Best Gourmet Popcorn for Gifting
We ordered a bunch of mail-order popcorn tins to find the best ones to send to your favorite popcorn lovers
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There are many food gifts to choose from during the holidays, but it doesn’t get any more classic than a great big tin filled to the brim with sweet and salty popcorn. The cheesier the design on the tin, the better. But of course, what matters most is what’s on the inside.
Photo: Perry Santanachote/Consumer Reports Photo: Perry Santanachote/Consumer Reports
How We Evaluated the Gourmet Popcorns
Packaging: We assessed how the popcorn arrived—at least one tin did not survive the trip—and how well the popcorn was packaged. Some had spillover, in that the flavors did a little divider hopping, while some were impressively segregated. All the designs matched what we ordered, but some got a little dented in transit.
Popcorn: We asked seven CR staffers to assess each flavor from each brand separately in a blind sensory evaluation, noting the following.
- Appearance: Does it look appetizing? Are the kernels evenly coated?
- Aroma: Do you smell any off-odors?
- Mouthfeel: Are the kernels fluffy, crisp, chewy, and/or soft? Do they stick to your teeth?
- Flavor: Is the popcorn tasty? Does it taste like the flavor it’s representing? Is there an aftertaste or any off-flavors?
For decades, any time I would visit Chicago, have a connecting flight at O’Hare, or so much as skirt the borders of Illinois, my family would make me buy tins of this stuff to bring home to Colorado. Thankfully, they now ship their famous Garrett mix (caramel and cheddar) anywhere in the country.
What sets Garrett apart from the others is the texture of their popcorn—crisp, never chewy or soggy—and the flavoring—intense, like a tasty punch in the face. The kernels are so large and fluffy that you get a sense that this isn’t any ol’ popcorn but special popcorn. This is why the term “gourmet popcorn” exists (please do not fact-check that!) and the reason you would ever fork over $64 for a snack!
Sure, some of the flavors might be hazmat-orange and taste like they came out of a lab, but that’s the vibe it’s going for, and we’re here for it . . . in moderation, of course.
Best Caramel: Garrett Popcorn
Garrett’s CaramelCrisp popcorn is heavily coated in buttery, bittersweet, and salty caramel that has a mouthwatering aroma. “The dark caramel looks very appetizing, almost like it’s been toasted,” Tara says. “Its texture is amazing,” Cesar says, “slightly crunchy with a soft finish that doesn’t stick to your teeth.”
Best Butter: Garrett Popcorn
It’s fitting that Garrett’s butter popcorn is Veuve Clicquot yellow. It’s like the Champagne of butter popcorn (at least among the samples we tasted). Although it smells more cheesy than buttery. The kernels are full, round, crisp, and meaty, with pockets of butteriness waiting to burst in your mouth. “This is the only butter popcorn I want at the movies from now on,” says Ginger, who (surprise, surprise) grew up in Chicago eating Garrett popcorn.
A few years ago, I took my young niece to see The Nutcracker in Denver. I bought her a bag of City Pop popcorn from the concession stand, took a taste, and then proceed to eat it all while she was entranced by the sugarplum fairies on stage. Yeah, I stole popcorn from a baby. That’s how good this stuff is.
The kernels are fat and fluffy and perfectly coated with a subtle yet impactful layer of flavor. (They make Garrett’s popcorn seem almost ostentatious in comparison.) The caramel is light and crisp; it sticks ever so slightly to your teeth as a reminder to eat more. We appreciated that the popcorn was also tightly wrapped in a plastic bag to preserve freshness and, we presume, to prevent the flavors from hopping over the dividers and commingling. There were also labels for the flavors so the recipient knows what they’re digging into.
Best Cheddar: City Pop
Of the three flavors, this is the one in which Garrett couldn’t grab the gold medal. While most other brands’ cheesy popcorn arrived soggy and/or tasted artificial, City Pop pleased us with a batch that smelled and tasted like real cheese. “It has an almost nuttiness to it,” Mary Beth says. The kernels are slightly chewy, but not annoyingly so, more like it’s meant to be that way. “The more I ate it, the more I wanted,” Cesar says.
Best Flavor Variety: City Pop
For those who are bored by flavors like butter, caramel, and cheddar, City Pop offers 88 flavor options, including some pretty wild ones, such as fried pickle, banana pudding, and Dr. Cola.
This 2-gallon tin was the cheapest tin we bought—it costs $25 less than the Garrett (our Editor’s Choice) but outperforms other costlier brands. While the caramel- and butter-flavored popcorns were subtle and not as popular as Garrett, one taste tester, Mary Beth, who grew up in Wisconsin, crowned it her favorite cheddar popcorn of the bunch, and everyone agreed it had the cheesiest aroma. “The large, fluffy kernels smell fresh,” she says. “There’s a very pleasant taste of mild white cheddar that would make me keep eating it.” However, several people couldn’t get over the popcorn’s soft and slightly stale texture and knocked off points.
Photo: Perry Santanachote/Consumer Reports Photo: Perry Santanachote/Consumer Reports
Other Popcorns We Tried
The Popcorn Factory
The Popcorn Factory’s popcorn was unevenly coated, smelled like nothing, and was chewy and stale. “It tastes incredibly low-quality,” Anna says. Eating the caramel flavor was like getting straight sugar welded onto the molars. The butter popcorn tasted like it came out of a stuffy closet. And the cheddar was the most foul of all—many complaining that it tasted rancid. “It reeks like it was coated in oil that was used to fry fish first,” Ginger says.
Poppington’s
Kevin said it best when he summed up Poppington’s cheese popcorn in one word: “Meh.” Add to that, my review of the butter popcorn: “Tastes better than it looks, I guess.” (The butter popcorn had odd black flecks in it.) The popcorn felt strangely damp and generally on the stale side. This one wasn’t winning over any hearts.
Popcornopolis
Popcornopolis arrived in a grease-soaked cardboard shipping box that was leaking popcorn shards out of the corners. The tin’s lid had come off in transit, which is forgivable considering we don’t know what kind of abuse that box endured on its way to us. However, the radio silence from the company when we emailed to ask for a replacement is completely unacceptable.
This product evaluation is part of Consumer Reports’ Outside the Labs reviews program, which is separate from our laboratory testing and ratings. Our Outside the Labs reviews are performed at home and in other native settings by individuals, including our journalists, with specialized subject matter experience or familiarity and are designed to offer another important perspective for consumers as they shop. While the products or services mentioned in this article might not currently be in CR’s ratings, they could eventually be tested in our laboratories and rated according to an objective, scientific protocol.
Like all CR evaluations of products and services, our Outside the Labs reviews are independent and free from advertising. If you’d like to learn more about the criteria for our lab testing, please go to the Research & Testing page on our website.
