I hate the stuff, terrible sticky awful sticks to your teeth.
But at the cinema when I took my daughters when they were younger to see the Spice Girls, the Rugrats and Britney Spears (important to expose them to culture) I must have invested £s in popcorn.
Thing is though whether it was the Point or Cineworld or even Leicester Square they reported no difference in taste. @NigelB claims there are no specs for Popcorn, surely that’s not right?
Anyone think different?
The quality of corn varies … was it organic?
Sweet, salty, or sweet & salty?
At least with Popcorn, people can describe the characteristics of each type in meaningful language.
I have invested very little in ready-popped popcorn. In the past, I have made it for family and friends on film nights, easy to do and much cheaper. Cleaning the pan can be less easy if you are not careful, you also need to use a pan with a heavyish to avoid popcorn escaping from the pan.
True, but unless you can quantify the differences numerically, it’s all just snake oil. Funny how you never hear people saying they did a double blind A/B test to audition their popcorn, isn’t it?
By all means, spend your money on popcorn because you think it tastes sweeter, but without any data to back it up, you’re wrong.
Personally, I’m happy with my popcorn as it is and I prefer to concentrate on the cable arguments.
Mark
Yes, may be the way they both explode?
Without noise reduction (simple wire):
with added noise reduction:
Beware of snake oil popped versions and fake ones!
The pre packed “Deluxe” Popcorn, with different flavours (Salted Caramel, Belgian Chocolate, Chilli Toffee etc) bring some interesting variation to the mix. However, they do suffer from grittiness as you get closer to the bottom and one wonders if the extra cost can be justified for limited H.P. E. (Heightened Pleasure Effect)
No way - all those boutique popcorns are so much snake oil. You never see any data to back up these so-called heightened pleasure effects do you?
We have a cheap popcorn maker that spits it out into a bowl. Fun to watch but as I have a fondness to maple syrup it gets a little sticky!
Surely this comes back to an individuals “Senses”. Taste and Texture are impossible to measure unless you do a blind study across a huge sample group. In this instance you would also need a control group and potentially even a Placebo product.
I can’t see a small to medium sized manufacturer funding this kind of research 
Surely then this is where the combined intellect of the forum could help?
I am no good at maths, but it must be possible to measure Gratification and create an Index.
The basic measure possibly time for time to prepare against time to consume.
If the preparation is from scratch, then presumably a constant weight of kernels, calorific value of the heat source, then the number of consumers. If outdoors do you have to consider loss due to wind or rain?
I can just see the storyline for an episode of The Big Bang Theory.
Thanks @LindsayM for moving the popcorn topic to the Lounge, where we can give it the attention it deserves.
Trouble is, popcorn preference is as subjective as cable preference, so we are left with the same challenge in differentiating between brands. As popcorn has no specs other than flavour it is even trickier.
Discuss.
I must admit, my focus has been on the “Popping” process and the subsequent “Flavouring” process.
There is another quantifying factor that will definitely need to be taken into account as in @Camphuw’s post above. Variety, GM or Non GM, Country of Origin, Transport method satisfying the Freshness Quotient.
This subject is a minefield of variables😱
It’s all about the oil you use to pop it in. Single blend is best.
@james_n @NigelB stop confusing the issue by constantly twisting back to cables. Think about it from the viewpoint of the average Family Joe in Milton Keynes. Having invested in their Sonos soundbar and Panasonic widescreen they will not care about the silver content or otherwise of their HDMI but they will want reassurance that their investment in their popcorn machine was money well spent. Now come on chaps step up.
My mother used Ghee (Clarified Butter) when we were kids. You could get it really hot and it didn’t leave any kind of slimy residue.
She also made her own sweet coating, which I have a vague memory of it including a dash of vinegar (not the brown malted chip shop variety).
