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.

The eating experience

The sweets are suitable for either chewing or sucking. On chewing the sweet quickly disintegrates into a powdery, starchy consistency, before quickly starting to effervesce producing a small quantity of foam in the mouth, similar to sherbet (both share the key ingredients of sugar, tartaric acid and sodium bicarbonate).

The flavours

Love Hearts currently come in 6 flavours, each associated with a colour.

#White (a plain, sherbet-like, slightly tart vanilla flavour)
#Yellow (a sherbet-like flavour with a distinct sharp lemon aftertaste)
#Orange (a sweet flavour with a slight orange aftertaste)
#Green (a slightly lime flavour with a sherbet-like aftertaste)
#Purple (an unusual, slightly perfumed berry-like flavour with a strong aftertaste)
#Red (a fairly rich berry-like flavour)

"This list of flavours starts with the weakest flavouring and progresses to the strongest."

The appearance of the sweet

The sweets are small and circular, approximately 19 mm in diameter, and 5 mm in height (including the embossed decorations). Both sides are embossed with a decoration, the rear with a large outline of a heart and the front with the message within an outline of a heart. On the front of the sweet the embossing is highlighted with a red colouring.

The main body of the sweet is coloured in one of the 6 colours - white, yellow, orange, green, purple or red. Especially for the darker red and purple colourings this colouring is somewhat blotchy.

The messages

There are many different messages which can be found on the front of the sweet, most of which are love related. The message is written in capitals in a sans serif font of varying size. The font is scaled and sometimes stretched out of proportion to fit the available space.

The clarity of the messages is sometimes compromised, the sweets are of a somewhat crumbly consistency and are prone to chipping. This often removes small sections of the red highlight or small sections of letters, making some messages difficult to read. Some of the longer messages (with the smaller fonts) are also prone to flooding with the red highlight.

Example messages

There are many messages (it is uncommon to find more than 3 repeats in a packet of 20). These include:

The messages have been updated many times, for example:
* Addition of phrases including modern technology - e.g. "Fax Me", "Email Me" and "Page Me".
* Addition of phrases in "SMS language" typical of SMS messages - e.g. "Luv U 24/7"

Unusual messages

Most messages are written in simple horizontal, centrally aligned, lines. There are some exceptions to this rule, including the phrase "I Surrender", where the word surrender has been written in an arc around the lower inside edge of the heart outline.

The "Just Say No" message has an unclear layout, appearing to read "Justsay No".

Packaging

Love Hearts are packaged and typically sold in tubular packs of 20 (which are in turn boxed in packs of 50 for wholesale). The packaging is a clear plastic wrap (twisted at both ends) wrapped in a paper label. Alternative package sizes are available under special circumstances, such as the 2006 "silver love heart" competition, where the packet size was temporarily increased.

The label depicts the phrase "Love Hearts" bordered by two rows of stylised love hearts. It also carries a barcode, an ingredients list and the best before date. The sweets on the label currently carry the messages:

The colours of the sweets on the label do not correspond to the colours found within the packet:
*Label colours: white, yellow, peach (light orange), green and blue
*Actual colours: white, yellow, orange, green, purple and red

The shelf life (indicated by the best before date) is very long - approximately a year and a half.

The packaging also demonstrates a consistent printing error - the small black spots to the left and right of the "Love Hearts" name are typical and consistent among many Love Hearts packets.

History

Production of Love Hearts began in 1933 with the formation of Swizzels Ltd., initially in factory premises at Star Lane, Canning Town, London, moving later that year to the larger premises at Drivers Avenue, Plaistow, London. During the Blitz) in 1940 production relocated to a disused textile mill in New Mills, Derbyshire, where it has stayed to this day.

Production method

Production of Love Hearts has changed little since 1933, although has become more mechanised and less labour intensive. The production is a pressed tablet method, similar to many pharmaceutical products.

#Granulated sugar is ground to a very fine powder.
#The sugar is separated into lines for each flavour of Love Heart.
#Colours, flavourings, and the other ingredients (all fine powders) are added and mixed.
#The mixture is fed into a tablet machine where it is compressed under high pressure into a tablet. This is the stage where the message is imprinted onto the front of the love heart, depending on the mould used for pressing.
#The highlights on the front are "painted".
#The different colours and flavours are randomly mixed, then packaged.

Ingredients

Sugar, Acidity Regulators: Malic Acid, Tartaric Acid; sodium bicarbonate, stearic acid, Modified Starch, E470b, Anti-Caking Agent: Magnesium Carbonate; Flavourings, Colours: E100, E104, E110, E122, E124, E129, E132, Elderberry Extract.

See also

*Conversation hearts and Sweethearts (the US equivalent)

External links

* [http://www.swizzels-matlow.com/ Official Swizzels Maltow Ltd. Website]

* [http://www.lovehearts.com/ Official Love Hearts Website]
* [http://www.loveheartsjewellery.co.uk/ Love Hearts Jewellery]

Notes