A heart-shaped candy box is the ultimate way to charm your sweetheart…at least, if you believe advertisers. Like champagne and red roses, chocolates in a heart-shaped candy box have become synonymous with Valentine’s Day. But you might not know that Americans were using these boxes to say ‘I Love You’ even 100 years ago.
A “bashful young man who wants to tell the girl of his dreams how much he loves her” will search for the perfect card and a “box of chocolates in the shiniest red-heart box he can find,” noted an article in a retail trade publication in the 1920s. The same article advised candy shops that ornate front window displays, including those featuring heart-shaped candy boxes, were the best way to attract male customers.
This candy box’s rise to iconic status reflects globalization, culinary innovation, and the ability to capture the cultural zeitgeist.
From Ancient Origins to Modern Chocolate
For most of history, chocolate was served as a bitter liquid, often with spices. Thousands of years before the modern chocolate bar, people in Central America and South America harvested cacao pods for ceremonial, culinary, and medicinal use. It was long believed that groups in and around present-day Mexico were the first to prepare bitter chocolate drinks. These groups—including the Olmecs and later the Maya—probably introduced the practice of fermenting, roasting, and grinding cacao. However, an archeological study published in 2018 showed evidence that raw cacao was used even earlier by people living in the upper Amazon rainforest.
It wasn’t until the 1500s that Europeans learned of the wonders of chocolate via Spanish conquistadors. Initially, it became a popular drink among royalty and high-society across Western Europe. It was considered a luxury, and regarded as an aphrodisiac as well as having medicinal purposes. In the 1700s, a sweeter version of the drink made with milk and sugar gained popularity.
Solid chocolate was introduced in the 1800s following technological advancements in processing roasted cocoa beans. In the 1820s, a Dutch chemist patented the process to separate cocoa powder and cocoa butter. In the 1840s, English chocolate company Fry and Sons combined cocoa butter with sugar to make the first molded chocolate bar. This process was refined across Europe in the next few decades, and the basic techniques are still used today to make modern chocolate.
The Heart-Shaped Candy Box Goes Viral
Today, many Americans may think of chocolate Easter eggs when they hear the name Cadbury. But Richard Cadbury, son of the company’s founder, is recognized as the creator of the heart-shaped candy box in 1868.
Cadbury had the right product at the right time. Valentine’s Day was very popular. Chocolate was becoming more widely produced and consumed. The idea of a pretty box for storing letters or trinkets wasn’t new. Filling a pretty box with chocolate for Valentine’s Day—as a treat and a later keepsake—quickly became a hit.
In the early 1900s, the craze reached America. Companies like Hershey, Whitman’s and Russell Stover began selling products tailored to Valentine’s Day. It became big business for American retailers. “Hearts should reign supreme at Valentine parties,” read a 1907 advertisement for Kann’s Department Store, which had outposts in Washington D.C. and Northern Virginia. Offerings included heart-shaped candy boxes, pear-shaped candy boxes, and chocolate hearts with whipped cream.
Chocolate’s popularity was further bolstered after World War One; American soldiers had been given rations of chocolate and returned wanting more. By the 1920s, the American chocolate market hosted thousands of different types of candy bars. In 1920, another Kann’s advertisement said, “If you are planning to give a gift in honor of St. Valentine, make it candy.” Red satin boxes with candy or chocolate ranged in price from seven cents to $1. (The most expensive being equivalent to around $15 today.)
Candy Boxes From Past to Present
The heart-shaped candy box continued to grow in popularity during the 20th Century, securing its place as the Valentine’s Day staple that we know today.
Whitman’s chocolates ran quarter-page newspaper ads promoting their boxes in the 1930s. In the 1950s, you could get “fine chocolates and bon bons in Valentine boxes” at Stohlman’s Confectionary, a longstanding ice cream shop in Georgetown whose interior eventually became a functioning installation at the National Museum of American History.
During much of the latter part of the century, it was easy to find a heart-shaped candy box from specialty chocolatiers and large companies alike. The boxes mostly shifted to being cardboard, some with lace or satin on top. Many boxes were adorned with cartoon characters, as the holiday became widely observed as a celebration of all kinds of love, not just romance.
The advice about elaborate holiday window displays from the 1920s remains true today. Whether you’re celebrating with a partner, friends, or children, there’s a good chance that you’ll come across a heart-shaped candy box while shopping for the perfect gift. (Or at least find it on sale the day after Valentine’s Day.)