{"id":8913,"date":"2013-02-14T15:21:58","date_gmt":"2013-02-14T20:21:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.collectingcandy.com\/wordpress\/?p=8913"},"modified":"2013-02-14T17:33:46","modified_gmt":"2013-02-14T22:33:46","slug":"sweetart-hearts-and-other-wonka-valentines-goodies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/collectingcandy.com\/wordpress\/?p=8913","title":{"rendered":"Sweetart Hearts and other Wonka Valentine’s Goodies!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"CC_Sweetarts<\/p>\n

Yesterday’s Valentine’s post was all about Sweethearts, but I have confess to unconsciously dropping the “h” and “e” and typing SweeTARTS instead, several times when drafting it.\u00a0 Guess I was just excited about today’s post which is dedicated to Sweetarts Hearts and a few other Willy Wonka Valentine’s treats!<\/p>\n

Sweetarts were first introduced to the marketplace in 1963 (yes, it will be Sweetarts’ 50th Anniversary this year!).\u00a0 I’m not sure when they first did a special Sweetarts package for Valentine’s Day, but the earliest I’ve ever come across is this small one from right around 1970:<\/p>\n

\"Sunline

Sunline – Sweetarts – Peace Valentine’s – cello candy wrapper – circa 1970<\/p><\/div>\n

I really dig the graphic of the peace heart on that pack.\u00a0 I should note that while the packaging had Valentine graphics, that was still a pack for standard Sweetarts candy.<\/p>\n

The earliest Sweetarts specialty Valentine’s candies I have evidence of is from 1977, for Sweetarts Hearts.\u00a0 As you might expect, these were heart-shaped Sweetarts sold during the lead-up to the Valentine’s Day holiday.\u00a0 I’m excited to share this 1977 package as you won’t find it anywhere else – it’s a CollectingCandy.com exclusive! Check it out:<\/p>\n

\"Sunline-Sunmark

Sunline-Sunmark – Sweetarts Hearts – 1.5oz Valentine’s cello candy package – 1977<\/p><\/div>\n

Take note of the inverted heart shape for the “A” in Hearts.\u00a0 As I’ll be showing, that graphic touch would continue to be used for the next 30 years on Sweetarts Hearts packages.<\/p>\n

Two years later in 1979 Sunline would introduce a boxed version of miniature Sweetarts Hearts.\u00a0 Though this is from an era long before Sweetarts were an official part of the Wonka brand, I can’t help but think of the mascot on this box as some kind of alternate-universe Cockney version of Wonka:<\/p>\n

\"Sunline

Sunline – Sunmark – Sweetarts Hearts – trade announcement – 1979<\/p><\/div>\n

I am fortunate to have one of those 1979 boxes in my collection (and it’s another exclusive you won’t find anywhere else!):<\/p>\n

\"Sunline

Sunline – Sunmark – Sweetarts Hearts – SweetTarts – Valentine’s candy box – 1979<\/p><\/div>\n

It’s safe to say that Sweetarts Hearts became an annual holiday release for Sunline, though the next piece I can share with you comes from a few years later.\u00a0 This one comes courtesy of my good pal Brandon Coker and is for a chewy variety of Sweetarts Hearts:<\/p>\n

\"Sunline-Sunmark<\/a>

Sunline-Sunmark – Chewy Sweetarts Hearts – 1987 – Courtesy Brandon Coker<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

From here, I have to jump a full twenty years forward for the next iteration of Sweetarts Hearts I could find.\u00a0 And that’s not because there weren’t Sweetarts Hearts being made during that twenty year gap.\u00a0\u00a0 It’s just that no packages for those years have surfaced just yet.\u00a0 So if you find one – let me know!<\/p>\n

This next example of Sweetarts Hearts comes from my friend and candy-blogger extraordinaire, Cybele<\/a>.\u00a0 Back in 2007, she documented the boxed version of mini Sweetarts Hearts and I’m so glad she did as it allows me to show you the box today:<\/p>\n

\"Wonka<\/a>

Wonka Sweetart Hearts candy box photo – 2007 – Image courtesy Candyblog.net<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

Please take note of the graphic touch of the inverted heart as the “A” in Hearts for the Sweetart Hearts logo.\u00a0 It’s great to see that carried on through multiple decades.<\/p>\n

This next piece isn’t quite a Sweetarts Hearts, but it is an interesting Valentine’s Sweetarts piece and I wanted to include it here:<\/p>\n

\"Nestle

Nestle – Wonka – Sweetarts – Valentine’s Lollipops – 11oz candy package – circa 2010<\/p><\/div>\n

Next up is a box I know I have in my collection, but couldn’t locate for today’s post.\u00a0 It’s the modern packaging for Sweetart Hearts.\u00a0 This one comes from my always-gracious pal Sera<\/a> and her Candy Enthusiast blog<\/a>.\u00a0 Sadly, it seems the latest packaging redesign has finally done away with the inverted heart “A”.\u00a0 Still, it’s a great-looking box:<\/p>\n

\"Sweetart<\/a>

Sweetart Hearts – box – 2011 – Courtesy The Candy Enthusiast<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

[Editor’s Note:\u00a0 About two hours after posting today’s entry, I was running errands and found evidence that the inverted heart graphic is still in-use for Wonka Sweetart Hearts – at least on some versions of the product.\u00a0 See pic.]<\/p>\n

\"andy

Sweetart Hearts candy rolls – heart containers – 2013<\/p><\/div>\n

That brings us all the way up to the modern era of Sweetart Hearts.\u00a0 For the moment that’s the entirety of what I’ve uncovered regarding this Valentine’s Sweetarts specialty, but I hope to uncover more in the future.\u00a0 That 1988-2006 period is a big one to not have any Sweetarts Hearts examples from – so I gotta get to finding them.\u00a0 When I do, I’ll be sharing them here.<\/p>\n

So while that wraps up my coverage of Sweetart Hearts, that’s not all I’ve got for today.\u00a0 Though there is an expanse of other Wonka-related Valentine’s goodies I could share, I wanted to select just a few that would be fun to see.<\/p>\n

Jumping back to the 1990’s again I’ve got a trade clipping describing the Willy Wonka Valentine’s lineup for 1993 (for those who were here last year, I did include this in my 2012 Valentine’s post<\/a>):<\/p>\n

\"Willy

Willy Wonka Valentine candy – trade clipping – September 1993<\/p><\/div>\n

Lots of amazing pieces of packaging in that trade announcement – I’d love to find any one of them.<\/p>\n

Finally, I have a pair of other Wonka-related heart-shaped candy offerings.\u00a0 First up, Runts Mini-Hearts:<\/p>\n

\"Nestle

Nestle – Wonka – Runts Mini-Hearts – 7oz Valentine’s candy package – circa 2001<\/p><\/div>\n

Great to see all those old Runts mascots playing around with the hearts on the package.<\/p>\n

My last piece to share today is another CollectingCandy.com exclusive, and it’s for Spree – though this is from a time before Spree was brought into the Wonka family.\u00a0 Very similar in the way that Sweetarts became a Wonka sub-brand decades after its introduction, so did Spree:<\/p>\n

\"Nestle

Nestle – Sunline-Sunmark – Spree Hearts – 6oz Valentine’s candy package – circa 2001<\/p><\/div>\n

I like that one quite a lot.<\/p>\n

That’s everything for this Valentine’s Day post – and it also wraps up our little four-day countdown to the holiday.\u00a0 However you celebrate Valentine’s Day, I hope you spend it happily and sweetly.\u00a0\u00a0 That’s how I plan to be spending mine.<\/p>\n

See you next time!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yesterday’s Valentine’s post was all about Sweethearts, but I have confess to unconsciously dropping the “h” and “e” and typing SweeTARTS instead, several times when drafting it.\u00a0 Guess I was just excited about today’s post which is dedicated to Sweetarts … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,6,35,50,116,164],"tags":[321,316,328,351,332,14,324,78,333,21,758,512,15,193,757,54,348,165,350,11],"class_list":["post-8913","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-1970s","category-1980s","category-1990s","category-holiday-2","category-nestle","category-wonka","tag-candy-collecting","tag-candy-collection","tag-candy-collector","tag-candy-wrapper-collection","tag-candy-wrapper-collector","tag-collectible","tag-collecting-candy","tag-confectionery","tag-confections","tag-packaging","tag-sweet-tarts","tag-sweetarts","tag-sweets","tag-sweettarts","tag-valentines-candy","tag-valentines-day","tag-vintage-candy-wrapper","tag-willy-wonka","tag-wonka-candy","tag-wrapper"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2aFGk-2jL","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/collectingcandy.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8913","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/collectingcandy.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/collectingcandy.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/collectingcandy.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/collectingcandy.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8913"}],"version-history":[{"count":23,"href":"http:\/\/collectingcandy.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8913\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8948,"href":"http:\/\/collectingcandy.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8913\/revisions\/8948"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/collectingcandy.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8913"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/collectingcandy.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8913"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/collectingcandy.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8913"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}