For the longest time, it seemed like those candy conversation hearts people gave each other — occasionally tucked into a handmade construction-paper heart or a store-bought card — for Valentine’s Day were kind of stuck in time. The phrases — Be Mine, You’re Cute, True Love — seemed reliably static, more or less the same, year in and year out.

In truth, though, candy hearts brands like Sweethearts and Brach’s Conversation Hearts have historically taken steps to introduce fresh phrases that channel the vibes of the times, and in recent years, these have sometimes revolved around a theme.

In 2021, for example, Sweethearts, which was acquired by Spangler Candy Company in 2018, looked to classic love songs for inspiration, bringing us hearts with messages such as “At Last,” “I Got U Babe” and “Lean on Me.” In 2022, the brand gave us the “Words of Encouragement” we needed that year, with inspiring new sayings like “Way 2 Go,” “Crush It” and “High Five.”

Last year, Brach’s Conversation Hearts released a Friends version of its classic candies, featuring hearts stamped with phrases like “UR MY LBSTR,” “MOO POINT,” “OH MY GAWD,” “LATTE,” “PIVOT” and that Joey Tribbiani go-to “HOW U DOIN’?” among other messages.

This year, Sweethearts is again plugging into the cultural zeitgeist and reflecting it back to us, offering a limited-edition release of Situationship conversation heart boxes, just in time for Valentine’s Day (naturally). It is the perfect time, the brand notes, to introduce a box of candies “filled entirely with sweet, muddled nothings and literal mixed messages.”

Made to evoke current dating trends, “the specially designed boxes contain blurry, misprinted candies that are as hard to read as Gen-Z relationships,” the brand says.

For those who don’t know what a “situationship” is, psychologist Susan Albers has described it to the Cleveland Clinic as an informal romantic or sexual relationship that is “characterized by a lack of obligation or exclusivity” as well as “a lack of clear boundaries or labels.” Part friendship, part romance, “situationships” have “many of the benefits of a traditional relationship without having to make a commitment,” Albers says.

What’s more, Tinder research suggests that people now consider situationships a “legitimate relationship status,” Sweethearts notes. And the Oxford University Press also seems to consider the word itself legitimate, ranking situationship as one of its top four words to consider for its 2023 Word of the Year.

“Singles are taking ‘situationships’ to the next level this year, and Sweethearts is here for them,” Evan Brock, vice president of marketing for Spangler, says in a press release. “The printing on Sweethearts isn’t always perfect. This is our way of embracing those imperfections in a way that taps into pop culture.”

The custom “Situationship” candies are available for purchase at SweetheartsCandies.com for a limited time, starting Monday, January 8 at 9 a.m. ET, while supplies last.

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