I know that most people think that they taste like chalk or solidified wallpaper paste, but I can't get enough of them. My favorite is the Necco 'tart' variety, as shown to the left. Unless I exercise self-control, it's possible to eat an entire bag (forget those wimpy little boxes) in one extended sitting. I know that you can buy what's essentially the same candy in its Necco Wafer form year-round, but it's just not the same.

Being an introverted geeky type to whom girls were a mystery, the coming of candy hearts was just about the one reliable thing that I had to look forward to every Valentine's Day. And even now, I still buy a box as soon as they show up in the grocery store.

[Travelogue: Necco used to have their main factory on Massachussetts Avenue in Cambridge, MA, about a block from the MIT campus. (On top of the factory building was a water tower painted to look like a roll of Necco wafers.) When I visited MIT in 1997, the whole neighborhood around the plant smelled like Necco wafers — heaven! Now, though, Necco has moved their operations farther out into suburban Boston, and the old Necco plant is being renovated into a biotech 'campus'.]