Sweethearts for Valentine’s Day

I remember Necco’s Sweethearts and look forward to buying them every year.  I love the little sayings on them, the flavor, and the different colors that come in the package.  This year, there were some changes to this favorite candy.  There were different sayings and different flavors.  For the first time ever, the 2010 Sweethearts candy sayings have been chosen by America and demonstrate our “love” of social media.  The top new sayings include “Tweet Me” and “Text Me.” The phrase we’re featuring on The Mommy-Files is “Soul Mate!”

Sweethearts is a 145-year-old company and they have partnered with Twitter to share short messages!  Sweethearts launched an app that Twitter will be helping to promote this new candy in 2010.  Twitter will be writing featuring it in its definition box for the week.  The definition box is the top right side of every user’s profile and will click through to a site where there will be a hosted application.

Sweethearts created an iPhone App that allows people to send a virtual Sweethearts box to loved ones with personalized messages on the hearts.  The app features an option that allows these phrases to appear in a person’s Twitter timeline.  Currently, most brands are creating apps that integrate with Facebook status updates so this will be the first app to integrate with Twitter.  The app will also be housed on a dedicated URL or Twitter users who aren’t on iPhones.

Sweethearts not only has new sayings and a new iPhone app, but they also have new flavors!  At first, I was somewhat disappointed.  I was looking forward to the flavor of Sweethearts I was accustomed to.  I found that I liked most of the flavors, with the exception of the blue one – Blue Raspberry.  I just really didn’t like that one.  The other flavors included Green Apple (I really liked this one), Blue Raspberry, Strawberry, Lemon, Grape, and Orange.  The candies have evolved from pastels to bright colors, including pink, blue, purple, green, yellow, and orange. 

This past spring, Sweethearts ran a contest to let Americans choose the phrases on the hearts.  They’ve never done this in the 145-year history of the brand.  Previous sayings released annually centered on a theme the company created.  Some recent examples include  last year’s food-related phrases under a “Menu of Love” theme: “Spice It Up” “Honey Bun” “Sugar Pie” “My Treat” “Recipe 4 Love” “Table For Two” “Stir My Heart.”  Other prior years were weather- and pet-related.   The last big technology phrases that got a lot of buzz were “Fax Me” and “Email Me” about a decade ago. 
 
Other news about the candy for 2010:  In addition to these all new phrases, the candies themselves will look and taste completely different this year – brighter colors, fruitier flavors and more. 
 
In addition, the new Sweethearts Valentine’s Day line follows a year of innovation for the brand. In 2009, Sweethearts partnered with Summit Entertainment and the Twilight Saga by Stephenie Meyer to launch Forbidden Fruit Sweethearts (Twilight) and Fire and Ice Sweethearts (New Moon). An Eclipse-themed Twilight Sweethearts offering will be introduced in Summer 2010. Also in 2009, the brand created a new way to show appreciation and support of the military with the summer launch of Red, White & You Sweethearts, featuring sentiments like “Proud of U,” “Home Safe” and “Miss You.” American military troops in the U.S. and overseas were treated to the new Red, White & You Sweethearts in care packages through a partnership with the United Service Organizations, Inc. (USO).

WHAT I LIKED:

I liked the new sayings a lot.  I thought that “Tweet Me,” “Text Me,” “For Ever,” and “Dream Big” were really cute sayings.  I also liked the bright colors.  My favorite flavors were lemon, orange, and green apple.

WHAT I DISLIKED:

I was disappointed that many of the hearts were missing the sayings on them.  Part of the fun of the Sweethearts candies are reading the sayings.  A blank heart is not as much fun to eat.  I also wasn’t able to find any purple hearts in the boxes I received.  The boxes were solid all the way around (no see through plastic window), so if you were to buy them individually, you wouldn’t have been able to tell the hearts were missing sayings. 

RECOMMENDATIONS:

I hope next year, all of the Sweethearts candies have sayings on them.  I would also like to see the plastic window return to the boxes so that you can see what you’re buying.  I would love to have the candies a “little” more crunchy and not so soft.

MY RATINGS

On a scale of 1-5 with 5 being the best rating, I would rate the Necco Sweethearts Candies with a 3 for taste and 2 for presentation (due to lack of printed sayings on hearts).

I received samples of the Necco Sweethearts candies to facilitate my review.  All opinions expressed in this post are 100% mine.