Love Hearts

Love Hearts are a type of sweet manufactured by Swizzels Matlow in the United Kingdom. Swizzels Matlow are also famous for Parma Violets. The sweets are of a variety of sweet "fruit" flavours and are fizzy. The famed feature of Love Hearts is the love related message that is found on one side of the sweet; typical messages include "Love Bug", "Dream Girl" and "Its Love".

The eating experience

The sweets are suitable for either chewing or sucking, although chewing seems to be the preferred method. 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.

The overall flavour is similar to that of sherbet (both share the key ingredients of sugar, tartaric acid and sodium bicarbonate) with a similar foaming effect. The sweets are, however, "fruit" flavoured to a greater or lesser extent.

The flavours

The different Love Heart colours

Love Hearts currently come in 6 flavours, each flavour 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 famed 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, almost all of which are in some way love related. As mentioned above the message is embossed within the outline of a heart and then highlighted in red on the front of the sweet. The message is written in capitals in a sans serif font of varying size. The font is scaled (and often 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:

Be My Love
Just Me
Hug Me
Dream Girl
Cutie Pie
New Love
Nice Girl
Hi Buddy
Its Love
Hard Luck
My Wee Girl
Tease Me
I Love You
Cool Dude
Wicked
Lover
Meet Me
Groovy Chick
Luv U 24/7
My Angel
True Lips
Happy Birthday
My Pal
Love Bug
Hello
Cheeky Girl
I Surrender
Will You
Just Say No
For Keeps
Hold Me
First Love
You're Fab
Say Yes
You're Gorgeous
Grow Up
Great Fun
Love You
Lucky Day
Cuddle Me
Great Lips
Funny Face
Trust Me
How Sweet
Only You
I Wont Tell
D'oh!
Blue Eyes
Sweet You
Cutie Pie
Hunk
Kiss Me
Like Me
Guess Who
Hug Me
Cool Kid
I Want U
Wow
For Ever
Heart Desire
Lets Dance
Angel Face
My Hero
Like You
Cute Kid
Wild Thing
Lush Lips
Marry Me
Sweet Kiss
Be Mine
Good Pals
Real Love
My Pet
Love
Oh Boy
My Girl
My Boy
Tickle Monster
Bye Bye
Hi Baby
Miss Me
Ever Yours
Email Me
Be My Icon
Canny Lad
Too Much
Dear One
Hot Lips
Kiss
I Spy
All Yours
Find Me
Take It Easy
Catch Me
In Love
Be My Love
You're Mine
Heart Throb
I Like You
Smile
Yours
You And I
Send Me
Slick Chick
Bad Boy
Date Me
Stay Cool
I'm Shy
Txt Me
Dishy
Less Than Three

The messages have been updated many times. The latest updates have been:

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

A Love Heart with the "I Surrender" message

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.

A Love Heart with the "Just Say No" message

The "Just Say No" message has a surprisingly unclear layout, appearing to read "Justsay No" as opposed to "Just Say No". The reason for this is not obvious, as a clearer layout would have been possible.

Most messages are love related (although it may be a tenuous link depending on the vocal delivery or context of the message). There are examples which are in no way love related, e.g. "Happy Birthday".

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 carry the messages:

Fax Me
My Boy
Trust Me
E Mail Me
Keep Cool
Don't Cry
My Girl
Page Me
Catch Me

Interestingly 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 E.16, moving later that year to the larger premises at Drivers Avenue, Plaistow, London E.13. In 1940 (due to The Blitz) 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 and a little bit of love.

External links