Valentine’s Day candy & chocolate carb counting guide

Caramel hearts! Hershey's Kisses! Candy Hearts! Wondering how to carb count for sweet treats that come home from school? Unsure of how to account for extras at Valentine's Day parties?

Here are the carb counts for Valentine's chocolate and candy. Plus, when you don’t have a nutritional label to rely on, we've got some handy rules of thumb for you to count the carbs in sweet Valentine’s Day treats.

Waltzing The Dragon Inc

From the Registered Dieticians at the Diabetes and Endocrine Clinic, Alberta Children’s Hospital:

Cupcakes have 15g of carbs for a plain, medium cupcake (1/24th of a Betty Crocker cake mix), plus 10g of carbs for every tablespoon of icing. For a typical cupcake with about 1 tbsp of icing, that totals 25g of carbohydrates. For one piled high with icing (think: boutique bakery cupcakes) this may mean 35g of carbs or more.

Straight Sugar Candies (hard candy, gummies, suckers and jawbreakers) have a carb factor of 0.9 to 1.0. That is, when you weigh the item on a scale, for every gram of weight the candy will have close to one gram of carbs. For example, a heart sucker that weighs 5g will have about 4.5 to 5g of carbs; a gummy rose weighing 22g will have 20 to 22g of carbs.

For plain chocolate, 0.55 is a rough estimate of its carb factor. That is, if you weigh the item on a scale, there will be just over 1/2g of carbs for every gram of weight. For example, a chocolate teddy bear weighing 50g will have about 28g of carbs; a handful of (plain) Hershey’s kisses weighing 30g will have about 16g of carbs.

Remember to subtract the weight of the stick and any uneaten candy after your child has finished.

Looking for more precise carb counts? Check online for:

  • the food label (some stores, like Real Canadian Superstore, feature on their website the nutritional information for the products they sell)
  • the manufacturer website. For example, on Hersheyland.com there is a an image of the package for Hershey's Valentines Hugs and Kisses,  as well as a nutritional panel for Reese Valentine Mini Peanut Butter Cups.
  • a nutritional app

Also check out this Waltzing the Dragon Carb Guide to common Valentine's Day chocolate and candy...

Marked below with * work great as a low treatment!

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Valentine Treat Carb Guide

Item (weight in grams)
Grams of Carbs
Carb Factor
CHOCOLATE
Hershey’s Kiss, Milk Chocolate (4.6g) 2.6g 0.56
Hershey’s Hug (4.4g) 2.7g 0.63
Hershey’s Kiss Chocolate Truffle (4.6g) 2.6g 0.56
Hershey’s Kiss Lava Cake (4.7g) 2.9g 0.62
M&M Valentine Cupid’s Mix (8 candies = 9g) 5g 0.75
Kinder Love Mini Chocolate Heart (4.3g) 2.3g 0.53
Kinder Surprise Egg (20g) 10g 0.50
Reese’s Peanut Butter Heart (10g) 5.8g 0.58
KitKat Mini Valentine Bar (12g) 7.7g 0.64
Smarties Mini Valentine Box – contains 10 pces (10g) 7.8g 0.78
Assorted Chocolates, Merci (12.7g) 6.7g 0.53
Milk Chocolate Strawberry Truffle, Jelly Belly (8.6g) 4.6g 0.53
Milk Chocolate Truffle, Aero (9g) 4.8g 0.53
Milk Chocolate Rose (18g) 10g 0.56
Milk Chocolate Heart, Laura Secord (7.6g) 3.8g 0.50
Dark Chocolate Heart, Laura Secord (7.6g) 2.8g 0.37
Chocolate Heart, Lindt Lindor (14g) 7g 0.50
Chocolate, Ferraro Rocher (12.7g) 5g 0.39
Dark Chocolate Ganache Heart, Godiva Masterpieces (7.8g) 3.2g 0.41
Caramel-filled Chocolate Heart, Freddo (10g) 6g 0.60
Milk Chocolate Caramel Heart, Carnaby Sweet (7g) 4.3g 0.62
Chocolate-covered Cherry, Cella’s (14g) 10g 0.70
Cream-filled Chocolate, Elmer (11.3g)
  • Caramel
  • Strawberry Crème
  • Orange Crème
  • Cocoa truffle
  • Chocolate Caramel
7.3g 0.65
Cream-filled Chocolate Heart, Palmer:
  • Cookies and Cream (9.5g)
6g 0.63
  • Peanut Butter (9.5g)
5.3g 0.55
  • Fudge (9.5g)
6.3g 0.66
  • Caramel (9.5g)
6g 0.63
  • Double Crisp (8.2g)
5.4g 0.66
 
CANDY
* Candy Hearts, Brach’s Heart 2 Heart Tiny Conversation Hearts, (12 hearts, 15g) 15g 1.0
* Candy Hearts, Rockets (1 roll = 11 candies, 18g) 16g 0.89
* Candy Hearts, Cherubin Chit Chats (19 candies, 20g) 18.5g 0.93
Cinnamon Hearts, McCormicks (10 candies, 5g) 4g 0.80
* Candy powder, Fun Dip Valentine Pouch (12g) 11g 0.92
* Jelly Bean Heart, Compliments (2.7g) 2.5g 0.95
* Gummy Heart, Compliments (4.6g) 3.7g 0.83
* Gummy Heart, Cherubin (8g) 5.8g 0.73
* Gummy Candy, Disney #MicMin (50g pkg) 36g 0.72
* Popping Candy, Cherubin (1g pouch) 1g 1.0
Lollipop, Carnaby Sweet, Cherry (6g) 6g 1.0
BAKING
Mini Cupcake with Icing (25g) 14g 0.54

More Special Occasion Carb Counting Guides: