KingOfPOP Popcorn

KingofPop is a online only popcorn distributor, who produces exclusively for gift baskets and popcorn of the month clubs.  Yes, this is an entire business.

"Wow them with the gourmet gift of a handcrafted popcorn tin. Our delicious popcorn has been pleasing the people since we started making the stuff in small batches in 2012. Our gourmet popcorn is offered in close to 20 unique flavors and is focused on delivering a freshness our customers can taste. Our flavor offerings are made from scratch every day, using non-GMO corn grown in the USA, and the finest available ingredients. Each batch is rigorously tested for a crisp bite, satisfying taste, and five-star quality appearance, resulting in an irresistible snack for all to enjoy."

Given my love of snacks, and popcorn in particular, I obviously had to try them, and had the opportunity over the holidays when gift baskets started pouring in to the office.  Others rejected their gift baskets, but you know, one man's trash ... is totally my treasures!

"We all l-o-v-e movie popcorn, but no longer is it just a film night side-kick. Sure, it’s still great to munch on while you’re keeping up with pop culture, but we’ve given this snack one heck of a makeover and you’ll find that your favorite snack is now not just tastier, but way more versatile. Delicious, fun, and always handcrafted, our gourmet popcorn is nothing less than the best."

I didn't look into the company all that much, besides to see that they offer a wide variety of gift basket formats (lots of towers!), for a variety of occasions, with a slew of holiday specials.

"When it comes to handcrafted gourmet popcorn, leave the flavor profiles to us. We pride ourselves on our ability to come up with enticing popcorn flavors that will tantalize your taste buds and leave you coming back for more, one kernel at a time. From sweet and savory kettle corn, to peanut butter cup, to cheesy cheddar, and classic caramel, there’s simply a flavor for every taste."

I tried several varieties, not ones I would have picked necessarily, but the ones that were included in our baskets.   If I were able to pick, the Hickory Maple Bacon Kettle Corn, Birthday Cake, Cookies & Cream, Peanut Butter Cup, or Mint Cookie Mayhem would have been near the top of my list.  Given what I did try ... eh, I wasn't impressed.

Sea Salt & Cracked Pepper Kettle Corn.

"Delectable, hand crafted popcorn lightly coated with sugar, drizzled with oil, and then rolled in sea salt and freshly cracked pepper."

"Irresistibly crisp handcrafted kettlecorn that's speckled with sea salt and cracked pepper."

I like kettle corn.  I like savory popcorn.  It seems, I do not like savory kettle corn.

This was just ... strange.  The sweet kettle corn was fine, nicely glazed. The salty element was also good with the kettle corn.  But, the huge chunks of black pepper?  Not so good.

Sweet + pepper just wasn't a winning combination for me.  Maybe I just don't like pepper popcorn though?

Sea Salt & Cracker Pepper Kettle Corn.

I gave it another try, when we got another box.  Same flavor, just a different color box.

This batch was more like caramel corn than kettle corn, darker, more sugary.  

But ... I still don't want pepper on my sweet popcorn!

Cinnamon & Brown Sugar Kettle Corn.

"Handcrafted gourmet popcorn that's dusted with brown sugar and freshly ground cinnamon.

Delicious gourmet popcorn that gives you a kick of sweet cinnamon taste with every bite."

Next, cinnamon and brown sugar.  This was ... well, better than the pepper kettle corn.

It was decent, the cinnamon and brown sugar flavors were both pronounced, and they didn't clash too badly.

But there wasn't anything special about this, and its not a flavor I found myself ever craving.

Candy Cane Peppermint Kettle Corn.

"Sweet and salty kettle corn handcrafted to perfection with speckles of peppermint candy cane."

Finally, peppermint kettle corn.  This one I expected to really love.

It was pretty. Pink.  Nicely coated kernels.

But the peppermint only barely came through, and I didn't like the flavor of the base popcorn.  

Flamigni Panettone

Flamigni is an Italian producer of Italian baked goods and confections, around since 1930, and now readily imported into the US.  Panettone (an Italian Christmas bread) is one of their prize products.

I did not seek out this company.  Instead, I ordered, for a special event, traditional panettone from a source widely acclaimed as the best in the world.  However, it was sold out entirely, and my distributor ... provided a substitution.  Sigh.  I had *very* explicitly picked my panettone!  They thought I would be happy as this one was only $15 per loaf instead of $50.  But, um ... yeah, not what I wanted.

I still gave the selections a try though.

Gift Boxes of Panettone.

"Panettone was invented in Milan, but has then conquered entire Italy. It is the symbol of Christmas and the Italian sweet best known abroad. It represents Italian traditional food culture for festivities. Flamigni produces its panettoni with high quality natural ingredients. Production processes follow traditional criteria and some phases are characterized by a manual intervention in order to exalt the goodness of ingredients. Panettone is a genuine and digestible product, since Flamigni aims to create healthy products of high organoleptic quality."

Flamigni has several packaging styles for the panetonne, all traditional approaches, ready for gifting.  Some come in colored burlap sacks, our came boxed and wrapped in holiday paper with string tied around.

Classic Loaf Packaging.

Inside the box the loaf was then packaged in a plastic bag, tied just with a twisty tie.  Shelf life is about 5 months, which surprised me when I saw it wasn't really sealed tightly.  Mass production.

Flamigni makes 3 product lines of panetonne: Classics, "Our Recipes" (each featuring fruit from different region in Italy and chocolate), and Gran Crema (creme filled!).  I didn't pick the ones I had, but I tried a classic, and a "Our Recipe".  I certainly would have preferred a cream filled one.

Overall, I was pretty down on this brand.  It really is just mass produced long shelf life bakery product ... as good as you'd expect.

Classics

"This range includes classic recipes: Panettone Milano, tall or low, Piedmont traditional sugar iced Panettone, sugar iced Panettone with almonds, Panettone without candied fruit, Panettone with chocolate drops, Panettone with muscat raisins, Veneziana and Margherita."

Our group had the most simple one, the Classico, traditional recipe.

Classico.

"A traditional Italian holiday sweet bread. Buttery, pillowy-soft, and studded with candied orange peel and raisins. Tucked into a gift-wrapped box."

"An unglazed Milanese-style panettone with sultanas and candied citrus zest. Presented in a hand-wrapped rustic gift box."

We started with the Classico.  It was loaded with raisins.  Ugh, raisins.  Sooo many raisins.  Second ingredient, after wheat flour.

I hated the raisins.  They weren't a hard style at least, they were fairly plump, but I just don't like raisins, and they took over entirely.

The candied orange peel was a bit better, it had a nice chew and sweetness, but, I also don't really care for citrus.

These mix-ins are not ones I ever would have chosen, and, as expected, I didn't care for.

Classico: Side View.

But what about the bread itself?

Also lackluster.  Some panettone comes as lofty, beautiful loaves.  And Flamigni does make a taller version, but ours were the smaller, 1.1lb size.  They honestly looked a bit ... flat, shrunken.

I started with the simplest serving style, just a slice at room temperature, alongside my morning coffee.

The bread was ... eh.  It tasted mass produced and shelf-stable, honestly.  Only a slight sweetness, the exterior was a bit spongy, the flavor muted.

The base panettone just wasn't good enough to be interesting at room temperature.  I know there are other brands where even a simple slice impresses, but, this was not it.

Classico: Toasted?

However, there are many ways to serve panettone.  Slightly more effort is to toast it and slather with butter, so, I tried that.

Toasted was significantly better, as it gave a little texture from the crisp exterior, and the warmth seemed to bring out the sweetness to the bread.  Toasted with *copious* amounts of butter melted in was the only way I found any enjoyment in it.

However, it still wasn't great, so I moved on, although you can also take a dessert route, and serve with cream and sauces.  Or, turn it into french toast, bread pudding, or anything else you'd want a sweet bread as a base for.  Maybe it would work for that?

Our Recipes

"In each recipe we use a typical fruit from different Italian regions, also combined with chocolate drops. Panettone Contadino contains Italian pears, apples, peaches and apricots. Panettone pear and chocolate is made with Williams pears from South Tyrol, while Panettone with orange and chocolate contains Washington Navel oranges cultivate in Sybaris (Calabria). Also figs contained in Panettone figs and chocolate are from Calabria, while cherries used for Panettone Cherry and Chocolate are from Vignola (Emilia-Romagna). Citrons for Panettone citron and chocolate are cultivated in Diamante (Calabria) and apricots are from Campania. Ciaculli (Sicily) is the place of origin of late tangerine, Slow Food® presidium, while marrons glacés came from Piedmont. 

Products in this range contain raisins which are left to macerate for hours gaining in softness and fragrance. Milano, Rhum and Chocolate, Concord Grape are its variants."

Again, I didn't pick, but, I was sent a Fig & Chocolate.  Sadness as I'd at least pick a more interesting fruit (likely cherry!).

Figs & Chocolate.

"Luscious Italian christmas bread, studded with bits of chocolate and fig - but no raisins or citrus fruit. An amazing combination - and definitely worth trying. This fig and chocolate panettone is a better value than other options out there."

"A traditional Italian holiday sweet bread. Buttery, pillowy-soft, and studded with dried figs and chocolate. Tucked into a gift-wrapped box."

I have nothing against figs, well, fresh figs, but I still would have never picked them as the dried fruit of choice.  Still, I was interested in this one since it had no raisin (meh, hard little pellets!), no citrus (eh, not what I like in my desserts), and, it had dark chocolate.

However, the figs were inescapable, as dried figs make up 14% of the product.  They were fine, fairly standard chunks of dried figs, but, eh, I certainly would have preferred a more interesting dried fruit, and Flamigni makes so many other varieties.  Still, better than raisins, they were well distributed throughout.

The dark chocolate is less abundant, only 6%, so it was harder to find the bits of that, which made me sad, since I wanted them.

So, the mix-ins ... eh.  Dried figs, sure, but they reminded me of fig newtons and just weren't exciting.  The chocolate was nice, but, there not much of it.  And the bread base itself was fine, but the texture, consistency, flavor ... none were remarkable.

It just was kinda low end panetonne with different mix-ins.  Eh.

At room temperature, it was really quite uninteresting.