Love Hearts, also referred to as conversation hearts, are a type of confectionery manufactured by Swizzels Matlow in the United Kingdom. They are hard, tablet-shaped sweets in various fruit flavours featuring a short, love-related message on one side of the sweet. They are an updated version of Victorian-era Conversation Lozenges. History Production of Love Hearts began in 1954, 26 years after the formation of Swizzels Ltd. The company was initially in factory premises at Star Lane, Canning Town, London, moving later that year to the larger premises at Drivers Avenue, Plaistow, London. During the Blitz in 1940, production relocated to a disused textile mill in New Mills, Derbyshire, where it is still located. Production The production of the sweet is based on the pressed tablet method, similar to many pharmaceutical products. Granulated sugar is ground to a very fine powder and separated into lines for each flavour of Love Heart. Colours, flavourings, and the other ingredients are added and mixed which is than fed into a machine where it is compressed under high pressure. At this stage, the message is imprinted onto the front of the love heart. The front is then highlighted so the message is more readable on the sweet. After the highlighting, the different colours and flavours are randomly mixed and then packaged to create a variety for the consumer. Description The sweets are circular, approximately in diameter, and in height (including the embossed decorations). Both sides are embossed with a decoration, the rear with a large outline of a heart and the front with the message inside the outline of a heart. On the front of the sweet the embossing is highlighted with a red colouring. The main body of the sweet is coloured in one of the six colours: white, yellow, orange, green, purple or red. Upon chewing, the sweet disintegrates into a powdery, starchy consistency. Flavours Love Hearts currently come in 6 flavours, each associated with a colour: White (slightly tart vanilla flavour) Yellow (a sherbet-like flavour with a distinct sharp lemon aftertaste) Green (a slight lime flavour with a sherbet-like aftertaste) Orange (a sweet flavour with a slight orange aftertaste) Purple (an unusual, slightly perfumed berry-like flavour with a strong aftertaste) Red (cherry flavour) Messages There are many different messages which can be found on the front of the sweet, most of which are love-related. The message is written in capitals in a