The Voice of Valentine's Day

There's nostalgia and there's amnesia. I had fond childhood memories of the Necco wafer pack. All those flavors, all those cool disks - it seemed to be so much for the candy money!! So when I saw the all chocolate pack, I thought I'd try them:

They taste exactly as good as they look. Chalky. Kind of hard. Like a really stale disk of chocolate flavored sugar. If you want fake chocolate, the Tootsie Roll is 1,000,000,000 times better. And actual chocolate, well, there is truly no comparison. The Necco Chocolate Wafer is like chocolate minus everything that makes it chocolate.

Probably the most famous thing the Necco company makes is Sweethearts. Look what I found today at Target:

Chocolate Sweethearts!!! I liked these WAY better than the regular Sweethearts, but I hate those, so that's not really saying much. The whole box IS only 110 calories, and they actually grew on me. I started off not liking them, then couldn't stop eating them. A pack of eight boxes was just over $2.00. (That's only about 25 cents a box!) If I were a Mom I'd get these for every kid in my kid's class.

Now here's the bad news - can you read these? Me neither. The messages are invisible. I like the messages. I hope they find a way to fix this. Be Mine, Call Me (now also Txt Me and Fax Me), Be True, and Kiss Me are Valentine's staples. I'd go so far as to say the messages are the whole point of this candy. I think Necco created the language of Valentine's Day.

Love the retro looking box, even like the concept (although the flavor could be better), but GOTTA have the messages! Come on, Necco, I'm cheering for you!

From the Necco corporate website:

NECCO (New England Confectionery Company) dates its start back to the summer of 1847. It is the oldest multi-line candy company in the United States. NECCO’s new Corporate World Headquarters in Revere, MA, manufactures timeless candy classics such as NECCO® Wafers, Sweethearts® Conversation Hearts, Mary Jane®, Clark®, Mighty Malts®, Haviland® Thin Mints, Candy House® Candy Buttons, and Squirrel Nut Zippers®.

I didn't know what Necco even stood for until today!

I'll buy these every year if it will help a U.S. Candy company that has been around since 1847. You know, I'm feeling very nostalgic after all.