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Published Tuesday, February 08, 2005 by seanlmccarthy | E-mail this post

TALKING ABOUT CONVERSATION HEARTS: Remember those little candy hearts with the two-word messages you spread around your schoolroom? Oh, wait, you still buy and share conversation hearts? All the better, because I get to the bottom of this wafer-thin tale. We compare NECCO's originals to the new competition from Starburst, Nestle/Wonka and Brach's. There are others in regional markets, I know. But these are the biggest challengers to NECCO's throne. You want questions. You want scientific analysis. Hey, I've got some of that right here.

"There's something incredibly cool and sexy about being able to send a message with candy,'' says Steve Almond of Somerville, who teaches creative writing at Boston College and wrote Candyfreak: A Journey Through the Chocolate Underbelly of America.

Bonus item: I "persuaded" my new colleagues at the Boston Herald to taste-test the candies. They liked the Nestle/Wonka SweetTart Hearts the best. What does that say about them? Me? I prefer the NECCO originals, but then again, I'm a bit of a traditionalist when it comes to conversation heart candies.