There’s a name behind the iconic Valentine’s Day heart-shaped box of chocolates that you may not have expected: Cadbury.
The Victorian era saw a boom in candy making, thanks in large part to the Industrial Revolution. Processes that had taken days to complete were done in hours or even minutes.
While boxes of chocolates had existed for some time, it was Richard Cadbury who came up with the first heart-shaped box of these little treats in 1868. He and his brother had recently taken over the family business, which had gotten its start selling tea and “drinking chocolate.” Richard and George decided to narrow their focus to chocolate. They processed their cocoa nibs from the Netherlands into finer pieces to make “eating chocolate” (the Brits, man.)
Richard loved putting the pieces into “Fancy Boxes” (awright, gov’na), which were often emblazoned with Alpine scenes, flowers or even his own children. He created the heart-shaped box specifically for Valentine’s Day and boxes of chocolate – but especially heart-shaped ones – quickly became associated with the holiday.
So why don’t we think “Cadbury” when we think Valentine’s Day?
Ol’ Rick rather foolishly failed to patent his design – in hindsight, at least. Other chocolatiers took the idea and ran with it, adding more and more embellishment to their own boxes as a selling point. Which, for us, was a bit of a win; no brand really “owned” the heart-shaped box space, so that gave consumers a lot of variety to choose from. Today, you can find these boxes filled with everything from pricy handcrafted artisan chocolates to weird chemical slurries enrobed in brown wax. Or, if chocolate isn’t your thing, there are some filled with beef-jerky, wine, dog treats or cheese! Go nuts!
And Cadbury did alright without exclusive rights to the box, as it turned out.