AMC Theaters Popcorn

I eat a lot of popcorn.  Usually daily.  Sweet decadent chocolate covered drizzlecorn, savory spicy popcorn, anything in between.   Rarely plain.  Rarely butter.  Never microwave kind.

I definitely have a popcorn addiction, hence the label on my blog for it, and hence why I have an extra chest freezer full of it.  (Protip: Freeze your popcorn, and eat it direct from freezer.  It gets even crispier!).  

But movie theater popcorn?  I don't know the last time I had that.  I haven't been to the movies in years, and I'm certainly not one for paying $10 for a bucket of popcorn (and neither was my mom, we always brought our own).  It has probably been 30 years since I had movie theater popcorn, perhaps when visiting the movies with a friend's family when I was a kid?  I don't know.  I actually didn't quite know what to expect when I got one recently (as a freebie from a T-Mobile Tuesdays promo), as silly as that sounds.

Large Popcorn. $10.29.

"Of all the movie theatre companies in the world, AMC sells the most popcorn. Every day, we pop about 35 tons of kernels. That adds up to 52 million bags of popcorn sold each year."

The popcorn was already sitting ready to go in tubs under a heat lamp.  Not particularly freshly popped.  Not particularly warm.  Frighteningly yellow.

The kernels were well popped, no duds.  All were well coated in yellow.  It was salty, but not in a traditional salty way, if that makes any sense.  It was vaguely buttery, but, it didn't really taste like real butter.  

It was basically ... just a bit odd, tasted extremely unhealthy, and wasn't actually very enjoyable.  I don't feel compelling to try movie theater popcorn again.  **+.  

Update: Except I had that giant tub, and I couldn't let it go to waste right?  It sorta grew on me, but also left my stomach feeling pretty unhappy, so, in the end *** for the taste growing on me, but * for how I felt afterwards.

"Butter" Flavoring.

I was a bit sad about how meh the popcorn was, so I decided to jazz it up, which AMC theaters allows you to do yourself, with a row of butter flavoring dispensers.  Each dispenser has not one, not two, but three buttons you can push to dispense the topping, which seemed quite odd design, and actually just confused me more than it gave convenient options.  I understand maybe having one at kid level and one at adult but ... yeah, it was strange.

What came out of the dispenser?  I don't know.  Yellow oil.  It made the popcorn taste even more odd.  It didn't taste like butter.  I distinctly remember the movie theater when I was growing up boasting that they had "real butter" in the dispenser (which they controlled, but you could ask for more), and now I see why.  Real butter is not a given.  This stuff did not enhance the popcorn, but I'm sure it took the already 1000 calorie bucket up to an even unhealthier saturated fat land.

They also had a salt shaker to add more salt, which it didn't quite need as it was very salty in an odd way, in a "help I need more beverage" way, not a "oh, that was a nice pop of salt that accented the flavors" way, if that makes sense.