How The World's Best Selling Valentine's Day Candy, Conversation Hearts, Are Made.

Note: This is a partial reprint of a post from two years ago.

It's that time of year again. Valentine's Day. When happy shiny couples give one another cute warm fuzzies while the rest of the world either remains hopeful or bitterly dejected. Either way, one can't get away from the classic "Sweethearts" by Necco come mid-February. From the candy to Keds, iPhone apps to fragrances, talking hearts abound.

First, some Necco history of the candy:


Today's best-selling Valentine candy -- Sweethearts Conversation Hearts--the pastel sugar hearts with the quirky sayings, were as much a part of your childhood as they are for today's kids. New England Confectionery Company manufactures over 8 billion hearts each year to keep up with demand for this American icon.



Still it's hard to believe that the concept behind today's Conversation Hearts got its start when Abraham Lincoln was still President. Mottoes seemed to have come into prominence with cockles, a small crisp candy made of sugar and flour formed in the shape of a cockle or scallop shell. The early cockles contained mottoes, which were printed on thin colored paper and rolled up inside.

In the 1860's, when Daniel Chase, the brother of New England Confectionery Company's founder, Oliver Chase, began printing sayings on the candy. He experimented first with hand tools, and then devised a machine in which the cloth was replaced with a felt roller pad, moistened with vegetable coloring, usually red, which pressed against the die. The die printed the words on the lozenge paste and the double purpose machine cut the lozenges.

Below are images of the process today:





above: the making, baking and packaging process today

Grown-ups were entertained and passed the hearts around at parties. For weddings, there were wedding-day lozenges with humorously foreboding prophecies such as: "Married in satin, Love will not be lasting" "Married in Pink, He will take to drink" and "Married in white, You have chosen right."

The present day Sweethearts® Conversation Heart dates back to 1902. Back then, besides hearts, they also produced various shapes such as postcards, baseballs, horseshoes and watches.


above: Richard Krause, the President and CEO at the New England Confectionery Company, 2009 (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

In the early 1990's, New England Confectionery Company's Vice President Walter Marshall decided to update the sayings each year and retire some. His first --Fax Me--created a lot of attention from Sweetheart fans. As a result, each year we receive hundreds of suggestions from romantics, candy lovers and school kids for new sayings. From old tech, "Call Me" to new tech, "E-mail Me," Sweethearts® keep the pulse on the heartbeat of the nation.



Conversation Hearts have been used in various ingenious ways over the years-- to propose marriage, to teach children statistics and reading, to decorate cakes, and as borders for frames.


above: the anatomically correct human heart made of the candies by Lego brick artist Nathan Sawaya.

You can see many Conversation Heart inspired products, from iPhone covers to jewelry, at the following links.

Zazzle
Etsy
Red Bubble

Sweethearts and Conversation Hearts Candy and Items on Amazon

Three New York Meat and Cheese Lovers Go Vegan For Six Weeks and Get Vegucated.

Part sociological experiment and part adventure comedy, Vegucated is a award-winning documentary that follows three meat and cheese-loving New Yorkers from different backgrounds who, for six weeks, adopt a vegan diet and a whole new way of thinking about food.

Now, personally, I love my artery clogging animal parts and fat-laden dairy so much I fear I'd never participate in such an experiment. Nor, do I want to know the ugly truth behind how my meat is treated and prepared (I've seen all those tragic PETA films). That being said, the trailer for this documentary made me feel instantly shamed and admittedly piqued my curiosity.



Vegucated is a feature-length documentary that follows three meat and cheese-loving New Yorkers who agree to adopt a vegan diet for six weeks. There’s Brian, the bacon-loving bachelor who eats out all the time, Ellen, the single mom who prefers comedy to cooking, and Tesla, the college student who avoids vegetables and bans beans. They have no idea that so much more than steak is at stake and that the fate of the world may fall on their plates. Lured with true tales of weight lost and health regained, they begin to uncover hidden sides of animal agriculture and soon start to wonder whether solutions offered in films like Food, Inc. go far enough. Before long, they find themselves risking everything to expose an industry they supported just weeks before.


above: Marisa Miller Wolfson, Writer/Director/Editor

But can their conviction carry them when times get tough? What about on family vacations fraught with skeptical step-dads, carnivorous cousins, and breakfast buffets?

Part sociological experiment, part science class, and part adventure story, Vegucated showcases the rapid and at times comedic evolution of three people who share one journey and ultimately discover their own paths in creating a kinder, cleaner, greener world, one bite at a time.

If you are interested in renting/buying the DVD, taking the challenge for yourself, reading reviews of the film or learning more about the entire project, their sponsors and community groups, visit getvegucated.com

Finger Lickin' Landscapes. Photos of Edible Environments by Carl Warner.

Photographer Carl Warner creates miniature worlds crafted entirely of food, textiles or other objects and then photographs them. Today I want to share with you his Foodscapes, as he calls them. Meat mountains, broccoli trees, cabbage seas, chocolate rivers and cereal leaves are just some of the fun elements in the dioramas. Made with most things edible, the landscapes and buildings have obvious commercial applications, but some are just as appetizing to gaze upon. He even sells photographic prints of them (links to purchase the prints, a book and the new wall calendar are at the end of this post).

About creating his Foodscapes, Carl says:
The ‘Foodscapes’ are created in Carl’s London studio where they are built on top of a large purpose built triangular table top. The scenes are photographed in layers from foreground to background and sky as the process is very time consuming and so the food quickly wilts under the lights. Each element is then put together in post production to achieve the final image.

“Although I’m very hands on with my work, I do use model makers and food stylists to help me create the sets. I tend to start with a drawing which I sketch out in order to get the composition worked out, this acts as a blue print for the team to work to.”

Once the drawing is agreed upon, Carl then works out what each part of the scene will be made from, and working with his food stylist they together determine the best ingredients to work with in order to achieve his aims.

“I tend to draw a very conventional landscape using classic compositional techniques as I need to fool the viewer into thinking it is a real scene at first glance, it is the realisation that the scene is in fact made of food that brings a smile that brings a smile to the viewer, and for me that’s the best part”

Having worked for many years as a photographer bringing ideas to life for advertising agencies Carl became very experienced in lighting, and especially the recreation of natural looking light using a combination of tungsten and flash lighting equipment.

“I’ve always enjoyed the discipline of working in the studio, and the spontaneity of working outdoors in natural light, as you never know what you’re going to get. With my ‘Foodscapes’ I can now put together the knowledge of natural light with the control of recreating it in the studio in order to bring out the colours and textures as well as the beauty of a scene”

These images can take up to two or three days to build and photograph and then a couple of days retouching and fine tuning the images to blend all the elements together. Carl spends a lot of time planning each image before shooting in order to choose the best ingredients to replicate larger scale shapes and forms within nature, so he spends a lot of time staring at vegetables in supermarkets which makes him seem a little odd! However, he is careful to point out that finding the right shaped broccoli to use as a tree is an all important task.

“Although there is a fair amount of waste, there is a lot of food left over which is always shared out with the team, though most of the food used in the sets have either been super glued or pinned and none of this makes for good eating!”

About Carl:

Born in Liverpool, 1963 Carl has spent most of his life drawing and taking pictures. He has worked mainly in the advertising industry for the past twenty years, based at his London studio, and now lives with his long suffering wife and four children in the Kent countryside.




A book of his Food Landscapes was published last year and shows 'behind the scenes' pictures of Carl at work as well as descriptions in his own words of how they were inspired and created. And a new 2012 Wall Calendar featuring his Foodscapes is also available.



You can buy prints of some of his amazing Foodscapes here.

See all of his various types of photography at his website