I think of popcorn like Emily in Paris, R&B music that’s not fast enough to dance to and work friends you never see outside work: best enjoyed as a background to whatever else is going on, such as a movie, mindless scrolling or your actual work. My life experience of popcorn has always been a snack or side dish, never the main event. But surely, I thought, the best version of popcorn would be the main show – something so tasty it forces you to pay attention?
To find out whether that popcorn exists, I enlisted nine friends for a blind taste test. We tried 18 packaged, ready-to-eat, supermarket-available brands (we excluded microwavable, unpopped popcorn – it relies on a recipe, isn’t instantly snackable and is its own product category), including nine unsweetened and nine sweetened. We scored them based on aroma, texture and taste, aiming to find a separate winner for sweet and unsweetened versions.
