For the first time in a long time, Valentine’s Day 2019 was missing a key element – Sweetheart Conversation Hearts. You may have realized, especially if you have a young child, that the candy wasn’t available last year.
The company that makes the hearts, The New England Confectionary Company (Necco), went out of business in 2018. In September 2018, Spangler Candy Co. bought the Sweetheart brand, but they didn’t have enough time to package the candies before Valentine’s Day in 2019.
Spangler previously announced that they were releasing the hearts in 2020, but until now we hadn’t heard anything from the company. Last week the spokeswoman for Spangler, Diana Moore Eschhofen, announced that the hearts would be back on shelves at drugstores nationwide.
“We’re beyond excited to bring Sweethearts back this year in limited quantities. It has been an adventure to get these favorite Valentine candies back in production. Even though we knew we wouldn’t be able to meet all the consumer demand for 2020, we committed to moving forward to avoid another year without Sweethearts on the store shelves,” Eschhofen said.
If you want to get a pack of these candies synonymous with Valentine’s Day, you’ll have to act quickly before the rush of the holiday. You may notice these candies taste a bit different than you’re used to because Spangler is using the original 118-year-old recipe which features flavors like banana and wintergreen.
