Necco Conversation Hearts Make Some Changes For 2010
Posted: Thursday, January 14, 2010
by Abigail Richards
As Valentine's Day approaches, Conversation hearts come to the forefront of every one's mind. At least it seems that way when bags and bags are sitting at the front cash register whispering for you to pick them up.
Conversation Hearts have been a staple for Valentine's Day since 1902. Although Necco was printing sayings on candy as far back as the 1860's.
This year they have introduced a multitude of changes to marketing and production, a first for many, many years.
Family Circle magazine says "The classic conversation candies, Sweethearts, are getting a makeover for the first time in 145 years, with brighter colors (including sparkly ones); new flavors such as strawberry, green apple and blue raspberry and tech-savvy terms of endearment like "text me" and Tweet Me" -page 166.
And it doesn't end there.
This comes the year after the company jumped on the Twilight bandwagon, with a special release of hearts to coincide with the release of Twilight on DVD. They had also had plans to release the hearts year round with red, white and blue on Memorial Day and so on. I, personally, saw none of these changes in the store.
While the progress seems exciting especially with the thought of the sparkly ones, I am not happy with the change.
They did away with my most favorite flavor: the yellow banana ones. If I could have had a bag just of banana, I would have been in heaven. It has been replaced with Lemon. So the white ones are gone, the yellow (banana) is now lemon, and the green (lemon or lime?) is now green apple. The pink is now strawberry as opposed to cherry.
The packaging is now changed to something a little more modern. While it is cute, the inside is just not appealing with the new flavors and the old flavors gone.
Why does everything have to change? I guess I do not understand how something so successful needed to be changed? I am not sure this will set well with consumers. I have a feeling that people will buy out of habit, then be in shock when they taste the new ones.
Not sure what the outcome will be with all of the change. I think this will no longer be my favorite candy. The truth is I live for Valentine's Day because of Conversation hearts. The history of the candy and the taste was just too good to resist. I have often said I wished I could just get a bag of all yellow. I had friends who always wanted a bag of all white. Now both those flavors are gone.
I guess change is inevitable as you get older. While some of this change is good, the other change just leaves a bad taste in the mouth!
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More commentsMy favorite candy is the Necco conversation hearts. I (embarrassingly) am the first person buying them as soon as they hit the shelf in the grocery store. I could easily go through half a bag in a day and like you, the banana was my favorite. This year, I am searching for them and don't see the familiar bag. I see something that says "Sweethearts" and assumed they were the tart candy and passed them by. Then, out of desperation for my favorite candy, I read the company name on the back of the Sweethearts bag and saw it said Necco. Whew! Simply new packaging! Or so I thought...... I'm not sure I like these!!!! The flavors are too artificial! They are a more vibrant color, but the taste is leaving me a little disappointed! I may have to buy the Brach's version (which I ALWAYS thought was inferior to Necco's). Thank you for the post. I knew I couldn't be alone in this! (And I'm 45 for cryin' out loud!)
I dont like the new ones either. It was always my favorite candy that I only got once a year and now they are all gross! they just dont taste as good as they use to. I miss the banana ones too. This sucks :( I hope they realize they lost business from this change and go back to the origional ones :)
I e-mailed the necco company about the new sucky candy. They told me to enjoy the new product. Pretty sad when Brachs has become my go to valentines candy.
The new Necco conversation hearts are CRAP! Great marketing idea: let's take a great seasonal candy and change it! Now I'm scouring my town for BRACH'S hearts. At least those are still the same.
My favorite time of year has always been Valentines Day, symbolized by my favorite candy!! I HATE the new flavors!!! Can't they have a "classics" package and bring back the old flavors?!?! It's like a bad dream I'm hoping I'll wake up from.
I HATE the new flavors. I'm almost forced to buy Brachs. This is like a nightmare I can't wait to wakeup from. Please bring back the classic flavors!!!!!!!!!!
I've been going to every Dollar General in town to buy as many of the original NECCO Conversation Hearts (in the red bag) that I can find, because I'm afraid that once these are gone there will not be any more. Did NECCO learn nothing from the New Coke Debacle almost 30 years ago? I bought one bag of the new hearts since I didn't know about the flavors change, but I will never buy another. So long NECCO unless you come to your senses like Coca-Cola and bring back the original showing some respect to the taste of over one hundred thirty years of formerly satisfied customers.
I agree. I threw away the package that I bought this year. Have always loved eating them, reading the phrases etc. So disappointed that they would change a classic. They literally tasted nasty!!!! The yellow(banana), pink(cherry) and green(lime) were my favorite. I will never buy them again.
You're right. The new Necco conversation hearts taste gross. It tastes like lipstick! I kid you not! Having grown up with two older sisters, I should know. Those original flavors were far better. I liked the white mint ones the best. But even Brach's isn't that much better. They're soft, poorly textured, and they all taste the same (sort of a hodgepodge minty fruity flavor). The Necco conversation hearts were also my favorite seasonal candy. I certainly hope they reconsider bringing back the flavors they used to have.
I can't believe Necco changed their conversation hearts! I was so excited to see the Valentines day candy was out. I didn't recognize the new packaging, but felt a sigh of relief o see it was indeed Necco. This was short lived until I realized there are no more white ones and I don't like any of the flavors. I guess 2nd best is now the best - will be buy Brachs.
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