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Has anyone ever tried flavorings with their popcorn? If you have how did it work? Did you make it in a separate machine?? Did it go down well with customers?

We tried chocolate and caramel flavored a few years ago, but we only have one machine, so it was difficult to make it as well as store it where customers could see it. Those that were brave liked it.

We recently bought some cheese flavoring but like with the chocolate and caramel found it difficult to make and display.
So we only use salted now ( we use Flavorcol and butterpop). I'd like to get a small second machine to try the flavored corn properly, but I just don't know if its worth the hassel and expense

I am contemplating exactly the same thing. We have the second smaller machine and were thinking of making caramel corn with the glaze pop topping. Just haven't gotten around to it yet.

We sell carmel corn at our theater. We use the glaze pop topping and make it in our regular kettle (thought the kettle has to be cleaned after making carmel corn). The carmel corn goes ok. We make 25 of them at a time and sometimes it can take a couple of weeks to go through them, and other times it might take almost a month to go through them. When we make them, we put them in plastic containers so they have a longer shelf life and stay fresher then putting them in plastic bags.

We also tried making blue raspberry popcorn, but that didn't go very well.

We offer cheese powder that we put in shakers along side our salt if people want it on their popcorn. Even though the cheese seems to be a big hit with the customers, we find that some people almost use up half of the shaker in order to saturate their popcorn. I guess if you feel that adding the seasonings will add to your popcorn sales, then you might want to consider it. If you're interested, try looking up Kernal Seasonings for their flavors and what they offer for movie theaters.

I can't locate the name right now but some months ago I saw advertized in Boxoffice a company selling a rack of flavors to be applied by the customers. I'll see if I can locate it. It looked like a pretty good gimmick.

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Bob Allen
The Old Showman

Mounted on the wall next to our concession stand we have a three tiered wooden rack. We have stained onto the wood old play bills and pictures of the theater. Our bottom shelf is large enough for you to sit your bucket of corn on along with all of the salts. We have salt salt, celery, garlic, and hot salt. Second shelf is approximately 20-25 flavors some from kernel Seasonings others from Spice Barn. Our third shelf consists of our sweet flavors and HOT flavors which have a red cap on them. People are very excited and we have increased our popcorn sales.

A couple of things we learned along the way.

1. I WILL NOT under any circumstances take the time to fill the bag up half way so they car run over and put flavoring on it.

2. We use to put out small 3oz cups so they could take a couple of kernels and put a flavor on it before they put it to the entire bucket. We soon discovered that the kids would fill the cups up with seasoning and put it on as they were eating.

Dill Pickle, Parmesan Garlic, White Cheddar Apples & Cinnamon and Kettle Corn we go through alot of.

We sell the Kernel Seasonings and give them a receipe that you can find on their site. www.nomorenakedpopcorn.com

Thanks everyone for your replies. It sounds like its best to just get the salt flavorings and let people add their own rather than make it up for them. For those that have the flavorings to add, do you make your corn plain to start with or do you add flavorcol anyway for those who may not wish to add different tastes? Does anyone charge extra for the salts or is it just inclusive with the price? Do you find a lot of waste/mess in the self salting area??

Pieman,

We always use flavorcal when we pop our popcorn. Once people get their popcorn, they can move over to the butter station and put their own butter on their popcorn and add more salt or the cheese flavoring if they choose. There does seem to be a mess from some people. We'll find salt and cheese on the counter from where they set their popcorn bag and add the salt/cheese.

When folks order popcorn as we are preparing there bucket we ask them if they are familiar with our POPCORN BAR. Then we go into our spill - The bottom shelf is all salts, the silver containers are plain salt salt and anything with a red cap on it is hot. Dill Pickle, Salt & Vinegar, Apples & Cinnamon seem to be our favorites.

We include it in the price of the corn. We put flavacol and butter on and they do the rest. There normally is quite a mess on the bottom shelf where they sit their bucket. After the movie starts I go over and close all the lids, wipe down and rearrange the jars. I am a tab bit anal and like to arrange my jars alphabetical on each shelf. Just a quick way to know if I have to go into the theater and track down a jar.
Kernel Seasons has a great little station with grating over the fill area so you have very little mess as well as the jars anchored down. We had made ours before we realized they had one.

I think by "anchored down" he means tethered by a chain or cording -- unless there is some sort of hand pump involved as with some condiments.

the salting station sounds great. Ive done a web search looking for one but can't find anything like it..Im probably using the wrong key words. Does anyone have a link to a picture of the "salt station"?

If you order from Kernel Season's, they provide you with the "station" free of charge. I'm not sure if it is pictured on their website - www.nomorenakedpopcorn.com