Smartfood – Movie Night Butter
Smartfood has pretty good brand cache, as the kids call it. At least in the Frigid North, it’s the go to brand when we think of prepackaged popcorn that’s easily accessible and basically everywhere. In recent years they have branched out into flavours other than just white cheddar, and movie night butter seems to be a no brainer. Interestingly not a flavour that was available until the past few years.
For someone who is too cheap to buy theatre popcorn, and nowadays rarely even goes to theatres, this seems like a great way to experience the flavour without having to go through all the other steps. Sure it won’t be as good as fresh hot popcorn with dripping flavacol, but it should at least partially scratch that specific itch.
Prepacked popcorn feels like a snack for people who are too lazy to work a microwave. For me the bigger thing is less about the convenience, and more about the fact that no matter how I try to coat my popcorn in the seasoning, it’s just not as good. I’ve seen some people use various techniques like cooking spray, coating them in light oil or butter and what have you, but I don’t want to go through all that hassle and mess. So I guess in a round about way, it is about convenience for me?
Texture is pretty typical as far as pre-popped popcorn goes – it’s nice, light and fluffy and isn’t that different from freshly microwaved popcorn. It’s got that melt in your mouth texture, and doesn’t feel stale in a way that makes you imagine Styrofoam texture would be. Not that I’ve had Styrofoam (intentionally) but I imagine it’s what you would get when you eat stale popcorn. I guess the biggest difference would be the aroma. Which brings us to the flavour.
The flavour is pretty spot on to movie theatre butter. I don’t know what it is about the chemicals they use in the movie theatre butter oil concoction, but it’s hard for me to describe it other than it’s like a butter flavour that’s lightly salted by cranked up to 120%. This is no different in that it reminds you of butter, but you know it’s not real butter – at least not the stuff they use in theatres. Maybe it’s nostalgia and the taste of memories that make these so attractive.
As someone who rarely got to partake in movie theatre popcorn, or movies in general as a kid because we were poor, these definitely feel a bit high end and classy to me. Beyond that though, as far as flavour goes I prefer the classic white cheddar to this. This does feel a bit lighter though, so there’s something that this has over it.
