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I just got the newest gold medal catalog and I see that this year they are promoting their line of kettle corn poppers. Is anyone making this salty and sweet combination?

[This message has been edited by trackfood (edited February 19, 2003).]

A few weeks ago John Evans of Gold Medal demonstrated one of their new kettle corn poppers as part of the trade show at our United Drive-In Theatre Owners Association Conference in Kissimmee, Florida. The corn it produced tasted very good.

I believe that John told us during the demonstration that there needs to be a lower temperature used with the kettle of a kettle corn popper or you risk burning the sweet stuff the corn is popped in. Therefore, even though it looks pretty much like a standard popper, a kettle corn popper is slightly different. I'm sure if you gave Gold Medal a call that John or somebody else on their sales staff could give you all the details.

Although I haven't yet seen kettle corn featured at the snack bars of any of the drive-ins or hardtops I've visted recently, I think kettle corn may do well in theatres considering the increasing popularity of the product in this country. I'm also thinking that it will not detract much from regular popcorn sales, but should simply give patrons another concession choice that will still be a high profit producer for exhibitors.

[This message has been edited by Starlite Cinema (edited February 19, 2003).]

I talked to our local goldMedal Dist about the new machines, he basically told me the core tastes fine however he will not even try to sell it to anyone as the corn comes out brown and does not "look" normal...

Not owning a theatre or running a concession stand, I hope I am not speaking out of line.
Last year, I met with a group of consession execs from South America.
One of them decided to show off to their U.S. counterparts. Using the cotton candy "mix" or "flavoring" whatever you would call it, she added it to the kettle before cooking.
I must say, after years of eating popcorn, that was the best damn corn I ever had. It was sweet, not salty (I don't think there was any in the mixture at all). If anyone has tried this let me know!
I am sure that the kettle cleaning must be a nightmare, but that's not my gig (sorry). So I couldn't say.

have a nice day.

On occasion we make it for ourselves, and give it out to customers for free as a sample. We use our regular creators popper, and it works just fine. I am not sure on the exact ingredients for the kettle-corn gold medal sells, but I just use corn oil & and a ton of sugar. Our typical batch of popcorn consists of about 3.5 cups of popcorn. When we make kettle-corn, we only use about half a cup of corn. The down side to all of this is that the popper is a mess when it is all done, but the taste is worth it. Customers love it!