NoochPop – Kinda Cheesy
I’m a sucker for popcorn, but I’m also dot a fan of trying to pop it myself and have to season it. It’s a whole thing, so I really appreciate the convenience of packaged popcorn. So you can imagine my surprise when I see a new brand pop up at my local store that claims it’s healthier, and is sans so many things.
These are popped in coconut oil, olive oil and avocado oil. It’s also dairy free, gluten free, low sodium and non-GMO. Most of the flavour comes from the oils, and the nutritional yeast used as seasoning. And of course a bit of salt. The cynic in me reads all this and I start to think this might have gone down the health craze fad and may fall on the side of being healthier, but not tasty. And as we all know, regardless of all the other stuff, the ultimate goal is to find something tasty. If I’m going to kill myself with a snack, I might as well enjoy it.
Nutritional yeast sounds a bit foreign to people unfamiliar, but let me put your mind at ease. It’s a common seasoning at this point, and it has a distinct, umami flavour. Along with the flavours of the three oils used to pop these kernels, it has an interesting almost cheesy, but not quite flavour to it. Imagine if you had a cheese flavour but it had no dairy, and that’s sort of how I would describe the nutritional yeast. It’s not too strong, but distinct enough if you squint hard you could imagine that it’s some sort of vegan cheese. Most vegan cheese flavours use a blend of onion and garlic powder to try and emulate the different savoury notes of cheese, and that’s no different here.
The texture of these kernels is relatively soft, and while they aren’t the super round, large fluffy one’s, they do have a decent crunch to accompany them and have a good balance between fluffy and crunchy. The smaller kernels do result in my stuffing more into my mouth, an unfortunate side effect, I’m afraid.
It takes a big man to admit mistakes, and I am willing to own up to having a bit of a bias against this brand. I am happy to say I was wrong and I have found another brand that I am excited to try more from, and I can confidently say I will be seeing more of them in the near future. Here’s to hoping it’s on the up and up.
