Pop SecretBig And Fluffy Jumbo Popping Corn (30 Oz Jar) Free 1/2 Cup Measuring Cup

Blessed with a mother who would only make popcorn on the stove, and did so often, I grew up on good popcorn. Microwave popcorn would only find its way into the house when my sisters smuggled it in, that item being of great import to 1980's teenaged girls during the borderline-ritualistic playing of Prince and George Michael LP's. So many questionable practices in those girls' lives...While they giggled and gossiped with their friends, enjoying their synthetic, usually burned, and chemical-drenched kernels, my mother and twin and I had our own Saturday afternoon ritual: trashy horror flicks on local TV accompanied by prodigious bowls of freshly-popped, buttered, and salted popcorn. Turns out one of the few perks to being a cut-rate local station in a small mostly suburban market is that you can pretty much program what you want, unconstrained by notions of good taste and appropriateness for young eyes, and get away with it every Saturday for decades. At the time, my mother used Orville Redenbacher kernels exclusively, and it was popcorn perfection.After watching and helping my mother make popcorn for years, I've garnered a reputation among my friends as something of a popcorn master. It's a rare gathering that I'm not prodded, coerced, or bribed into making a batch. Not one to deviate from what I know works, I too used OR kernels exclusively for years. OR makes excellent kernels, there's no denying that.Cut to one fateful fall Saturday morning. The day was a cloudy and cool one, rare to Los Angeles in October, and a few long-time friends and fellow east-coasters, feeling wistful, planned a day of horror movies for us. I was, of course, charged with the popcorn. Running late, I was dismayed to find my usual OR out of stock at the grocery store. A bottle of Pop Secret's Big & Fluffy caught my eye. I long eschewed the Pop Secret brand, mostly out of spite due to their ubiquity among microwave popcorn purveyors. But, I was in a pinch, so I grabbed the bottle.Short story: I'm a convert, and now ONLY buy this stuff, even though that usually means I have to come to Amazon to do so. Inexplicably, my market stopped carrying these kernels, and I can't seem to find them anywhere else in this god-forsaken city. Perhaps we'd be un-forsaken if we replenished our store shelves with Pop Secret kernels?These kernels pop up large. So large, in fact, that they almost seem like a caricature of popped corn when you first see them. Unfortunately, now that I'm used to the size of these, seeing all other popped kernels has the opposite effect, the kernels looking like they might be more appropriate for Barbie than an actual human.Not only are they large, they're tasty. I'd say just as tasty at Orville's kernels, and certainly not less. And, until disproved, I'm convinced that these kernels are far less prone to scorching. Whether that's my preternatural popcorn-making ability or a function of the kernels themselves, I cannot judge.Finally, here's the most-telling anecdote in vouching for the quality of these kernels: The real master-popcorn-maker herself has converted. Yes, my mother now also only buys this brand. I made a first batch on that fateful October day, and, after the first handful, excused myself to order a container here on Amazon for her and then call her up and share my discovery. We've been devotees ever since.

Large popcorn kernels

Live this brand of popcorn. Made in an air popper in microwave and popped well.

Big kernels

Back old school popping! Some oil, good tin deep pot with a good lid. Watch and listen to each kernel pops, add salt. Good to go. This is my go to brand.