Frequently Asked Questions

Yes, we are 100% Australian family owned and located in Queensland. 

Poppy’s Chocolate is an Australian family owned business founded by mum Lynda Pedder (Poppy). Her 3 children and partner are all involved in the business in some capacity.
 

Our shop is located in Beenleigh and we also have a cafe in Robina Town Centre.

Poppy’s Chocolate Factory & Shop: 5/2 Spanns Rd, Beenleigh, QLD 4207 (half way between Gold Coast and Brisbane)

Poppy’s Chocolate Cafe Shop: The Kitchens, Robina Town Centre, Robina QLD 4226 (Gold Coast)

At Beenleigh, we are open from 8:30AM-4:00PM, Mondays to Thursdays, and 8:30AM-3:00PM on Fridays. Please check Google or FB for any updated hours which may result from public holidays or the occasional Saturday trade.

Poppy is the founder Lynda Pedder’s Nickname. Her mum used to call her Lollipop when she was a child (because she liked lollies and chocolate). Then this was shortened to Lol, Lolly, Pop or Poppy. Friends started calling her Poppy after seeing her mum call her that and it just stuck for life. Some friends also called her Lol but she is grateful that after LOL became an acronym for Laugh out Loud, that this wasn’t her most common nickname.

“The chocolates have to taste as good as they look”. Our flavours are Aussie Flavours – designed around Poppy’s and Aussies likes! If she doesn’t like it we generally don’t make it.

We no longer do tours (Choc’n’Chat) or have the viewing room open. We stopped doing any tours or classes with COVID and as our business model had to change significantly to stay afloat during that time, we repurposed the spaces we used for classes and doing our demonstration tours (our viewing room). Both spaces are now used to pack or make chocolates and we do not have the space required for running tours or classes. Unfortunately, this also means you can no longer watch the chocolates being made. We apologise for any disappointment. You are always welcome to come into our shop any time.

Of course! If you have a large group, we prefer you give us advance notice that you are coming so we can ensure the shop is well staffed for your visit. Call on 38071936.

We only use couverture chocolate, which means there are no vegetable fats in the chocolate. Many brands sold in the supermarket will substitute vegetable fats instead of cocoa butter to make higher profits or offer a cheaper price. They may also use less cocoa and more sugar in them. There are other big differences between quality chocolates and cheaper ones and these include processing time, fermentation and roasting time, and grinding times. In short, cheaper chocolates usually means a grittier sweeter chocolate with less cocoa taste.

Additionally, our chocolates are handcrafted in Australia, not machine made in another country. We pride ourselves on keeping Australians employed and paying fair wages for that work.

Our chocolates are definitely not the cheapest chocolates. We don’t aim to be cheap. We aim to have exceptional quality and great service. We can’t achieve these goals and make them cheap or we would go out of business. Our chocolates are very reasonably priced for being handcrafted and made in Australia.

Yes we do, We have a chocolate factory in Beenleigh where all of our chocolatiers work and handcraft them.

We also wholesale to hotels, convention centres and boutique retail shops in addition to doing a significant amount of contract work for some large companies in Australia. We have done contract work for some of the big supermarkets and decided this avenue was not where we wanted to focus. We prefer to either sell directly to our customers or sell through shops and hotels whom we know appreciate good chocolates and will look after presenting our chocolates as they should be presented and treated.

Yes! If the order has not been picked and/or shipped, we can add to your order.

However, if order has already been picked or booked, we are unfortunately unable to add to the order.

You would need to place another order. 

Please do send us an email at customersupport@poppyschocolate.com.au for more information.

If you accidentally entered the wrong shipping address, please notify our team immediately via email atcustomersupport@poppyschocolate.com.au.

Prices shown on product pages do include tax. Prices on our wholesale site do not include tax and GST is added on at checkout. 

The icepacks will thaw during shipping as they absorb heat instead of the chocolates abosorbing the heat.

In very hot weather., they will thaw faster but generally they will stay cool long enough to absorb the heat first so that the chocolates do not absorb heat and melt. 

We also use Thermal boxes to assist the contents to stay cool and extend the freeze time of the icepacks. 

So far this has been the best method of transporting our beautiful chocolates around Australia with a minimal amount of products melting.

The icepack may arrive thawed in hot weather but as long as the chocolates are not melted, the icepack did its job.

You may cancel an order for a partial refund as long as your order has not been picked and/or shipped and the items have not been custom made for your order. All in stock orders are picked within 24 hours and normally ship out within 1 business day of the order being placed.

We don't cancel orders because a requested delivery date is unable to be met, particularly if there is hot or extreme weather, items were on pre-order or other reasonable reasons there could be delays (eg. seasonal products may often need to be made before being sent)

For any cancellation agreed to, there is a $20 administrative fee plus 3%-6% of the cost of the order (due to merchant fees not being refunded to us). Full details are in our Refund policy..

To cancel your order, please email customersupport@poppyschocolate.com.au.

If your order has already shipped, we are unable to cancel or refund your order. 

Yes, we do. The minimum wholesale order amount is updated on the Wholesale site. We usually only accept wholesale orders from customers whom are likely to order regularly. You can register at https://wholesale.poppyschocolate.com.au/account/register.

You will only be able to enter one address per order. You would need to place the orders separately, one at a time, to enter each address you want to send the chocolates to. If you want to send a large number of gifts out, we can assist you with a bulk order and upload of address details. Please contact us atcustomersupport@poppyschocolate.com.au in this case.

Yes, we do. You can now place the order directly on our website for deliveries to the US, UK, NZ, and Canada. However, shipping times have blown out recently so we can not guarantee your order will turn up not melted or damaged. Most overseas orders have still turned up fine after being in transit for a couple of weeks (due to our packaging) but we can not assure you this will be the case. If it's going to a different country, please send us an email atcustomersupport@poppyschocolate.com.au so we can check the current situation.

Shipping normally takes 1-3 business days depending on your location, after it is collected by the courier. Any updates to this will be on our website athttps://shop.poppyschocolate.com.au/policies/shipping-policy

Usually we ship within 24-48 hours after orders are placed but we don’t ship on Thursdays or Fridays as a general rule because we don’t like our chocolates sitting in a depot over the weekend. With Seasonal orders or in busy times, there may be a much longer lead time. If time is important, please reach out to us. Full information is on our website athttps://shop.poppyschocolate.com.au/policies/shipping-policy.

We are unable to guarantee delivery on a specific date and definitely can not offer a time it will be delivered as we use external couriers.

We will do our best to send the order so it will arrive on that date but we can not predict courier issues and they do have them sometimes (and Murphy’s law is that the 1% of times it happens is to the person who really wanted a specific date).

We suggest that if you want it on a specific date, you request it to be sent 2 days prior - our view is usually earlier is better than late. If you really must have something on a specific date, please reach out to us first to see if we think we can do it OR don’t place an order with us in this instance. We don’t like disappointed people and would rather you don’t place an order with us than it ends up late and you blame us.

No we don’t deliver on weekends or Mondays or public holidays.

No we don’t. And we also can’t offer a specific time for delivery.

We only use overnight couriers or express post to send chocolates. We don’t use regular post or road couriers whom take days to weeks to deliver so it is more expensive. In fact, the current cost to send parcel post is a fraction less than sending express so it would be less than $1 saved if we sent parcel post. Most of the time, the shipping cost we are charged is more than the freight we are charging.

We also have a free shipping offer above a certain order value. We package every chocolate order into our custom made silver foil lined thermal boxes which is included in the shipping cost. 

We tested these against Polystyrene boxes and they were almost as effective as polystyrene (polystyrene held the cold approximately 30 minutes longer) but much better for the environment and much better to ship in. Additionally, we use bubble inside the box to wrap the contents for extra protection. 

We use Startrack Premium and Aramex (local) and Australia Post Express for rural or PO Box locations. We generally will not use road services interstate or intrastate unless it is a large wholesale order and will still arrive within 1-2 days.

You will receive a tracking number when your order is booked with the courier. Note that when it is only booked and not yet picked up, the tracking will not show any information. Do not be alarmed. It will be updated once the order is picked up and then the tracking information will be updated from that point onwards.

When your order is packed, we create a consignment note so it is ready to go with the courier when we are next despatching. It does not mean it is necessarily being despatched from us that day. We will create con notes every day of the week but we will generally not ship Thursday or Friday. We may also delay shipment in cases of extreme hot weather (or other weather events) at either your end or our end.

Our aim is to get the chocolates to you not melted and not broken. Sometimes that goal means we will delay sending it. You will receive another email with your shipping information once your order is picked up by the courier. It contains your tracking number and a link where you can trace the delivery.

All orders are shipped from our shop located in Beenleigh, QLD.

Our chocolates travel in our custom-made thermal packaging with an optional ice pack for the chocolates to stay cold while in transit. We also use express shipping for the chocolates to arrive as soon as possible. Please make sure you select an icepack at checkout in the summer months or if you are in a warm location.

On very hot days in our location or if it is very hot in the recipients location, we may delay shipping. Our number one priority is getting your order to you in great condition so we do not want you to experience the disappointment of receiving melted chocolates.

We do put your contact information on your package, however, due to the workload of the courier, they usually don’t call during delivery. If no one's available during the delivery, they usually leave the package in a safe place at the address or bring it back to the post office.

You can put specific instructions on your order at checkout. Please note though that we use external couriers and whilst we do print these instructions on your order, we can not guarantee they will follow them. If your delivery location has some ambiguity, perhaps get the order delivered to a work location or get a parcel locker for the delivery.

We do sometimes send orders in multiple boxes if it doesn’t fit in one box and the remainder of your order could still be on it’s way as they occasionally get separated by the courier. Please send email to support atcustomersupport@poppyschocolate.com.au so we can check it for you. 

Our aim is to deliver your chocolates not melted and not broken and in the same condition they left us in. It is important you select icepack at checkout as we are unable to offer any assistance if your chocolates turn up melted and you didn’t pay for an icepack.

We can not guarantee the chocolates will arrive not melted or broken as we would be lying if we did this - we use couriers after all and it is Australia with lots of heat.

However, unlike other companies who terminate their responsibility once the chocolates are put in the courier van, we will assist you if it is our courier’s fault or our fault that there is a problem with your order. (Our couriers usually will not reimburse us even if it is their fault so we are doing this ourselves). 

Please reach out to us at customersupport@poppyschocolate.com.au within 48 hours of receiving your order so we can assess the problem and assist you with a solution. Please also make sure you provide photos so we can action it quickly.

Yes, it is highly recommend to add icepack to your order. Except, for when your order are ALL freeze dried lollies.

If you choose to ship without adding an icepack, your chocolates are shipped at your own risk. If they arrive melted, we will unfortunately not replace or refund them. 

All orders are shipped with Authority to Leave. If you do not want to have your order left without signature, then please advise us - however, this will incur extra charge of minimum $10 if you are not there to receipt the goods and they are delivered to a Collect point or they are redelivered.

Pre-orders are orders taken prior to the launch of any pre-order product OR orders taken when something has run out of stock but we will be making it within the next 10 days.

Easter and Christmas times, we will usually take pre-orders before the products are made so if you place a pre-order you will be first priority and will not miss out on getting any of your choices.

We also take Pre- orders for Freeze Dried products as they sell very quickly and we have limited amounts. A pre-order assists us to ensure we make the products you want. It is a firm order and any requests to cencel are subject to our cancellation policy.

We do not store credit card information on our site and we will charge your account at the time you place the order. 

The scheduled release date of your items will be shown on the Product Page in the text. Please note, that there may sometimes be delays in this date due.

Pre-orders for Freeze Dried items may have up to a day 10 day wait. However, if no information is displayed on the item information, it generally means it will only be a few days before your items are made.

If you require something urgently, please phone or email us first before placing an order so we can confirm stock for you.

Certain high volume items such as our freeze dried red rippers, skittles and Nerds may be out of stock but not showing Pre-Order. This is because we sell a lot of them. It may mean that your order will take a few days longer than expected. The fact they are not showing as Pre-Order does not necessarily mean they will be in stock.

We accept Visa, Mastercard, American Express, PayPal, Shop Pay, After Pay, Google Pay, Zip Pay and bank transfer.

If you used a credit card to place an order and it declined for any reason (including but not limited to invalid CVV, expiration date, billing address, etc), you may see a pending charge on your account. If this happens, the pending charge will clear from your bank statement within 1-5 business days.

Unfortunately if this happens, we are not able to do anything on our end. If you're concerned about the pending charges, your best option is to contact your bank. If these charges do not disappear from your account after 5 business days, please reach out to our team at customersupport@poppyschocolate.com.au and we will investigate further. 

If your credit or debit card is not working during checkout, please verify that the following is correct:

• Credit or debit card number
• Expiration date
• CVV/card security code
• Cardholder name
• Billing address
• Sufficient funds or credit available

If you still are having issues, the best option is to reach out to your financial institution/bank directly or to use an alternate card or form of payment.

If your order arrived and nothing was melted, then the icepack did its job. The icepacks are solid when they leave us but we don’t expect them to be still frozen by the time it gets to you. The most they usually stay frozen for is 24 hours. However, they do absorb the heat that would otherwise have been applied to your chocolates so they have done their job if the chocolates arrive in good condition. Remember also that we are shipping from Queensland so whilst it may be cold where you are, it has to get there from Queensland. The great thing is you can refreeze and reuse the icepack.

If something in your order was wrong, please contact us within 48 hours at customersupport@poppyschocolate.com.au. Photos of what you actually received and a clear explanation of what you actually received that was incorrect really helps us to expedite a solution for you.

Due to the nature of the product, all products are sold on a no return for credit basis. The only exceptions are where the products are received in a damaged state or you were sent the wrong chocolate. Please read our full Refund policy here: https://shop.poppyschocolate.com.au/policies/refund-policy

To start a return, you can contact us at customersupport@poppyschocolate.com.au.

In the event we agree to the return of the Products for credit or refund, you will be notified of the appropriate procedure to be complied with to return the Products. On receipt by us, the products must be received in good resalable condition by us and must be returned to us at the Buyers expense.

If your order was damaged while in transit, please take a photo of the damaged good(s) within 48 hours of receiving your order and send this information to customersupport@poppyschocolate.com.au. 

Generally, if your order arrives and it is a bit warm, we recommend putting the box straight in the fridge if you can and leave it in the fridge for at least an hour. This should hopefully ensure that if the chocolates were getting a little warm, they will set again without any issues. 

Don’t panic. We understand it can be upsetting - it definitely is for us. We never want chocolate to arrive melted! We have various degrees of melting that can occur with chocolates. Most of our regular customers don’t mind if something has melted if they can set it and it’s still edible. They just pop it in the fridge to reset and know that it still tastes the same (and they don’t want to wait for more chocolates). Obviously, if you’re giving it as a gift or they’re melted to being unrecognisable, it’s a different story. At the minimum, take photos straight away and then put them in the fridge. If they are only slightly soft, it is important to get them in the fridge quickly with minimal touching as they can re-set without any problems, most of the time. Please contact us if you still need help after you have done this.

If your order was returned to the sender for any reason, you will receive an email from our customer service team once we receive the goods back. Please note that we are charged for a return to sender and will also be charged for a reshipment and we will pass this onto you should the problem have been due to an incorrect address being provided or no one collecting the parcel. We will check the order upon return but if the goods are in a damaged state, we are unable to replace them at no charge and we will not refund the order. In order to proceed with reshipping the parcel, the extra shipping cost will need to be paid prior to reshipping as will additional product costs, if applicable.

Once an item has been marked as returned to the sender by the shipping carrier, the only option is to wait for it to arrive back at our fulfilment centre. We are unable to intercept the package at this point in time. 

Poppy's Chocolate is not held liable for packages stolen upon delivery. We would always advise for someone to be at home during the delivery to collect their package. Though we now put “Authority to Leave” for all our deliveries, it is still recommended for someone to come and receive your package. 

Generally, it is unlikely that the chocolate would have bloomed before you receive your chocolate due to our stringent packaging, freight and storage methods. Chocolate can bloom very quickly and if you have had the chocolates in an environment that is too warm or hot, too cold or too humid (eg. unsealed in a fridge), they can bloom after just one short exposure to these conditions. Please follow our guidelines on storage. If you are certain that the chocolate arrived like this, please contact us. 

Chocolate is a highly absorbent product and so it is really important to keep it enclosed in an airtight container. Rarely, we have people contact us and say their chocolate tastes strange some time after they have received it. This is usually because they have kept it in the fridge or cupboard with other products that have influenced the taste (eg. onions or other smelly things). For this same reason, we don’t put mint chocolates in our gift boxes as the mint smell/flavour is so strong, all the other chocolates start to absorb it and they end up with a slight mint taste after a while. We also store our mint chocolates away from all other chocolates.

We strive to have excellent customer service, top quality product and efficient delivery. Sometimes there are genuine problems that we will definitely take responsibility for and try to make amends for. Sometimes, it is assumptions about when things will be delivered or how they will look or other ideas that we have not promised or purported to do that customers are angry about. We are human. Our team are human. 

We ask that if you are upset about something, that we are treated with kindness first as you will get the best out of us if you do this. We will be disappointed as well if you are disappointed. We have never gone out of our way to deliberately disappoint people and, if we have disappointed, it is either because something went wrong, our team made a mistake, our couriers messed up or because the customer had unrealistic expectations of delivery or product. 

Please contact us at customersupport@poppyschocolate.com.au or phone us on 07 3807 1936 and we will endeavour to assist. Being angry at us will not help us help you so we ask that you please remain kind to us so we can best help you.

If the parcel arrives and gets to the intended recipient, we will not refund the order just because it didn’t arrive on the date you requested. We make it very clear we do not promise delivery dates.

Our chocolates, particularly our gourmet chocolates, sometimes flip upside down in their box during shipping. This does happen sometimes due to rough couriers. We do apologise for this but generally don’t offer replacements as it is likely it will just happen again and you would need to return them to us first. We recommend you just open the box and turn the chocolates over after washing your hands and preferably using a clean glove, tea towel, tissue, or paper towel to handle the product. Unfortunately the only way to prevent this totally is to have custom moulded trays and that would also require a predetermined assortment so we would not be able to do customer selection boxes.

Yes, most. The Chocolate itself is all Gluten Free. Our ganache filled chocolates do contain glucose syrup derived from wheat but this is highly processed with no detectable gluten and based on the Coeliac Australia guidelines the filled gourmet chocolates are GF. We do not state the Turkish Delight is Gluten Free as one of the minor ingredients technically contains gluten although the maker of the Turkish Delight has done tests and found no detectable gluten. Our Waffles contain gluten as do our Christmas puddings.

The 70% cocoa chocolate and the Mylk Vegan chocolates do not have any added dairy. However, they may contain traces of dairy due to other dairy chocolates made in the factory (shared equipment) so we do not claim they are dairy free. 

Yes. The 70% cocoa chocolate, the Mylk Vegan chocolate and now the 56% dark chocolate are Vegan. They may be combined with other ingredients which are not Vegan so please check the description or ingredients on each item before assuming chocolates made with that base are Vegan. Please note, they may contain traces of dairy due to other dairy chocolates made in the factory (shared equipment) so we do not claim they are dairy free. However, we do put every effort into ensuring equipment is clean to reduce any possibility of cross contamination.

The 70% cocoa chocolate, the Mylk Vegan chocolate and the 56% dark chocolate are lactose free.

The plain chocolate is nut free. However, we will not claim any of our chocolates are nut free as they are made on equipment that we also make chocolates with nuts in it. As people with nut allergies are often highly allergic, we will not take the risk to say they are nut free. We do keep nuts in a separate area and try to minimise any possible cross contamination but we do use nuts in a lot of products.

We buy in a Vegan marshmallow to use on our Vegan hot chocolates and in our vegan rocky road. It is really delicious, soft and is very difficult to discern any difference from normal marshmallow.

Almost all of our chocolates contain soy lecithin. However, our caramel chocolate does not contain soy and has sunflower as an emulsifier instead. However, please note it is made on shared equipment and so we state it may contain traces of soy.

All of the chocolates have no preservatives, except for any chocolates with coconut (sodium metabisulphite) which includes our rocky roads.

Our ganache filled chocolates do contain glucose syrup derived from wheat but this is highly processed with no detectable gluten and based on the Coeliac Australia guidelines the filled gourmet chocolates are GF. Current Australian labeling laws no longer require the labelling of glucose syrup as derived from wheat but we mention this as we do there are rare instances where someone is allergic to wheat. If items say may contain gluten or are not Gluten free, then you should assume there is wheat in these products.

Freeze drying food changes the structure, texture and flavour intensity of most foods. Freeze dried food maintains its original size and shape with a minimum of cell rupture and preserves the food. With lollies, there can be an exciting additional transformation in the size or structure of some lollies. We have hand picked lollies that we thought were so delicious and had such a good texture, that you would love them too.

Freeze drying changes the structure of a food by removing all water content. It  is the process of freezing foods then drying them under a vacuum so the moisture content changes directly from a solid to a gaseous form and skipping the liquid state food would normally go through when thawing.

With some lollies, it can have an extra reaction of increasing the size of the product. This makes for some interesting and exciting results.

We have been very clear with detailed descriptions and images for each freeze dried item and explained the different tastes and textures of individual freeze dried items. Additionally, many of the items have videos showing taste tests and what the freeze dried item looks like.

Unless there is a product fault, we will not refund or replace freeze dried items. We taste test every batch of freeze dried foods, whilst packaging them, to ensure the freeze drying process worked as expected on each product. We only make small batches each time to ensure they remain fresh.

Many people have watched videos on freeze dried lollies and believe they all turn out exactly the same.  They do not. The size they expand to and the crunchiness of them can even vary on the same tray of freeze dried lollies, fruit or icecream. 

Also, the packaged freeze dried items, like any food, are not as good as the product immediately our of the freeze dryer which many Tiktok videos only portray. Some items really just do not ship well so we avoid those also as we do not want you getting a smashed up mess in your bag.

We only offer freeze dried foods that we have tested and decided we like the taste and texture of. We are disappointed if you didn't enjoy a freeze dried item but they are all different so maybe try some other types next time.

When icecream is freeze dried, all moisture is removed from the product, which leaves a crispy delicious icecream that no longer needs to be frozen.

The product can be quite fragile so there is a chance it can break either during freeze drying, packaging or shipment.

We are unable to refund or replace freeze dried products that are broken.

When lollies are freeze dried, there can be an exciting additional transformation in the size or structure of some lollies. We have hand picked lollies that we thought were so delicious and had such a good texture, that you would love them too. Not all lollies have the same reaction to freeze drying. Some do nothing but we don't sell those ones.

With some lollies, it can have an extra reaction of increasing the size of the product. This makes for some interesting and exciting results. It can make some lollies very crispy and light textured. Other lollies can be hard and still retain some chewiness. 

The lollies still have the same taste and underlying texture as the orginal lolly so if the original lolly is chewy, the freeze dried version can retain some chewiness OR can become chewy once you add moisture/saliva to it.

It can take up to 30 hours to freeze dry between 2-4kg of products, quantities are limited and there may be a wait on products or they may be sold out for some time if demand is high. We also freeze dry fruit for our own chocolates so production is limited for other items.

The freeze dried texture of the cheesecake is crispy and delicious. It's a bit like honeycomb and the flavour is intensified. This cheesecake loses approximately 70% of its original weight in the freeze drying process. 

Bag size and weight varies from item to item. Freeze dried items do lose weight from their original form and this can be from 10% to 80% depending on the food and water content.

Texture varies between different types of lollies and even between different flavours in the same style of lolly. They are different to freeze dried fruit.

The Lollies are still the same lollies they were before freeze drying. They may go chewy in your mouth once you start eating them if that is what they normally are like before freeze drying. We taste test every batch before selling them.

If Australian grown ingredients are available, we will choose those first. If they are unavailable or there is a current shortage of Australian ingredients we will use imported ingredients. Cocoa is grown in Africa and Australia does not have the right equatorial environment to commercially produce Cacao. There is a small Cacoa plantation near the Daintree but they only grow enough to make a small range of their own chocolates.

We use a blend of chocolate and have our own chocolate made to our recipe in Australia. Our recipe is based on Belgian style chocolate and is very smooth with a delicious flavour. We also used Belgian chocolate.

Our cocoa comes from West Africa – Ivory Coast and Ghana. 

It is a secret recipe. However, essentially it is chocolate and either a fruit filling, nuts, alcohol or coffee. In the soft centre chocolates, it is a couverture chocolate based ganache.

Our chocolate does not contain Palm Oil. The ganache fillings do have a small amount of vegetable oil in it – including rapeseed and palm oil. The palm oil is from a certified sustainable source. 

We have a small range of No added sugar chocolate which contain Maltitol as a sweetener instead of sugar. Too much at once can have a laxative effect.

Maltitol is a reduced calorie bulk sweetener with sugar-like taste and sweetness. It is made from corn starch and is all natural although many claim it is artificial because it is highly processed. Maltitol does not promote tooth decay. It has a pleasant sweet taste, remarkably similar to sucrose. Maltitol is about 90% as sweet as sugar, significantly reduced in calories and slowly absorbed into the blood so suitable for diabetics. HOWEVER, it can cause temporary diarrhoea and gastro issues if too much is consumed (guidelines are more than 50g per day but this varies by the person)

Some people don’t like maltitol. Stevia has a very high sweetness and so what chocolate manufacturers typically do is put some other filler in with it. So, it may say Stevia on the label but if you look at the ingredients, stevia is in very small amounts and there will be some other ingredient making up for the volume sugar normally does. eg. Monkfruit sweetened chocolates, typically also have some other sweetener or filler. We decided to stay away from this market as it is too complicated for what we do and we don’t have the facilities to keep this chocolate separated.

Yes and No. We do not have Certified organic chocolate. We found that the high cost of getting certified organic chocolate to be not what the majority of our customers want as it cost us about 50% more than our regular chocolate and very few customers were willing to pay extra for this. The main ingredients in our chocolate, cocoa, sugar and milk, are organic already but they are not certified as such. Thus, the chocolate is technically organic but not certified as such and we do not make any claims that it is organic.

We do not have certified fair trade chocolate. However, these days, the cocoa trade is becoming more regulated and suppliers are ensuring a fair price paid for cocoa. We did an analysis on the amount of money that actually goes back to the farmers vs the amount of money extra we were actually charged for Certified Fair Trade chocolate and found that only a very small percentage actually goes to the community and not even the actual farmer. Most farmers receive the same amount of money whether it is bought as Fair Trade or regular trade so we do not believe this system, as it currently is, is worth supporting or passing on extra charges to our customers.

No they are not. 

Chocolate is best stored in a dry, dark place at a temperature of 15°C to 24°C. It is best never to store chocolates in the fridge. Also avoid temperature shocks of more than 10°C: Never store chocolate alongside strong-smelling foodstuffs. Chocolate absorbs odours very easily and this could affect the sublime taste of your favourite treat. The best temperature to consume chocolate is at 18°C to 21°C. At this temperature, chocolate remains snappy, yet is ready to fully release all of its flavours and aromas in your mouth. So always give chocolate the time to acclimatise from its storing temperature to room temperature. If you must put your chocolate in the fridge, ensure it is in an airtight container and allow it to get back to room temperature for about 20-30 minutes once you remove it from the fridge before opening the container.

Couverture is a fine quality, richly flavoured chocolate that is high in cocoa butter and cocoa mass. If used for coating, dipping or making chocolates, it needs to be tempered. If only being used for fillings or baking, then it does not need tempering.

Compound chocolate is a lesser quality chocolate which has cocoa butter substituted by vegetable fats (sometimes palm oil) and often is made using cocoa powder instead of cocoa mass. Poppy’s Chocolate do not use Compound chocolate in any of their own products. We do some contract work for other companies using compound chocolate.

Compound is often used in cooking because it is much cheaper than couverture and also because it does not require tempering and is therefore easy to use. It also does not get cocoa bloom like couverture because there is no cocoa butter (sugar bloom can still occur though). Unfortunately, the trade off is taste!

Tempering is required when using couverture chocolate to make chocolate items or to dip things in chocolate (if you want it to set correctly). This is the simplified version of tempering: there are 6 different types of fats in cocoa butter that each melt at different temperatures. It is necessary to melt all of these, then recrystalise them in a particular way so that the chocolate crystalises back together correctly. The chocolate needs to be melted to about 45 degrees Celsius, then dropped down to 28 degrees, then back up to about 32 degrees. If you want to try tempering yourself, you need to get more detailed instructions from the internet as this is a basic description.

The chocolate will not form/crystallise together properly and will not set to be a firm chocolate with high gloss and a good snap when breaking. A well tempered chocolate will be shiny and have a good snap sound when breaking. The chocolate will also bloom. Don’t worry, you can melt it down and have another go!

There are 2 types of chocolate bloom – cocoa bloom and sugar bloom.

Cocoa Bloom can occur if a chocolate has been subject to heat of 26 degrees or more. Even though the chocolate may only have gone slightly soft, one or more of the fats in the cocoa butter can melt at this low temperature, changing the chemical structure of the chocolate. This cocoa butter then sits on the outside of the chocolate, often as small white dots, and can actually be wiped off by your finger. Many people think it is mould but chocolate itself does not ever go mouldy unless it has been kept for a while in a fridge and subject to moisture. The chocolate is still edible and once melted in the mouth tastes the same, but may have lost visual appeal and good snap. Don’t throw it out though – melt it down and use it in a cake or ganache if you don’t know how to re-temper it.

Sugar Bloom is what happens when chocolate is too cold or is in too humid an environment. Moisture will form on the outside of the chocolate which attracts the sugar to come out of the chocolate and crystalise on the outside. This may look similar to cocoa bloom or may just give the chocolate a very rough look and feel (you can sometimes feel the sugar on the outside). Again, the chocolate is still edible and will taste the same once in your mouth.

Chocolate is highly absorbent and absorbs other odours and tastes. You could store it in an airtight container but if that container happens to have some dishwashing liquid residue in it, it can actually start tasting like that over time.

In a plastic bag with a plastic odour? It could start taking on the plastic smell (most food safe plastics won't do this but some plastic does have an odour). It's the reason we don't put mint chocolates in prepacked gift boxes as the mint is very strong and all the other chocolates start having a slight mint taste to them.

Don't store your chocolates near anything that has any smells and especially don't leave them in polystyrene boxes or they will taste like chemicals. The longer they are stored the worse they will taste.

In our experience, once the chocolate has absorbed these odours and tastes, the chocolate won't go back to the original flavour. Unfortunately, the bin is the only option if they taste really bad so take care to store them properly and protected in the first place.

We do not work with hand moulding chocolate as this actually requires a special type of chocolate that is not really edible or tasty and we are in the business of making chocolate to EAT. We do have a large variety of novelty moulds already which may suit your requirements. If you have a particular item you want made from chocolate, it may require you to pay for the purchase of the mould or may require a minimum order quantity but feel free to ask - we would normally only do this for large regular wholesale orders. We have access to all the largest producers of chocolate moulds in the world.

To have a custom shape usually requires a mould to be made – minimum cost for this is about $4500 for tooling and moulds. So, it is only an option for companies who want to create a chocolate that they will use many times. 

We do take on some contract work but are very selective these days with what we will do. Please contact us at wholesale@poppyschocolate.com.au with details and we can have a discussion about your requirements. 

Poppy is as passionate about taking care of the environment as she is about chocolate. So much so that she actually studied a Masters of Environmental Management in 1995. Poppy’s uses environmentally friendly cleaners and recycles all cardboard. Water use is minimised. We have recently installed solar panels at our factory and are currently not using any or minimal external electricity. 

Yes, we are HACCP certified. HACCP stands for Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point. It means we constantly assess any likely hazards to food safety and establish Critical control points for those foods. We also follow GMP (good management practices).

We follow best practice food safety standards which is to wash and sanitise our hands well and frequently as per those standards, keep nails short and cover our hair (amongst other procedures). We are HACCP Certified (International Food Safety Standard) and are audited annually. We follow the advice of Food Safety experts.

We understand it may “appear” to be better when people wear gloves but this is not necessarily the case. Unfortunately, fast food restaurants who don’t trust their young staff to wash hands properly, made disposable gloves appear to be the best hygiene but they are not (they are a bandaid solution as your staff should still wash their hands properly and often when wearing gloves also). 

We also prefer to be environmentally friendly and not contribute to the unnecessary waste of wearing disposable gloves when they don’t benefit the safety of our food production. Food safety experts have determined that wearing disposable gloves actually increases the risk of contaminants in food and we prefer to adhere to their advice. I have done a few posts on gloves on our FB page which you are welcome to read. Rest assured that hygiene and safe food are our highest priority. If you would like further detailed information you can read my blog and video: https://shop.poppyschocolate.com.au/blogs/news/why-dont-we-wear-disposable-gloves

If, after reading this information, you still don’t like the fact we don’t wear disposable gloves, we understand your decision not to buy from us. We won’t reduce our health and hygiene standards because some people believe gloves are better. They are not. You will also want to ensure you don’t eat out at restaurants, as good qualified chefs don’t wear gloves either.

We, unfortunately, are not able to apply a discount code or refund the difference once the order has been placed. You may send us an email with the discount code at customersupport@poppyschocolate.com.au within 24 hours and explain the situation. Depending on the circumstances, we may modify the discount code so you may use it for a future order but can not promise to do this.

If you have any questions on our products or are inquiring about your order status, please contact us through our Contact Us (https://shop.poppyschocolate.com.au/pages/contact-us) page or email us atcustomersupport@poppyschocolate.com.au, and we will address your question as soon as possible!

Please contact us at wholesale@poppyschocolate.com.au in the first instance or go to our wholesale website https://wholesale.poppyschocolate.com.au/. To apply for a wholesale account register first through https://wholesale.poppyschocolate.com.au/account/register

You can create an account to easily keep track of all of your order history and tracking details in one place, please clickhttps://shop.poppyschocolate.com.au/account/login.

Please note that setting up an account is optional. Regardless if you set up a Store Account, you will have a Guest Account by default.

Guest Accounts can review order status by clicking the ORDER STATUS link at the footer menu of this page and enter your order number and associated email address.

Yes, we are open to the public. You can come by during our business hours from 8:30AM-4:30PM.

Yes, you are welcome to come in. Poppy's Chocolate does not discriminate.

There are no public toilets available at Poppy's Chocolate. Poppy's can accommodate an emergency toilet stop for one person but an entire busload of people need to use the bathroom as the toilets are located at the rear of the factory and the shoppers are not to be taken through the factory due to health and safety rules.

There is a dedicated car parking spaces that contain mini busses out the front. For groups arriving by coach, there is a side access gate that can be opened for large coach parking.