Valentine Candy Science: Candy Heart Reactions

I bring you another science idea for Valentine’s Day. This candy science investigation tests to see if candy hearts react with baking soda or vinegar.

Valentine Candy Science: Candy Heart Reactions

This idea came about because my son wants to mix everything with baking soda and vinegar lately. After we dissolved the candy hearts in water, Aiden asked to add some vinegar and baking soda to the hearts.

That brings us to today’s questions: What happens when you add candy hearts to vinegar? What happens when you add candy hearts to baking soda {and water}?

Materials:

candy hearts
containers
vinegar
baking soda
water

Procedure:

Add 1/2 cup of vinegar to one container.
Drop in a candy heart. Observe what happens.
Mix together 1/2 tablespoon of baking soda to 1 cup of water.
Add 1/2 cup of the baking soda and water solution to a second container.
Drop in a candy heart. Observe what happens.

Our Observations

When we added the candy heart to the vinegar, nothing really seemed to happen. The letters floated to the top.

The candy heart started to dissolve a bit. {Here would be another fun experiment. Try to dissolve your candy hearts in different solvents. Check out our dissolving candy hearts experiment where we compared vinegar and water.

When we added the candy heart to baking soda and water, we got a reaction. Watch the video to see what happens.

The Science Behind It

Do you know why the candy hearts reacted with the baking soda and water? Come back tomorrow and see our experiment to determine which ingredient in the candy hearts is responsible.

More Valentine’s Day Ideas

Check out all of our ideas for candy science with valentine hearts.
Give baking soda and vinegar a Valentine’s Day theme with this frozen vinegar hearts idea.
Look through our past Valentine’s Day ideas here.

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Valentine Candy Science: Candy Heart Ingredients Experiment » Inspiration Laboratories says:

January 30, 2013 at 7:01 am

[…] Valentine Candy Science: Candy Heart Reactions […]

Valentine Candy Science: Dancing Hearts » Inspiration Laboratories says:

January 31, 2013 at 7:02 am

OneMommy says:

February 7, 2013 at 8:59 am

We have so many candy hearts (from last year….) This might be fun to try!

Trisha says:

February 7, 2013 at 4:28 pm

Oh yes, I think that’s about the only used for old candy hearts! 🙂

Rachael says:

February 4, 2014 at 7:03 pm

I subscribed. Didn’t receive the ending of the experiment. How do I get the rest of the experiment? Thanx.

Trisha says:

February 4, 2014 at 8:51 pm

Sorry about that, Rachael. This post was published last year. Here’s the link to the next experiment to determine which ingredient reacted. https://inspirationlaboratories.com/valentine-candy-science-candy-heart-ingredients-experiment/

Simple Valentines Day Activities You Still Have Time For! | Little Bins for Little Hands says:

February 10, 2014 at 12:18 am

[…] Candy Heart Reaction (there's a few there to try!) from Inspiration laboratories […]

mari says:

February 14, 2014 at 5:37 pm

Dear Trisha,
I’m sorry but your experiment failed miserably when I tried it at school today as a Valentine’s Day party activity. Each child chose a conversation heart (NECCO) of their liking and dropped them into a bowl of baking soda added water, but the hearts just sat there and didn’t bubble at all. I bravely went on and had the children add sugar, corn syrup, gelatine, food coloring and lemon juice, so the children enjoyed the participatory bit, but since the experiment was predicated on the success of the very first part, I have to call the entire exercise an embarrassing disappointment. For the second group of children, I used Sweet Tarts instead, and they bubbled a little bit. Any thoughts on what went wrong? I used 4 tablespoons of baking soda to 8 cups of water from the school tap.

Trisha says:

February 15, 2014 at 6:35 pm

I’m sorry the experiment didn’t work for you, Mari. Check the ingredient list for your conversation hearts. Did they contain citric acid? The conversation hearts I used did have citric acid in them. Brands could differ in their ingredients and even their amounts. I’m guessing that’s why the Sweet Tarts bubbled less than the candy hearts I used. They may have had less citric acid in them or possibly they didn’t dissolve as easily.