When I took this candy home to review, I thought I made a horrible mistake. I thought I bought a candy that I had already reviewed a few years back. Normally this wouldn't be a big deal, but I bought this candy in England, and took it all the way home. For me, suitcase space is at a premium, so wasting it on treats I've already reviewed is kind of tragic. Fortunately after double-checking candycritic.org, I've realized that I haven't reviewed Paynes brand Poppets before; instead I've reviewed Fox Confectionery orange Poppets. I'm not sure if they're related, as I do see some similarities between the two.

The basic shape and concept of these two candies are pretty much the same, a round chocolate ball with chewy caramel in the centre. The other similarity with these two candies is how insanely hard the centre is to chew. It's not that it's hard like a candy you would suck on; instead it's super dense caramel. After only a few minutes of chewing these little round balls, my jaw was really sore, I actually thought about giving up two thirds of the way through this tiny little box of Poppets.

Flavour wise these were OK. My biggest complaint isn't about how each element tastes, I'm disappointed about how they taste together. The chewy caramel centre is lost quickly to the flavour of the smooth chocolate coating. The caramel flavour comes back every so often, but most chews are dominated by chocolate. To improve this candy, they would have to use a much stronger tasting caramel, and somehow get the caramel flavour to come out stronger at the start.

When you first buy your box of Paynes Poppets you might be disappointed at how small the box is, but your jaw will be very happy about that.