By Charly SHELTON

This Saturday, Jan. 19, is National Popcorn Day. To celebrate, LA-based, family-owned popcorn company Popcornopolis opened its doors to select media members to tour the factory and experience the taste kitchen in a trial effort that may eventually lead to public tours.

Known for its bright red-striped cone packaging, Popcornopolis has a flagship store in Universal CityWalk, as well as a converted AirStream trailer within Universal Studios Hollywood, and locations in Torrance, Santa Monica, Las Vegas, Indianapolis and South Deerfield, Massachusetts. It is probably best known and most accessible, however, from its other retail locations at Costco, ballparks, Walmart and many other stores across the country. All of its popcorn is made right here in LA – in a 150,000-square-foot factory in Vernon, just off the 710. All of the popcorn is American grown and shipped in to the factory where it is popped in coconut oil in small batches to ensure consistent quality. Within seconds of popping, it is sent down a custom-built factory line to either have salt added and become Nearly Naked popcorn, or sugar added to the popper and become Kettle Corn, or to be rolled in specialty house-made caramel to become any number of flavors that start as caramel corn. There are currently over 20 flavors available on the market, including unicorn, apple pie, red velvet, cheddar cheese and more, with new flavors to be introduced in the next few months.

Perhaps the best part of the experience was the taste kitchen. This is where the chefs combine ingredients from around the world to develop new flavors to add to the line. They look at trends, like the multi-colored and frosted Unicorn popcorn that fits with the many other rainbow-colored snacks lighting up Instagram of late, and they look at new possibilities to create trends, like the upcoming golden turmeric popcorn set to be released in a few weeks. Personally, my favorite was the smoked sea salt popcorn, which is also yet to be released, and it is killing me to have to wait. It’s probably the best popcorn I’ve ever had and in the tasting session it paired well with just about every other flavor to give a smoky hint to the chili lime or the ranch flavors, both also yet to be released.

It was an incredible experience to see the popcorn we all know and love be made from start to finish. Hopefully, this factory tour setting will be available again in the future for the public. Until then, you can find Popcornopolis cones at grocery stores, public venues and bulk stores, as well as online at Popcornopolis.com.

  Charly Shelton