHT’ and ‘FAX ME’ have also been resigned to the times.
Their company would later become the New England Confectionery Company, aka NECCO, and they produced the candies until bankruptcy 2018 (now made by Spangler).
The British Candy Connoisseur 