Tony,
I have 2 questions if you don't mind--first, did you check popper temp when using coconut oil and did you use any salt or seasoning in the popping cycle?--I use plain popcorn salt in the popping cycle and the few times I forgot the popcorn did have a different taste, but with salt my customers swear it is the best.
I am sure different areas of the country have different tastes (we have to put up with the sulphur smell from a paper mill a few blocks away--that really makes everything taste different here lol)--but in the theatre I purchased a couple years ago, they had terrible popcorn sales, we switched to coconut oil as I have done in all the others, and the sales increased almost 200%--plus sell very few smalls, mostly the larger sizes go.
Jim