We love popcorn. A fun snack that’s perfect on a lazy afternoon or during movie night. In our house, we’ve ditched the microwave stuff for an air popper and found a lack of flavor. To be blunt, it tasted like cardboard. We wondered if the kernel made a difference. Maybe the pricey stuff would taste better?
Gourmet Popcorn
We hunted around and bought White Cat Corn, proclaimed the best in the country by both the Washington Post and the Chicago Tribune. We paid $8.00 for 27 ounces at our local specialty store. We compared it to a no name yellow popcorn we picked up at a mini-mart, $2.59 for a 32 ounce bag. To compare that’s 30 cents per ounce for the fancy popcorn and 8 cents per ounce for the cheap stuff.
Test Results
We placed 1.5 ounces of kernels for each brand and popped them separately in our air popper. The gourmet popcorn was a little bit fluffier and a little bit whiter but we didn’t notice a huge difference.
The most important part is the taste. The results? The gourmet brand was a touch sweeter than the generic brand. You could even tell the difference when you mixed the kernels up in the bowl and ate them randomly. In my household of three it was one for the gourmet (me) and two for the regular (husband and son). All of us thought there was definitely a flavor difference, but at 3.75 time more expensive the additional flavor didn’t justify the cost.
What If We Used Oil?
ZOMG, what a difference! I broke out the heavy pot, added one tablespoon of avocado oil and eight tablespoons of kernels on a medium high heat and popped away. The popcorn cooked in oil tasted so much better than the air popper. We could still taste the difference between the gourmet brand and the cheap brand, but the oil made them both taste better. If anything, the cheap brand tasted better because we were using the oil to add a touch of flavor.
The Frugal Choice
Save money on the air popper and just put some oil in a pan and shake. You should use a heavy bottomed pot so you’ll burn off a few calories before enjoying a snack. Don’t bother with the pricey popcorn unless you’re a true gourmand. But, if you’d like to try a happy medium, how about organic popcorn at $3.49 for a 28 ounce bag or 12.5 cents per ounce. For just a little bit more you can make sure your kids aren’t ingesting pesticides or other chemicals commonly found in non-organic corn.
How about you? Did you have a popcorn taste test in your house? What was the best solution for you and your family?
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