The same question looms large every year. What to get the family member who already has everything. You know the type. If they want something, they just go out and buy it. No waiting. No helpful lists of things they don’t have. You buy them something you think they would like, and it turns out its a poor shadow of something they already have, or not something they really wanted anyway.

If you’re tired of getting the gift you carefully selected out of love gifted back to you six months later, it’s time to start thinking outside the box. A gift your family member doesn’t have, not because he doesn’t want it, but because it never occurred to him to get one.

A popcorn machine may well be the perfect solution. If your favorite family member is always getting the huge bucket of popcorn at the movie theaters, has his own personal surround system for home use, or perhaps has a lot of kids or grand kids, a popcorn machine may well be a popular gift.

Choosing the right popcorn machine

A quick look on Google may leave you shocked at the number and variety of machines out there. Fortunately, picking a good one is pretty simple. For most people, a small unit is better than a larger one. (After all, it needs to be easily storable inside a personal home) and from there, it diverges into what sort of person your family member is.

Is she a health nut? You might want to get her one that does air-popped popcorn, offering all the health benefits of popcorn with none of those extra calories from fat added. Are they more of the movie type? A traditional popcorn machine may be just the way to go. Is it for kids? Perhaps a nostalgic version that looks like the old fashioned carts would be a hit. There’s a large variety of different popcorn machines out there, and they all have something to offer.

The best part about gifting a popcorn machine

Let’s face it, when you’re dealing with a picky family member, it’s always a toss up whether any gift you choose will be liked or hated. If nothing else, a popcorn machine regifted back to you months later could be just as fun as if you’d bought it yourself.

If the machine is well received however, you’ll have a steady supply of things you can get them from now on. Popcorn baskets with different flavorings in it, extra popcorn for popping, cute bags to put the popcorn in, and perhaps a couple of movies to squeeze in along side it.

What ever you choose to give to your family during the holidays, birthdays, or as a simple surprise, make sure it is something given out of love. Gift giving is a time for coming closer to your family, and if a real surprise like this one can help make that happen, it was well worth it in the end.

We all love popcorn. That buttery and delicious smell is something we recognize at all our favorite events. We join throngs of people at movies for that light and fluffy goodness, and grab big bags of it at fairs and even school fundraisers to get some lightly buttered snacks. Our passion for this snack is so strong, it can invoke memories and happier moods just by the scent alone.

No matter how good your grocery store popcorn is, it just can’t hold a candle to that freshly popped, theater style popcorn. We go crazy for those bags of fresh and crunchy treats in those signature red and white bags, and seeing those iconic machines sitting in the corner of our favorite locations always fills us with a little hope and excitement.
Whether you are a business looking to add a little side income to your place, or just a popcorn fanatic looking for that perfect flavor in your own home, here are our top favorite ways to make popcorn:

Air popped

We may love our popcorn slathered in butter and with a dash of salt, but sometimes our waistlines aren’t so crazy about it. If you need a low-cal solution for your theater style cravings, air popped popcorn can offer a light offering for your snacking needs.
While we don’t always take our health into consideration while we are having a popcorn craving, air-popped popcorn can be just as delightful as your normal snacks and so much healthier for you. As an added benefit, you can add a variety of different flavorings to your popcorn with a machine that pops via hot air. After all, no matter how great that buttery taste is, there are only so many ways you can flavor it when you keep in mind all the extra oil that flavor has to compete with.
Indulge your senses with all the wonderful delights made possible by air popped popcorn.

Theater style popcorn

This is probably the most common style of popcorn you are used to eating. You see waves of delightful waves of bright fluffy kernels popping in a glass cage. With a toss of butter and salt, a big tasty bag of popcorn is handed over the counter for you to enjoy. We love popcorn so much, we are happy to pay extra at the movie theater for the privilege of eating it while we enjoy a new show.
There aren’t that many snacks that can compete with theater style popcorn. The popcorn machine heats everything up just right, and the butter and the salt coat each kernel for pure heaven in every tasty bite. As far as pure bliss in snack form, you can’t get much better than popcorn from a standard machine.

The best part of all about theater popcorn? There are commercial grade popcorn machines so small you can fit them in your own home. If you are a popcorn fanatic and just have to have the best popcorn at all times, you can get a mini-popper just perfect for achieving that same flavor in the comfort of your own home.
No matter how great those bags of ready made popcorn claim to be, they just aren’t as amazing as a freshly popped bag tumbling out of a machine.

Kettle Corn:

For those of us with a sweet tooth, there is still plenty of room for us in our popcorn snacks. Kettle corn machines can coat those delicious pieces of popcorn with an ultra thin coating of sugar or honey, stirring it so that they don’t stick together in a hopeless blob or get clumps of sugar on them. The result is a piece of popcorn with a light sugar coating on them, adding a delicious but still gentle sweetness to every bite we enjoy.
Kettle corn is extremely popular as a treat sold outside of businesses and in fairs and carnivals everywhere. As an added bonus there is a great deal of variety in the way kettle corn can be made. Not only can they have that delicious crystal clear coating of honey or sugar, but they can sometimes be mixed with other awesome flavors to make a tasty snack. Indulge in chocolate covered bits, or popcorn mixed in with clusters of nuts and other delicious combinations. You never know what you’ll find in one of these combinations, but what ever it is, it is bound to be good!

Popcorn balls:

No carnival is complete without a giant popcorn ball from your favorite vendor. These popcorn balls take our regular favorites like the ones listed above, and add a candy coating that bundles them together in a holiday favorite everybody loves. Popcorn balls can be made a variety of different ways, using everything from caramel to peanut butter in order to hold them together. Popcorn balls are a staple of festivals everywhere, and also a tasty treat dyed green or red for the holidays.
This is one treat you can make fairly well for yourself at home, just keep a careful eye on the temperature of the sauce you pour over the popcorn to ensure the balls are properly formed.
Popcorn balls are a truly delicious snack and a great add on to any fundraiser or simply as a holiday snack.

Hand-popped:

While the flavor isn’t as great as the professional popcorn above, there is something to be said for the glorious fun of a pan of popcorn on its long metal stick, popping away over an open flame. These treats are a camp fire favorite, and way more interesting than silently waiting for the microwave to go off at home.
Popcorn is a food that is enjoyed all over the world. It has delighted people everywhere since ancient times for its refreshing taste (and let’s face it, because it’s fun!) No matter how you enjoy your popcorn, we can all agree that our lives are better when we indulge in this favorite snack. Popcorn is so versatile almost everyone loves it, from those on a diet to those who want every kind of treat piled on top of it.

Popcorn is one of the most popular snack foods in the world and it is not hard to find a way to get popcorn quickly and easily. In fact, with the increase in popularity of microwaves and the introduction of microwavable popcorn, there is popcorn available in most settings and situations.

However, if you want to keep your diet on track and make sure that you are getting the best health benefits available form your popcorn, perhaps you want to consider some other options for making your popcorn as you move forward. First let’s consider the health benefits of making your own popcorn and then talk about some of the different machines you can purchase to make it.

Why is it a healthier option to make your own popcorn at home?

When you make your popcorn at home without a microwave, then you are giving yourself and your family a healthier option because you are able to have more control over what is put on your popcorn in a way that keeps you from harming your health.

The other main options is to get your popcorn at the movie theater or to make it in the microwave, but homemade popcorn is a better option. When you go to the movie theater, they have already made a large amount of popcorn in a machine and the first portion of butter and salt have already been applied during the popping process. Sure you can ask for more butter, but you can not get less.

You will also be purchasing more popcorn that you should be eating in one sitting. The same applies to your microwave popcorn. You don’t get to choose how much butter or salt you get or how much is made.

Can I make movie popcorn at home?

Absolutely you can. It is possible to purchase a variety of popcorn makers that use the same mechanism as you would find as the machine that they use at the movies. These machines feature a heating pot with a lid and spinning bar that turns the popcorn kernels as well as pushing out any popped popcorn to keep it from getting burned. These types of machine are a lot of fun.

Start by plugging in the machine and turning on the heater. You will need to either purchase a prepackaged pouch that holds the oil and kernels for the machine, but you can also just use oil in the heating pan with a cup of kernels for each batch of popcorn. Once the pan and oil are heated, you will pour in the kernels and closing the lid to ensure that none of the kernels escape too soon.

As the popcorn pops, you will want to keep your ears open to make sure that once the popping slows down to pour out the remaining popcorn before it starts to burn. Once you have finished, push the popcorn around so that any stray kernels can fall through the slots at the bottom of the tray.

These machines can come in a variety of sizes and designs, but the functionality is still the same.

What about using hot air to pop your popcorn?

If you want to avoid the extra butter and oil that can come from using a movie theater style popcorn popper, then you might want to look into a hot air popper that uses hot air to make your popcorn instead of the extra oil. When you are using this method, you will find that you are making a much healthier snack with a wider variety of options for flavors than you will get from any other option. In this case, you will need the hot air popper as well as a working outlet, a bowl for your popcorn, as well as the popcorn kernels that you want to pop. Put on the lid and plug in the popper.

This will cause the machine to start making hot air that you will be using to make your popcorn. Put in a couple of kernels into the machine. This will help you to know when the air is hot enough to make your popcorn.

Once one of those kernels pops, you can pour in the rest of the kernels for your batch. You do not have to worry about the hot air from the machine blowing the kernels out of the machine because they are heavier than the air can manage to blow away, but once the kernels pop, they will blow right out into your bowl.

As the kernels pop and blow out of the machine, try to guide the kernels into the bowl so that you do not have to clean up too much of a mess. As the kernels stop popping, you can either put more kernels into the machine or unplug it and clean up all of the stray pieces of popcorn.

Can I make my popcorn on the stove top?

If you don’t have machine to make your popcorn and you want to have the health benefits of making your own popcorn, you can still make your popcorn on the stove top. this is not that difficult, but you will want to make sure that you have all of the pieces you need pulled together ahead of time.

You will need a large pan with a lid, some oil, and your popcorn kernels. Start by heating up the burner on your stove. Put the pan on the stove and pour in some oil to cover the bottom of the pan slightly. Do not add too much oil. Next put a few kernels in the oil as it heats up. You will not notice much change for a while, but as the pan and the oil heats up, you will eventually hear and maybe see one of the kernels pop. This will be the sign that it is time to pour in the rest of the kernels.

Now that all of the kernels are in the pan, you will want to put on the lid and gently move the pan back and forth. This will keep any popped kernels from getting burned. Again it will take a few minutes for the kernels to heat enough to pop, but once they do, you will want to keep shaking the pan to avoid burning your popcorn. As long as you are paying attention to the pan, you will soon have a batch of fresh homemade popcorn.

You can flavor it however you like as well.

Are you ready for some popcorn?

Now that you know about the various options for making popcorn, it is time to decide the option that works best for you. After all, who doesn’t love popcorn? It is a healthy and nutritious snack that can fill your cravings in a way that keeps you on a healthy track.

However you want to make your popcorn and whatever flavoring you want to use on it, there is a great option for you to get your popcorn just the way that you want it, an you can make it all on your own with the right popcorn machine.