It’s hard to imagine Valentine’s Day without Sweethearts candies, the colorful little hearts with flirty and loving sayings such as “XOXO,” “FOR EVER” and “ME & YOU.” But, after nearly 120 years of passing around the candies, crushes and friends had to go without them for a few years when the Necco Wafer Co.’s Cambridge, Mass., factory shut down in 2018.
They made a comeback in 2020 after Ohio-based Spangler Candy Co. purchased the brand. This year, it is modernizing the sayings to meet the world right where it is: in need of encouragement.
For 2022’s season of love, the hearts feature 16 new sayings such as “PROUD OF U,” “FEARLESS,” “BIG FAN” and “CRUSH IT” alongside classic phrases, all printed on the candies’ unchanged flavors: wintergreen, orange, lemon-lime, blueberry, banana, grape and cherry.
