Boxoffice - July 2019

FOOD & BEVERAGE
BY REBECCA PAHLE
A POPPIN’ PRIMER > EVERYTHING YOU WANTED TO KNOW
ABOUT POPCORN BUT DIDN’T KNOW TO ASK
POPCORN: Since the Great Depression, it’s been the movie theater staple.
Patrons love it for its taste and convenience. Theaters love it for its high
profitability. But look beyond the bag—or tub, or bucket—and you’ll find that the
world of that little popcorn kernel is surprisingly complex.
Popcorn Isn’t Just Popcorn
First of all: Not all popcorn is the
same. What people tend to think of as
“movie theater popcorn” is actually butterfly
popcorn, characterized by “wings”
that emerge as the kernel is popped. Go
to a movie theater in the Unites States
and you’re getting medium-sized butterfly
popcorn. Buy a bag of pre-popped
popcorn at a grocery store or gas station,
and you’re probably looking at large
butterfly popcorn. In addition to being,
you guessed it, larger, large butterfly
popcorn is a lot more durable and less
likely to break up during manufacturing
and shipping.
Medium butterfly popcorn, on the
other hand, is more tender—a quality
that farmers and scientists have spent
decades accentuating. A typical hybrid
strain of popcorn, explains Joe Macaluso,
popcorn-industry veteran and vice president
of U.S. and Canadian sales at Gold
Medal Products, takes between five and
seven years to develop. Over the decades,
that process has given moviegoers a better
product, one that’s more tender with fewer
of the fiddly little bits that get stuck in
your teeth. “The characteristics that have
been developed over the years to improve
eating quality wouldn’t have been nearly
as good” in the past, says Macaluso. Hop
in your time machine and pop back 30
years to treat yourself to some movie
theater popcorn, and “the hull remnants
would be higher. There would be more
hard centers.” The process is gradual,
and it’s ongoing; Macaluso notes that the
popcorn evolution “is probably going to
be never ending. I hope it keeps getting
better and better and better. That’s definitely
our intent.”
Your average moviegoers are probably
also familiar—even if they don’t know
it—with the “mushroom” variety of popcorn.
Round and wingless, mushroom
popcorn is ideally suited to caramel corn;
its spherical shape means it’s easier to coat
evenly, and its tougher texture means it
can stand up to that sweet, sweet caramel
without breaking apart. Caramel corn being
“more chewy and crunchy,” Macaluso
explains, means “you don’t notice the fact
that it’s not a tender kernel” underneath.
There are other varieties of popcorn,
but let’s stick to the movie concessions—
butterfly and mushroom are what you
snack on while you’re watching the latest
summer blockbuster.
Feel the Heat
Popcorn needs to be popped in
some sort of oil, and if you’re in North
America, you’re looking at two types:
70 JULY 2019