"It's like the taste of my Grandma's sofa."
December 21, 2016 11:29 PM   Subscribe

Washington Post writer Monica Hesse ruminates on an annual office party snack tradition (The giant tri-flavor holiday popcorn tin sends a message, which is, “I was thinking of you, but not until I was already in the checkout aisle of Big Lots.”) and speaks with the CEO of one of the major producers (“If you lined up all of our holiday popcorn tins that we produced in 2016, you could start at the White House and end at Fenway Park in Boston.”). Meanwhile, Post staffers compare an expensive tin to a cheap one to answer the culinary question "Is there really a difference between holiday popcorn brands?" (video, no captions).
posted by Johnny Wallflower (95 comments total) 14 users marked this as a favorite
 
Oh, such fond memories of these tins. i remember going after only the cheese and butter sections, leaving the caramel slice completely untouched
posted by sprezzy at 11:50 PM on December 21, 2016 [6 favorites]


In my day, popcorn comparisons were more rigorous, more professional, and had way cooler music.
posted by darksasami at 12:01 AM on December 22, 2016 [2 favorites]


Oh god. For the past week my partner has been asking me what her parents should get me for Christmas, and for the past week I've been saying "nothing, please, let them not get me anything." Had I thought to say "a $5 tin of triflavor popcorn" then all four of us would have had a more joyful holiday.
posted by ejs at 12:08 AM on December 22, 2016 [10 favorites]


I don't care what anyone says about popcorn tins, I will not just take a Garrett's gift tin any day of the week and twice on Sundays, I will fight you for yours too, and then stuff my face with ALL THE CHEEEEEEESE.

I will then spend three days trying to scrub my cuticles but it will be worth it.
posted by sldownard at 12:11 AM on December 22, 2016 [9 favorites]


Oh, such fond memories of these tins. i remember going after only the cheese and butter sections, leaving the caramel slice completely untouched.

My god, sprezzy, it's like we're from two completely different species.
posted by Atom Eyes at 12:36 AM on December 22, 2016 [31 favorites]


When giving me food, don't give me more than I can eat in a day because that's what I'll do anyway.
posted by aubilenon at 1:40 AM on December 22, 2016 [37 favorites]


Exhibit A: the See's Candy 1lb "Chocolate" assortment I received on Tuesday.
posted by sebastienbailard at 2:01 AM on December 22, 2016 [7 favorites]


Yes, the butter and cheese sections! The BUTTER AND CHEEEESE.

Caramel corn = the worst.
posted by Bibliogeek at 2:13 AM on December 22, 2016 [1 favorite]


My aunt used to send these to us when I was young, and we four kids were delighted to stuff our faces. Like we raced to the bottom if the can. She sent then to my family a few times now that I am grown up, and my kids were just as happy as I had been at their age.

*shrug* DS4DF, I guess. If anyone gets a popcorn tin they don't want, send it to my house!
posted by wenestvedt at 2:41 AM on December 22, 2016


So far this holiday season I've received: flavored popcorn, an assortment of "meats", 2 dried/sugared fruit trays(complete with those weird forks), 3 cheese/"meat" trays, 2 kinds of edible "logs", a large can of nuts, so much candy that looking at it makes my teeth ache and 2 fruit cakes. I'm grateful that the punters remembered me, but to tell you the truth, I'd rather have the cash. The only things I'll eat from that list are the nuts, the rest I'll take to our xmas party tomorrow night.

I just can't eat the holiday snack stuff any longer, it all looks like it's going to poison me. But my young co-workers will just vacuum that stuff up.
posted by james33 at 4:12 AM on December 22, 2016 [4 favorites]


One summer, I worked at a drive-in theater (kids...ask your parents) and we would spend all Thursday night popping batch after batch of popcorn and stuffing it all into several trash bags. We would use it all over the weekend, as there is just no way to freshly pop enough of the stuff to keep up with the demand on a Saturday night. We'd just re-fill the popper with popcorn out of the trash bags, and warm it up under the heat lamps inside the popper.
posted by Thorzdad at 4:20 AM on December 22, 2016 [2 favorites]


But, we've received these in the past and I do appreciate the tin afterwards. There are sooooo many ways to reuse the tins. I thought that was the main gift and that the popcorn was just a cheap excuse for the tin.

If the tins were square (or rectangular) then perfection would be reached.

For a while, as a naive young adult I thought I was supposed to make enough cookies to refill the tin (which is.....how?)

But if the tin is very attractive I would use it as a decorative container for a potted plant or for secure storage (when we lived next to a heavily wooded area with lots of mice.)

The empty tins make excellent drums to entertain visiting youngsters if you've no other child safe toys about.

But when Aunt Thelma gives you that horriblydecorated tin that looks like an alien zombie stuffed teddy bear angel the answer is paint.

And go to craft sites and you'll find too many ways to reuse the tins that you will be forever waiting for half price day after sales so you can stock up if your distant relatives or work acquaintances haven't been up to the task.
posted by mightshould at 4:29 AM on December 22, 2016 [11 favorites]


Fact: I was in a band in high school, and before we had actual drums, we had a popcorn tin. I think the drummer still has the tin, stuffed with lyric sheets and set lists.
posted by uncleozzy at 4:39 AM on December 22, 2016 [7 favorites]


I don't bake as much as I used to, but I used to use an empty popcorn tin as a flour canister, as it was the only thing big enough to hold all the flour I was going through.
posted by easily confused at 4:41 AM on December 22, 2016 [1 favorite]


I came in to sing the praises of such tins, and to add a verse about the butter and cheese sections, because there always seemed to be one at my aunt's house when I was a kid (they had the biggest house, that's where we all ended up). Not only have others said the same thing, but it was the first damn comment. Y'all are my people.

(I also once waxed rhapsodic about pre-popping corn at a movie theater job like Thorazad did too. Someone else tipped me off to finding a carton of that flavored salt stuff we popped it with on Amazon, and I ordered it immediately and it is still in my pantry.)
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 4:47 AM on December 22, 2016 [1 favorite]


Caramel corn = manna. I got a late start to American Popcorn Culture, but with in-laws being all about the Topsy's, I learned quickly. As a curious European, though, the sheer size of these tins baffles me. I mean, do the 6.5 gallon (that's a shade under 25 litres in real money, unless there's yet another different size of gallon for snack foods) cans not come with a "small child could fall inside and die, please count your children after use" warning? What about portion control? Do you need like a new house every year to store the empties?

But for all my complaints, I know that sometime in the next week, my arms will be deep inside one of these gargantua-bins on a sofa in southern Missouri, ferrying these candied-maize-tumours-of-heaven to my waiting gob while Cousin Davey cracks wise from the recliner. And it will be good.
posted by scruss at 4:53 AM on December 22, 2016 [22 favorites]


Also I love popcorn, I will gleefully stuff myself with it until I'm sick, but I just don't like the popcorn in these tins.

Or most packaged popcorn, I suppose. The only commercial popcorn I dig is from Stew Leonard's. More-or-less movie popcorn, popped continuously all day, drowned in Flavacol. I usually go for just plain salt, no butter, but I can't resist the hit of the Flava.
posted by uncleozzy at 4:55 AM on December 22, 2016 [1 favorite]


Nobody has mentioned the cinnamon popcorn section that only demented children eat. Topsy's is our local popcorn purveyor. Cheese, Yay! Caramel, Yay! Cinnamon, meh.

Maybe this is a Kansas City thing.
posted by shoesietart at 4:58 AM on December 22, 2016 [5 favorites]


On preview, Scruss you beat me to Topsy's.
posted by shoesietart at 4:59 AM on December 22, 2016


I just discovered that mushroom popcorn is available on Amazon in practical quantities (1-3 lb bags, rather than 20lb bags through restaurant suppliers) and that's the main difference between the popcorn you buy in stores and the stuff you make at home. Granted the stuff's $4-6 a pound but compare that to the $3 for 4 ounce bags of prepopped popcorn at the grocery's "healthy snacks" section.

That and an air popper and some flavor dust (also easy to find these days, a couple bucks a shaker-full) and you can make your own "naturally flavored" "cheese" and "butter" popcorn any time you want some.

The decorative can is somebody else's problem. As is the caramel corn, which is nasty and should not be considered food.
posted by ardgedee at 5:05 AM on December 22, 2016


Caramel fan here, in no small part because quite often the tinned stuff is stale by the time it gets uncorked at the holidays, and the cheese and butter flavoring doesn't really hide that.
posted by Halloween Jack at 5:07 AM on December 22, 2016 [3 favorites]


20lb bags through restaurant suppliers

I'm... maybe 90% sure we go through more than 20lbs of kernels in a year. Maybe I'll track this in 2017.

... and now I just found a place where I can get 50lbs of mushroom kernels delivered to my house for under $40. Sorry, UPS guy.
posted by uncleozzy at 5:12 AM on December 22, 2016 [3 favorites]


Oh god and now I am having Popcorn fantasies. This is going to end with 250lbs of popcorn in the fireplace.
posted by uncleozzy at 5:32 AM on December 22, 2016 [1 favorite]


Just received one of these yesterday. Now I'm trying to figure out how to discretely leave it in the break room so our resident snack gnomes can take it away. This is prime season for break room cruisers.
posted by bwvol at 5:33 AM on December 22, 2016 [1 favorite]


shoesietart: Blasphemy! Topsy's cinnamon popcorn is the absolute best, especially when mixed with the cheese popcorn. I don't really care for caramel corn, hate the butter-flavored, and can take or leave the cheese, but the cinnamon and cheese mix has this sweet/salty/spicy thing going on that just hits the right note. And yeah, I think it may just be a Kansas City thing. I bought a bag of red flavored popcorn at a stand at DIA once, and it turned out to be fruit punch flavored. Talk about a terrible surprise.
posted by jferg at 5:35 AM on December 22, 2016 [3 favorites]


uncleozzy: yeah the markup on the small bags is extortionate but since I'm the only popcorn eater in the household even a five pound bag of kernels is a multi-year supply.
posted by ardgedee at 5:36 AM on December 22, 2016


I loved these when I was younger. We would get catalogs from the Popcorn Factory and I would mark that thing up like the JC Penney toy catalog come Christmas time. I would usually get personalized tin of popcorn, and then use the empty tins for storing stuff.

Now, we usually get the standard huge tins at work. In fact, I saw one in my bosses office a couple of days ago, and have eagerly anticipated its appearance in the common food area. It has not appeared, however, and I am hugely disappointed. I mean, there is no way she could have taken that whole thing home to eat alone, could she??
posted by ElleElle at 6:06 AM on December 22, 2016 [4 favorites]


To ask the question is to answer it.
posted by Bruce H. at 6:11 AM on December 22, 2016 [6 favorites]


Topsy's is the bomb and cinnamon beats butter. #kcpride
posted by dismas at 6:17 AM on December 22, 2016 [5 favorites]


I'm going to need someone to describe this magical sounding cinnamon popcorn thing to me. Is it cinnamon and sugar or is it more of an atomic fireball kind of cinnamon?
posted by fluffy battle kitten at 6:31 AM on December 22, 2016


mightshould: For a while, as a naive young adult I thought I was supposed to make enough cookies to refill the tin (which is.....how?)

Is this a tradition or custom in some places? I've never heard of this but it sounds neat - though not with giant tins because yeah, how? My in-laws make a point to always return any tins that were given back to the gifter, but they're cleaned and empty when returned. This always seems weird to me because it feels like the tin is part of the gift but returning them with cookies would make me happier returning them. Everyone would have more cookies than they knew what to do with but there are bigger problems to be had.
posted by Clinging to the Wreckage at 6:33 AM on December 22, 2016 [1 favorite]


Regular flavor you can get anywhere...I'll be over here in the caramel and cheese sections with the cool kids.
posted by sexyrobot at 6:41 AM on December 22, 2016 [3 favorites]


Fluffy battle kitten: it's hot, like red hots. Not cinnamon sugar.
posted by dismas at 6:42 AM on December 22, 2016 [1 favorite]


How big is 50lbs of kernels; can I fit it mostly into a 6-gallon bucket? Is 50lbs of popcorn an appropriate Christmas gift? Is my wife serious when she says that 50lbs of mushroom kernels sounds great, or is she just kidding? Will she kill me when UPS shows up with 50lbs of popcorn on Christmas Eve? What other restaurant supplies can I get away with ordering?

I am having popcorn panic.
posted by uncleozzy at 6:46 AM on December 22, 2016 [6 favorites]


Yes, the butter and cheese sections! The BUTTER AND CHEEEESE.

Caramel corn = the worst.


I didn't even know people like this existed.
posted by slogger at 6:48 AM on December 22, 2016 [10 favorites]


I have never seen one of these tri-popcorn-tin things, much less heard of it as a holiday tradition. Is this a uniquely USA phenomena, or do I reside in an alternate universe?
posted by fimbulvetr at 7:04 AM on December 22, 2016 [2 favorites]


Caramel = AW YISSSSSSSS!

Cheese = Hells Yeah!

Butter = Oh, look, packing material
posted by briank at 7:06 AM on December 22, 2016 [12 favorites]


I'm dumbfounded at the response to these things. If someone got me one of these tins as a gift I'd take it as a personal insult.
posted by codacorolla at 7:10 AM on December 22, 2016 [4 favorites]


The best part of living in Chicago is all the office gift popcorn tins are Garretts.

Also, Chicago Mix 4 lyfe. (Although apparently you can't call it that? Guess what everyone still calls it.)
posted by misskaz at 7:11 AM on December 22, 2016 [7 favorites]


I mean, my sister in law *requested* a Garretts tin for Christmas one year.
posted by misskaz at 7:11 AM on December 22, 2016 [1 favorite]


Wait, are y'all talking about buying 50lbs of KERNELS or 50lbs of popped popcorn?

Though I'm not sure which is worse.... Or in this case better.
posted by raccoon409 at 7:14 AM on December 22, 2016 [1 favorite]


Had to google "mushroom kernels" to figure out what you all were talking about, and man, is that the opposite of what I want in popcorn.

When they breed multiple generations of corn plants to half pop, then I'll be interested. But big fluffy round ones are my least favorite, no matter how well they can hold a coating.
posted by a fiendish thingy at 7:18 AM on December 22, 2016


When they breed multiple generations of corn plants to half pop

Trader Joe's sells half-popped kernels. They are wonderful, if a little too buttery for me.
posted by uncleozzy at 7:20 AM on December 22, 2016


But, we've received these in the past and I do appreciate the tin afterwards. There are sooooo many ways to reuse the tins. I thought that was the main gift and that the popcorn was just a cheap excuse for the tin.

As kids all of our legos lived in an old popcorn tin. That fucker was surprisingly heavy.
posted by Pope Guilty at 7:23 AM on December 22, 2016 [1 favorite]


Is this a uniquely USA phenomena, or do I reside in an alternate universe?

It depends. Have you ever seen a movie called Shazaam starring Sinbad as a genie?
posted by ejs at 7:26 AM on December 22, 2016 [22 favorites]


I loved these as a kid but haven't gotten or even been around one for years. I wonder if I should risk one or if my adult tastes would ruin a fond childhood memory.
posted by mikesch at 7:27 AM on December 22, 2016


Eh, I'll be over here with my home-popped coconut oil + nutritional yeast + salt + dill hippietastic goodness.
posted by the_blizz at 7:28 AM on December 22, 2016 [1 favorite]


Do yourself a favor and try eating a mouthful that's a 50/50 mixture of cheese and caramel.

It sounds disgusting. In theory, it's a recipe for vomit. In practice, it's a delicious revelation.
posted by Freon at 7:29 AM on December 22, 2016 [2 favorites]


Do yourself a favor and try eating a mouthful that's a 50/50 mixture of cheese and caramel.

You can also call it Chicago Mix! Or maybe don't, unless you want to get hit with a lawsuit. (But definitely eat it, whatever it's called, because it's great.)
posted by chrominance at 7:33 AM on December 22, 2016 [2 favorites]


We never see these on a personal-gift level, but the Boy Scouts keep wanting to sell them to us, and my office just received one as a gift from another office we work with (we're a service unit that other people like to keep happy, which is fun at this time of year). Someone else vacuumed up the cheese (I got a little), and I pretty much assumed the role of caramel vacuum (though others got their tithe).
posted by Four Ds at 7:36 AM on December 22, 2016


I am the popcorn fiend of my family and my friend group. Last year our woodworker friend gave us a handmade cart with a popcorn maker on top for Christmas! He told my mother-in-law to buy us popcorn, meaning seeds. She took it to mean popcorn tins and we each got a tri-flavor bucket (with a sub-optimal lid because of the plastic window). I loved it and may have helped my husband with his stash. I have also received a 3 flavor pack of peanuts for Christmas in the past and enjoyed that as well.

Triple Mix or Triple Treat is what I call the mixture. My tolerance for caramel comes and goes. It is at a high right now and that's not really a good thing.
posted by soelo at 7:45 AM on December 22, 2016


Is this a uniquely USA phenomena, or do I reside in an alternate universe?

I've never seen this in the UK, fwiw. But we do seem to import a lot of American commercial traditions (Black Friday seems to have gone from a weird and slightly sad import to be joked about, to a "tradition" in about four or five years), so it's probably only a matter of time.
posted by metaBugs at 7:46 AM on December 22, 2016


Trader Joe's carries these tins. But in more interesting flavors. last year I think it was sriracha, olive oil, and chocolate? The sriracha was not only good but had the added advantage of not being anything my son would touch so Mrs. Frogs and I got extra hooray! We of course did not buy the tin. The tin was acquired for us by "the cats" and appeared under our Xmas tree "by surprise".

This year "the cats" bought us another tin of TJs popcorn! Olive oil flavor is back but I think the sriracha is not. Boo.
posted by caution live frogs at 7:48 AM on December 22, 2016 [3 favorites]


I mean, my sister in law *requested* a Garretts tin for Christmas one year.

If we show up at my aunt's in the suburbs when she's hosting Thanksgiving and we haven't brought her a tin from downtown, there would be hell to pay.

And the amount of it that gets picked up by my co-workers from other states who are in town on business around the holidays is unbelievable. So much popcorn in carry-ons.

Not to spoil the surprise because I don't know if she received my late gift or not , but because my Quonsar said she liked foodstuffs and local stuff, I did a lot of research trying to figure out if I could send Chicago Mix to Australia (sadly you cannot)
posted by MCMikeNamara at 7:48 AM on December 22, 2016 [1 favorite]


#teamsavorypopcorn
posted by pipoquinha at 7:51 AM on December 22, 2016 [1 favorite]


Wait, are y'all talking about buying 50lbs of KERNELS or 50lbs of popped popcorn?

Kernels! I suspect we could work through that in two years or so. Pretty sure it'll keep that long, in a sealed bucket.

Fun fact: 50lbs of kernels, popped, would fill a short-bed Ford more than 3/4 full.
posted by uncleozzy at 7:55 AM on December 22, 2016 [3 favorites]


uncleozzy: I'm... maybe 90% sure we go through more than 20lbs of kernels in a year. Maybe I'll track this in 2017.

My dad sells commercial-scale quantities of corn for popping in movie theaters -- as in, a freight container every other week of corn, and one of oil & salt & sugar. It's grotesque to think about, but...It's A Living!

Fun fact: 50lbs of kernels, popped, would fill a short-bed Ford more than 3/4 full.

One time we sat down and tried to work out the volume occupied by a full container-load of kernels, and we ended up gob-smacked. Calculating the mark-up from 50-lb. sack to what the customer holds is...sobering.
posted by wenestvedt at 8:00 AM on December 22, 2016 [4 favorites]


Fun fact: 50lbs of kernels, popped, would fill a short-bed Ford more than 3/4 full.

We've all seen Real Genius
posted by dismas at 8:01 AM on December 22, 2016 [15 favorites]


For a while, as a naive young adult I thought I was supposed to make enough cookies to refill the tin (which is.....how?)

I don't think I've ever actually had a Charles [potato] Chip, but every Christmas my grandma filled that enormous tin with chocolate chip cookies. She spent about two solid weeks baking every fall - Polish kruschiki cookies, the aforementioned mountain of crispy chocolate chip, and enough raisin bread to outfit the whole family for the coming year.

(And for the record, I'm Team Chicago popcorn, but we're a Chex Mix family now.)
posted by Sweetie Darling at 8:09 AM on December 22, 2016


Wait, are y'all talking about buying 50lbs of KERNELS or 50lbs of popped popcorn?

Though I'm not sure which is worse.... Or in this case better.


If it's by weight wouldn't they be the same? I mean not in terms of storage space but yes in terms of amount of popcorn.
posted by Mrs. Pterodactyl at 8:24 AM on December 22, 2016 [2 favorites]


If it's by weight wouldn't they be the same?

Short answer, no. They lose a bit of water weight when they are popped. 50 lbs of kernels would be about 43 lbs of popcorn though, so not a huuuge difference. As the popcorn dessicates it might get even lighter.
posted by muddgirl at 8:32 AM on December 22, 2016 [3 favorites]


Calculating the mark-up from 50-lb. sack to what the customer holds is...sobering.

Yeah, just back-of-the-envelope, a single very-large serving of popcorn (don't you judge) from that 50lb sack, which is by no means the cheapest you could buy, costs less than a dime. When you buy popcorn at the movies or on the midway, you sure as hell aren't paying for the popcorn.
posted by uncleozzy at 8:33 AM on December 22, 2016 [1 favorite]


Trying to remember which comedian (I think maybe Elayne Boosler?) used to claim that popcorn costs "about 15 cents a silo"
posted by Mchelly at 8:45 AM on December 22, 2016 [1 favorite]


I went to HQ yesterday (I usually work from home, but had to make the trek to CT), and some vendor or other had sent the kids up there a huge Swiss Colony-style box of goodies, including the three flavors of popcorn. No one's touched it, per a Skype this morning. It's still on the kitchen counter there, unwrapped, next to the Keurig machine.
posted by droplet at 8:49 AM on December 22, 2016


ugh. The cheese is the worst. It's literally just dust that has congealed into mostly-solid chalk form and then mildly flavored. All of you who allegedly love it are obviously replicants.
posted by byanyothername at 8:55 AM on December 22, 2016 [1 favorite]


Surely this thread needs a soundtrack

Guys I want to love popcorn soon bad, it is noms, but I have fillings between nearly all my teeth and one time I got some popcorn (??? what is it, exactly? a shard? the skin?) stuff stuck in my gums and accidentally pulled a filling out trying to extract it.

I think I'm too scarred for life to eat my body weight in novelty popcorn and this gives me a sad.
posted by Unicorn on the cob at 8:56 AM on December 22, 2016 [1 favorite]




Best office Christmas gift:


Giant tin of popcorn

+

Automatic cat food dispenser
posted by amtho at 9:02 AM on December 22, 2016 [9 favorites]


We'd just re-fill the popper with popcorn out of the trash bags

Note to self: politely refuse popcorn from Thorzdad.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 9:22 AM on December 22, 2016 [2 favorites]


leaving the caramel slice completely untouched
Caramel corn = the worst.
caramel corn, which is nasty and should not be considered food


Flagged for being NOT EVEN WRONG WHAT THE HELL IS THE MATTER WITH YOU PEOPLE
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 9:32 AM on December 22, 2016 [6 favorites]


I like the caramel corn-flavored one from these mixes. The cheese flavor is gross (as is kettle corn), and the butter flavored one does nothing for me unless it's hot and freshly popped. What is this room temperature madness?
posted by PearlRose at 9:32 AM on December 22, 2016


Hooray! The caramel corn debate is our new sitting vs. standing.
posted by mochapickle at 9:54 AM on December 22, 2016 [4 favorites]


ENTER IT IN THE BOOK OF CONFLICTS.
posted by wenestvedt at 10:37 AM on December 22, 2016 [23 favorites]


Standing. Standing, you can wipe the cheese from your hands onto your thighs first, then your butt on the return swing. Sitting you have to do both on the thighs, which doubles visibility.

Or use your shirt, but this is a place of business, for God's sake.
posted by nickmark at 10:39 AM on December 22, 2016 [12 favorites]


Calculating the mark-up from 50-lb. sack to what the customer holds is...sobering.

I worked at a movie theatre in the early 2000s. The largest bag of popcorn cost $5.75.

The bag cost $0.75
The popcorn itself was $0.02

I later worked at another movie theatre. They both stored popcorn in garbage bags. Once you heat it up, it tasted the same.
posted by Monday at 11:20 AM on December 22, 2016 [2 favorites]


Late to the thread but Topsy's cinnamon popcorn is what made me understand that the people giving me popcorn tins at Christmas weren't subtly negging me, and in fact, were doing Christmas right.
posted by annathea at 11:23 AM on December 22, 2016 [4 favorites]


I like to take one piece from each flavor wedge and eat them together, for a sweet & crunchy, cheesy and buttery flavor combo.
posted by JennyJupiter at 11:30 AM on December 22, 2016 [1 favorite]


Has anyone else witnessed the abomination that is chocolate caramel popcorn?
The only way to eat from these tins is as follows:
1. Eat as much cheese popcorn as you can until your mouth starts hurting from all the salt
2. Lick the dust from your fingers and wince as the cheese powder enters your mouth sores that you created with all that other popcorn
3. Have 1 handful of kettlecorn as dessert
4. Stare scornfully at the chocolate caramel section
posted by rmless at 11:44 AM on December 22, 2016 [1 favorite]


If you are not making popcorn using a whirlypop, you are doing it wrong. Some butter flavoured coconut oil and some flavocol and it tastes exactly like movie theatre popcorn for a fraction of the price.
posted by twilightlost at 11:56 AM on December 22, 2016 [1 favorite]


Wow, all the Topsy's shout outs making me nostalgic for my childhood in Leawood/Overland Park. As if Christmas doesn't make me nostalgic enough already!

I'm in Chicago now, though, where we're all supposed to worship Garrett's, but frankly I find them massively over priced and not worth the markup. Also mixing flavors is an abomination.
posted by dnash at 12:02 PM on December 22, 2016 [3 favorites]


The butter is bland in and of itself but helps accentuate the flavors of the cheese and caramel and is best enjoyed with those two.

I don't know how to feel about people who mix cheese and caramel.
posted by asteria at 12:04 PM on December 22, 2016


This is going to end with 250lbs of popcorn in the fireplace.

And now you've reminded me of Real Genius.

> We'd just re-fill the popper with popcorn out of the trash bags

Note to self: politely refuse popcorn from Thorzdad.


....Refilling the popcorn hopper with pre-popped corn from a back room happens in way more movie theaters than you'd probably like to know about. Hate to break it to you.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 2:13 PM on December 22, 2016 [2 favorites]


…which is why I don't buy movie popcorn.* And why I will politely but firmly refuse popcorn-based hospitality from you as well.**

Also, Whirley-Pop is Where It's At.

*not true, I'm just cheap
**also not true, I'm only somewhat boorish
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 2:48 PM on December 22, 2016


I've never worked in a movie theater, but I can confirm at least that the "make sure everything is evenly coated in salt and oil" step in making candied popcorn is a hell of a lot easier when you can dump a couple batches into a garbage bag and shake the hell out of it. This same technique is used by the nominally-gourmet popcorn shops when they're coating your popcorn order with one of their proprietary mixtures of manufactured flavoring powder.

As long as you use a fresh bag from the box rather than a used one from the trash can, it's safe and sanitary.
posted by ardgedee at 5:08 PM on December 22, 2016


Now I feel silly.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 5:14 PM on December 22, 2016 [2 favorites]


As kids all of our legos lived in an old popcorn tin. That fucker was surprisingly heavy.

Be careful, lego is surprisingly palatable with a thin coating of caramel, grease, and salt.
posted by sebastienbailard at 5:33 PM on December 22, 2016 [3 favorites]


  I've never seen this in the UK, fwiw

I honestly think that British transport couldn't handle these giant cans. I've lived in smaller flats.
posted by scruss at 7:48 PM on December 22, 2016 [1 favorite]


My company sends these out and you would weep to know the amount of meetings and emails it took to decide on exactly what bland but upbeat greeting to the client went with each decorative tin.

I pretty much love all popcorn flavors, but the mention upthread of chocolate/caramel reminded me of the amazing Moose Munch (dark chocolate and popcorn) that I love so much I sometimes buy a bar of really good dark chocolate, melt it on some popcorn, and go to town.

Caramel would be overkill and it has to be dark chocolate.
posted by emjaybee at 10:04 PM on December 22, 2016


I pretty much love all popcorn flavors

All of them?
posted by nickmark at 4:42 AM on December 23, 2016 [1 favorite]


Oh I would eat that until the salt turned me into a desiccated husk.
posted by uncleozzy at 4:48 AM on December 23, 2016 [1 favorite]


that wings 'n ranch flavour looks pretty good. But then, one of my favourite seasonal snacks is sugar cookies with BBQ sauce, so I may be off the normal distribution a bit
posted by scruss at 6:21 AM on December 23, 2016 [1 favorite]


My early candied popcorn tastes were formed by Popcorn Palace and my mom's delicious yet-still-terrible crumbly baked caramel brown sugar corn. Popcorn Palace, who has long since left the mall business, still has one of my childhood favorites, the fruity Rainbow candied corn, but gone are the red hot cinnamon and chocolate brownie flavors.
I have no opinions on the three flavor tub, though I came to appreciate cheese corn late in life, and can now be counted upon to dutifully take a cupful of each - unless there's Christmas cookies or a nut tower around.

I will gladly pay cash monies to any MO mefites near a Topsy's who'd send me a small bag of cinnamon corn. I've never had it yet I cannot imagine my life without it now.
posted by ApathyGirl at 8:04 AM on December 23, 2016


Another rabid Topsy's fan here who grew up in Leawood/Overland Park -- and yes, the order of quality is 1) cinnamon, 2) caramel, 3) cheese, 4) butter. That was the order in which every year's popcorn tin would empty out.

And ApathyGirl, I have good news for you -- you can order online, in whatever quantity makes sense to you, and have it sent. I did this recently for a sick friend who had a hankering. It was well received.
posted by GrammarMoses at 3:06 PM on December 23, 2016 [1 favorite]


Site was linked above but if you missed it: Topsy's.
posted by GrammarMoses at 3:07 PM on December 23, 2016


Am at my parents' place now and shared this. Matercallipygos said she and Dad were recently in a checkout line somewhere and saw tubs of these and were discussing how my aunt had one, and a guy in his 20's overheard them and started waxing rhapsodic about The Popcorn Factory.

Mom is apparently a popcorn fiend these days, too. Hmmm.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 5:09 AM on December 24, 2016


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