Smartfood – Gouda & Chive Popcorn
There are certain individuals who do not see the point of prepackaged popcorn like Smartfood. There are those that would say, “why not just get the much cheaper option of microwave popcorn and make it “fresh” yourself?”, or “how hard could it be, putting a bag in the microwave and then seasoning it yourself?” While these points are all valid, the only thing I can really say is, it’s just not the same. As someone who has tried extensively to replicate the same flavour and taste of a good seasoned popcorn, I’m clearly just not there yet.
Now, I’m not sure if it’s not just in vogue anymore, but popcorn as a whole just doesn’t seem as popular these days. I remember when I was a kid and Kernels stores were everywhere. They even had this promo where if you got a bag at regular price you got the second one half off, or sometimes even free. As a poor student, sometimes that was all I would eat as dinner. It was pretty awesome let me tell you. But as great and tasty as they were, I could never replicate myself. Apparently I can’t work a microwave properly, but that’s a whole story for another time. Bottom line is, Smartfood is the closest I’ll get to the Kernels experience that I so crave every once in a while. Especially with some of the newer, trendier flavours like today’s, which is new but sounds kinda bougie.
The one thing I like about popcorn is they weigh much less, so you get the illusion of having more to enjoy. It’s always fun opening a bag of popcorn and seeing so much. Until you realize you end up eating potentially twice as much. These smell pretty pleasant so far, and have a very sweet, slightly onion aroma to them.
These serve just fine as far as pre-popped popcorn goes. They’re nice and fluffy and pretty evenly seasoned. I know when I do it, even if I do the shake method of seasoning popcorn, I still manage to fail and some sides get almost no seasoning. Whatever their process is, it’s got these bad boys evenly coated. Which brings us to the flavour, which is really what these packaged popcorn products are about. Try saying that three times fast.
Chives have a distinct taste to them. They are very much like green onions, which themselves have a distinct taste. If you don’t like green onions, you might not like this. I’m not sure how Gouda plays into all this, because I can barely distinguish this Gouda from sour cream. All this is to say this tastes like sour cream and onion seasoning on popcorn. Don’t get me wrong, it’s well seasoned and tasty in it’s own right, but I feel like calling it Gouda and Chives is just a marketing thing. Which is kind of odd now that I think about it, because there is actually a separate flavour called sour cream and onion, so I’m left wondering what the difference is. I guess the only way to find out is to try it some time in the future.
As a standalone flavour I think this is fine. If you’re getting this flavour and have ever had chives, you probably would at least somewhat expect it to be similar to sour cream and onion. Going into it with that mindset and leveled expectations, these aren’t bad. They do leave a bit of a chivy after taste in the mouth though, and just like real chives, that flavour lingers for some time. I don’t mind it because I enjoy the flavour of chives, but if you’re having food within 15 minutes of this, it might “taint” the experience, for lack of a better term.
