# Bullseyes

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**Source:** sweeties.net, online pick and mix sweet shop

## Summary

Bullseyes are striped peppermint boiled sweets, close cousins of the humbug, also known as Black Bullets. Here is what they are and how they are made.

## Description

A bullseye is a hard, striped, peppermint flavoured boiled sweet. Look closely and you can see where the name comes from: the stripes give it the look of a target. It is a close relation of the humbug, and in the UK the black and white version is also known as a Black Bullet.
What are bullseyes?
Bullseyes are boiled sweets with red and white or black and white stripes and a peppermint flavour. Like all boiled sweets they are almost entirely sugar, cooked until very hot and left to set hard and glassy, so they are made for sucking slowly.
Why Black Bullets?
The black and white version is also called Black Bullets in the UK, because the hard little sweets are similar in size to the balls once fired from smoothbore muskets. Maxons Ltd is known as a maker of Black Bullets.
How they are made
Bullseyes are made in much the same way as humbugs. A mixture of sugar, glycerine, colour and flavouring is heated to about 145 °C. It is poured out, then stretched and folded many times, which turns it from clear to opaque. The stripes come from a smaller piece of coloured mixture folded into the main batch. Finally the mixture is rolled into a long, thin rope and cut into pieces. There is more on the method in how humbugs are made.
Mint, but not all mints are the same
Bullseyes belong to the hard mints, along with humbugs and candy canes. Soft mints, such as butter mints, have more butter and dissolve more easily, while mint imperials have a hard shell and a softer middle. Read more in mint imperials.
Try something similar
Our SW040 are crisp white peppermint sweets sold by the 100 g, with the full ingredients and allergen panel on the card. For the bullseye's closest relative, see humbugs.

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