Why Change a Good Thing?

As most of you know this past Sunday was Valentine’s Day, which is one of my favorite semi not real holidays. Even during the years when I didn’t have ‘someone special’ I still loved it. The flowers, teddy bears, and candy…I love it all!

When I was in grade school my mom let me bring in conversation hearts to my classmates to celebrate my birthday. I thought it was so cool that I got to give out something original vs. plain ole cupcakes.

I have expressed my love for candy hearts on this blog before, and every year those conversation hearts make February just a little bit sweeter. This year however I had a difficult time finding the hearts. Strange right? Well thanks to Facebook I asked my friends where I could find the hearts. I got a variety of answers, and most of the stores people suggested weren’t here in SLO. So when John and ventured up North I made it a priority to find a Walgreens and a Target.

First stop was Walgreens. I was SO excited when I saw the boxes in the candy isle, but I was a little thrown off because they did not have the clear window in the box. Eh…whatever. At least I found them right? I was so excited that I opened the box immediately and tried one…then I wanted to barf. WTF did I just eat? It was soft and tasted like perfume! Maybe I just ate a bad one? I tried another one…again I wanted to barf! I took a closer look at the box and noticed that there were blue hearts on it. Blue? There have never been blue before…where were the white hearts? What is going on here?? Have I entered the conversation heart Twilight Zone?
I couldn’t believe I bought the wrong kind of hearts! I was so bummed out. Oh well…at least I had hope in Target, right? Well when we got there I saw the boxes of the hearts I bought in Walgreens, so I kept on walking. Then I saw bags of hearts! Score!! I bought a couple of bags and immediately tried them again, only to immediately want to barf…AGAIN! These hearts were exactly the same and I couldn’t believe I didn’t notice the BLUE hearts on the bag! I think I was so excited that I thought I had found the hearts that I couldn’t even focus on them! I was so disappointed...again. I only had 4 more days to find some hearts, and my chances were getting slimmer and slimmer.

After telling my whoas to my friend Jen, she sent me this this link. New Flavors and Texture? EXCUSE ME? So what you are saying is that you have created an entirely new candy that just looks like conversation hearts?? ‘The new Sweethearts® have been re-formulated to be softer and more fun to eat.’ Who says that softer hearts are more fun to eat? This is a HARD candy people! Why in the world would you think that changing the recipe after 145 years is a good thing? What are you smoking NECCO employees? Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for creating other variations of the candy, like chocolate and tart, but don’t change the original recipe…especially after 145 years!!!!!!!

Needless to say I will be sending them the hearts I bought and asking them that they please send me some of the old school hearts. They’ve got to have some in their candy museum right?