Aunt Marie's Gourmet Kettle Baked popcorn

What is the best part of writing for a food blog? One might think it's the recognition and fame. Having people stop me in the supermarket to get me to sign an autograph for them. "Hey man, I really enjoyed your last Ben & Jerrys's review, it really spoke to me." I smile, kiss their baby, and I'm on my way.

You might think this is the best part. But it's not. The best part is when you get stuff in the mail to review. Some days you come home and there is a package, post marked to THE FATGUYFOODBLOG HEADQUARTERS. We tear them open like a child on Christmas day, arms raised to the sky, rejoicing. Those are the best days. We had one recently when we received a box from Aunt Marie's Gourmet Kettle Bake popcorn. 

Irwin got to the package before we did. 

Inside were the two premiere flavors, Chocolate and Praline. The package let's you know that this is THE WORLD'S ONLY BAKED POPCORN. The more I thought of it, I've never heard of baked popcorn, so that is probably true. I figured this was true also because of how serious the woman on the bag looks. She doesn't seem like someone who would steer me wrong. I'm guessing she is the Aunt Marie in question, creator of the baked popcorn phenomenon. Originally I had thought that the popcorn was maybe baked in an oven, because of the name. But some research on their website made me realize that it's popped and then the flavor concoctions are then applied and baked into the corn after. 

Praline = delicious!

First up was the Praline flavor. It was quite delicious. It has a sweet, almost vanilla flavor. It's very different from regular flavored popcorn though. It must be the baking process because it's not coated in powder and it's not a glaze. It's somewhere in between. 

It's very unique. Unlike any other popcorn I've ever had, and Jack, I've had my fair share of popcorn and more. Every bite bursts with sweet flavor. The color made me think toffee but the flavor seems to be somewhere between that and caramel.

Chocolate popcorn?! IT EXISTS!

Next up was the chocolate flavor. Right from the get go you can take a look at it and know it's going to be intense, just judging from the color and how much chocolate it has on it. One thing is for sure, Aunt Marie didn't skimp on the flavor. 

The chocolate flavor was kind of like Cocoa Puffs. Mixed with popcorn. How could that be bad? It's like some snack wizard waved his staff through the air and married his two favorite snacks into one. Again, it's not quite a glaze, but also not quite a powder. It's somewhere in between. But still absolutely delicious. 

All in all I would definitely scoop some of this up if I were you. Whip out the ol' credit card and buy some online. You can check their site, which aside from being able to order some of this great popcorn, has the back story to how it was created. You can find it all here: http://www.kettlebake.net/index.html

I give both the Praline & Chocolate flavors an A!

Review by Rich.