It’s amazing to celebrate Valentines Day with your significant other, but it’s also awesome to show your love for the other special people in your life who stand by you through thick and thin.
CandyStore.com supports women around the world. We created a Galentine’s Day candy heart generator — conversation heart + Parks & Rec references = <3 — to show them some love. Make your own customized GIF to send to your Galentine.
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History of the Valentine’s Day Candy Heart
Kiss me, hug me, love ya. These short, edible answers have been printed on pastel colored conversation hearts since 1847. Invented by Boston pharmacist Oliver Chase, these edible, cute little morsels were meant to break him into the lozenges industry. The only hiccup here was that making lozenges in the 1800s was a big pain in the rear, requiring lots of time kneading dough, rolling it out, and shaping it into mouth-sized morsels.
To solve that problem, Oliver Chase put his brain to work and invented a machine to make lozenges and streamline the process—making a perfect disc-shaped candy every time. While Chase was aiming low, he ended up creating the first candy machine in America and a ton of money in the candy business. But it wasn’t until his brother, Daniel, thought about adding messages to candy in 1866 that the conversation candy idea was born.
Using vegetable dye, the brothers concocted a method for printing words on the candies, and in 1902, the candies took their modern-day heart shape. These conversation hearts were a hit immediately and often used at parties in the early 1900s as a way for men to flirt with women, and vice versa. Today, NECCO is a main manufacturer of candy hearts, or conversation hearts, and pumps out over 100,000 pounds per day! They even incorporated the “girl power” saying into their candy hearts in 2015 with an overwhelmingly positive response.
While candy heart messages have changed over the years, today, you can use CandyStore.com’s candy heart generator to come up with a unique message of your own. Happy Valentine’s Day, everyone!