Old Dutch – Popcorn Twists

Popcorn twists is such a weird mental image when you don’t know what exactly it’s supposed to be. How do they twist the popcorn? Why is it twisted? How does it taste? What were they thinking? Who decided this was a good idea? All this and many other questions that race through the mind. Or maybe just mine. As it turns out it’s not really all that exciting when you see what it actually is.

It’s nothing crazy or revolutionary, it’s really just another name or shape for corn puffs or corn pops. Basically cornmeal that’s puffed up or extruded to give it an interested twisted look to it. It’s basically like a softer, airier version of the classic cheese stick that made Cheetos famous. Visually these remind of crunchy Cheetos, except that these are puffier and like softer, if that makes sense. The general shape looks like it follows a not so different process of being cooked and extruded through some mold. They are much less dense, and you can tell just by holding one of them. If you so much as breathe on it the wrong way it might fly away.

These are super puffy and light in texture. They are quite airy and melt in your mouth faster than a typical cheese puff. That first bite can be weird since it looks like it might potentially be crunchy, but it’s soft as heck and true to the packaging, melts in your mouth. Similar to popcorn, these are light and addictive in a way that you probably will end up overeating and binging on these unlike a more substantial, crunchy snack that requires chewing or jaw work.

The flavour is very corny, for lack of a better word. It’s like eating popcorn in a different form, and it’s got a decent amount of salt to satisfy the salty snackers. Now is probably a good time to mention that this snack is really just three ingredients – cornmeal, vegetable oil and salt. I have no doubt that given enough time I could probably make the snack at home, but I am both too lazy for that, and I don’t imagine I can make it taste that much better than this. That doesn’t sound like much praise, but trust me it is.

I’ve seen a few people try and make caramel corn puffs out of these, and I feel like that’s one way to go with it. I prefer to eat them as is, as a nice light snack where you end up eating way more than you thought or wanted to. I would do these again for sure, though maybe it would be better to share these so I’m not the only one eating it all.