Best Popcorn Maker. Ever.

I like popcorn. But when you are eating healthier, you have to watch popcorn for its hidden dangers. Like movie theater popcorn that has a zillion calories and it topped with buttery flavored oil. Or even microwave popcorn with its cancer agent butter flavor. But for me, hot air popcorn was not an option. Hot air popcorn always tasted stale and yucky to me. But now that it has been discovered that popcorn has as many polyphenols as red wine (not to mention low in calories and high in fiber), we wanted to eat more popcorn.

Since my mom wanted a hot air popper, I went looking for one. After checking several stores in my area with no luck, I went to my trusty Amazon. While reading up on different poppers, I noticed a microwave popper that seemed to be more than just a plastic bowl with a lid. Called the Presto PowerPop Microwave Popcorn Maker, it was a plastic bowl with a lid, but had two extra features. A black plastic base on the bottom that acts as a concentrator to heat the popcorn and another concentrator on the inside that's a disposable cup in silver, like those crisping sleeves on Hot Pockets.

I bought this model because it was small, easy to use, inexpensive and my mom had mentioned making popcorn in the microwave. I also got it because it said that it could be used with or without oil and I figured Mom could use it without oil and I could use it with (the inner concentrator cup is good for 12 batches if you use oil or 24 batches if you don't.)

We made our first batch without oil to test it out and I was amazed. It popped more quickly than most microwave popcorn and came out light, fluffy and perfectly popcorny. Since I HATE burned popcorn and therefore shut the oven off probably before I should, we did have some unpopped kernels but I get that with any microwave popcorn. What I think made this popcorn so good (and different from hot air poppers) was the steam that built up inside the popper made the corn taste fresh and moist, not dried up and stale, It was so good that I kew I didn't need to use any oil after all.

Of course I love butter on popcorn but since I would drown it in butter if I could and that's not exactly diet friendly, I spritz mine with "I Can't Believe It's Not Butter" spray and sprinkle with popcorn salt. It's a notch below where real butter is but for almost no additional calories, it's an acceptable substitute. You could also sprinkle with herbs, parmesan cheese, etc.

So the next time you are looking for a new popcorn maker, check out the PowerPop. I totally recommend it. Delivers as promised, easy to use, quick and at less than twenty bucks a great value. It comes with eight of the inner cups which if you make nearly daily popcorn without oil should last you nearly eight months but you can buy more for about four dollars for a pack of eight. You can use any kind of popcorn in it (I bought some gourmet 'mushroom' style popcorn which is great except for it has a TON of hulls. Just a warning.) and it cleans up easily. Go get poppin'!