Last year at the New York Fancy Food show I found some delicious bags of flavored popcorn from this small family-run company in New Hampshire. I got it and posted a review here on Amazon. But what intrigued me more was this product called the Popzup Microwave Popcorn Maker and I had to try it.
I was sent a package by owners Julie and Marty Lapham (nice folks!) in exchange for an HONEST and OBJECTiVE review and I’ve already made two huge bowls of it. Today I made it while taking a video of the process. It takes a trial the first time because, unliked those brown bags of microwave popcorn (which has additional oil to make it pop – there is no specific time you cook in your microwave. It’s based on listing for time between pops. Based on my test you start by setting timer on high for 3 minutes and wait for it to be 5 seconds between hearing a pop. For me that was at about the 2 ½ minute mark. And I actually had no unpopped kernels.
It's best to see the pictures of the illustrated booklet to understand that the “kit” contains 10 sealed clear bags of the corn. They are packed in the cardboard “popper” so you remove them to use. Then you pour the kernels in to the cardboard “popper” and put on the lid. You place it on the edge of the turntable in you microwave, set for high, set time for 3 minutes and push start. When no pop s in 5 seconds you hit stop. When you open the door you will be the cardboard lid has lifted and there are huge popped kernels.
The next step is to empty the popped corn into a large bowl and season the corn. The kit comes with two interesting seasoning. I or truffle and a white cheese shaker. Because there is no oil in the seasoning you need to spray the popped corn with Pan or olive oil so the seasoning adheres to you. (And yes, you can do it without seasoning or add your own salt.
I see that the company sells other flavors of seasoning and I’m anxious to try the sweeter ones.
After making the popcorn all the parts fit compactly in the sturdy box it was miled in.