I saw this on the shelf in the Valentine’s Day candy aisle in Walgreen’s today and just had to laugh. It’s made by R.M. Palmer and it’s a rather large fish-shaped chocolate wrapped in fish foil that makes it look just like a fish. I believe one was a bass and one was a trout – though I’m not positive; I’m not a fish expert. The milk chocolate fish comes with your choice of two different sayings: “You’re A Keeper” or “I’m Hooked On You.” I have to believe these are for women to buy for men. I can’t imagine a woman appreciating a chocolate fish. Sure, it’s chocolate, but it’s a fish! It even comes in a package that looks like it’s mounted on a wall!

• Palmer’s Chocolate Fish

chocolate, Valentine, fish

Once upon a time, Just Born’s Marshmallow Peeps were strictly an Easter candy, and they garnered a huge following, as evidenced by the amount of websites and articles devoted to them. Naturally, Candy Addict has already collected a lot of those links. Within the past few years, Peeps have been popping up all over the place. There are ghost and black cat Peeps for Halloween, stars and tree Peeps for Christmas, even patriotic Peeps for the Fourth of July. And there are Valentine’s Day Peeps for February 14th. If you’re looking for something a little different to give to your sweetie, then Peeps might be a good alternative to the standard box of chocolates.

This year, they have Vanilla and Strawberry Creme flavored Hearts, regular marshmallow Pink Hearts, and a Decorating Kit, where you can personalize 4 Peep Hearts with cake icing. But what really impressed me this year is their offer of recipes and craft projects with Peeps as major ingredients. Check out the Peeps I Love You Bouquet, Sweetheart Lollipops, and Strawberry Cupcakes.

Complete details are on their website, but as the entire thing is in Flash, I can’t link directly to the actual page. Just click on Valentine’s Day or check out the Featured Recipes and Crafts section for full instructions on how to make those nifty Valentine’s Day gifts.

• Marshmallow Peeps

Buy Valentine’s Day Peeps online:

• at Candy Crate
• at Amazon

candy, sweets, Peeps, Valentine’s day, gifts, crafts, projects, marshmallow

It’s impossible to imagine a Valentine’s Day without the ubiquitous Necco Sweethearts conversation hearts. They’ve been around for over a century, and I’ve got to say, they taste like it, too! I guess it’s kind of like those holiday fruitcakes–hardly anyone actually likes them, but nevertheless they feel obligated to buy or consume them.

Necco tries to keep up with the times by adding new slogans for Sweethearts every year. For 2007 the company is tapping into America’s love for animals by including several pet-oriented sayings, including “Top Dog,” “Go Fish,” “My Pet,” and “Love Bird.” These new phrases join the more than 100 existing ones. Interested in the sayings that graced the earliest batches of conversation hearts in the 1860s? “Be Mine,” “Be Good,” “Be True,” “Kiss Me,” and “Sweet Talk.”

The recipe for Sweethearts conversation hearts has remained unchanged, but they do offer some other choices. There are Sweethearts Sugarfree Boxes, chocolate-flavored Sweethearts, Sweethearts Valentine Gum, conversation hearts with sayings in Spanish, cinnamon jelly hearts, and Sweetheart Tarts.

For “research purposes” I picked up some of the Sweetheart Tarts, which, according to the box, are “tart” and “tangy.” I have to confess that I was a little apprehensive. I’ve had plenty of candies that claimed to be sour and tart but fell flat. I was also imagining the taste of the regular Sweethearts with a teeny bit of citric acid or something added to it, and, well, it just wasn’t very appetizing.

I was pleasantly surprised when I finally gathered up the nerve to try these hearts. They aren’t extraordinarily tart, but they are actually tart! And they actually have some flavor! They do have that same hard, slightly chalky texture, but they are definitely edible. There is one color that tasted medicinal (I think it was the white one, but I had several in my mouth so I could not pinpoint the culprit), but that was the only one. If you must have conversation hearts for Valentine’s but don’t care for the original flavor, give the tart ones a try!

• NECCO website

candy, sweets, Necco, Sweethearts, hearts, Valentine’s Day, valentines

Depsite all of the Valentine’s-related posts I have made in the weeks leading up to today, I still feel I need to post something related to Valentine’s Day so here it is: How Much Is Inside Conversation Hearts? On this page, they count, measure, sort, and grind Necco hearts and give us some real measurements with a side of humor. Be sure and look closely at the message tally on the right….and excuse their messy HTML.

We were going to grind up the bag of hearts with a coffee grinder to measure volume, but it started to smell like burning after a while. Instead, we mailed the powder we had to our favorite senators for Valentine’s Day. How romantic.

How Much Is Inside Conversation Hearts?
Other Valentine’s Day pages on Candy Addict
Also see: How Much is Inside Chewing Gum?

candy, hearts, heart, necco, valentine, valentines, valentines+day, count, measure, food

While shopping today, I noticed the Easter and Valentine’s day candies are out already and while poking around I saw the above Altoids tin. It holds 2.29 oz of mints as opposed to the usual 1.75oz in a regular tin. How long have these been out? Have these been out for years and I just never noticed them or are they new this year? I see some places online have them for sale, but the Altoids website makes no mention of them (that I could find).

Altoids website
Things to do with Altoids tins

candy, mint, mints, altoids, tin, tins, heart, valentines