What’s Poppin’ with Power Power Popcorn
Air popped popcorn is already a hard to beat healthy snack, but sometimes you don’t want to be bothered with plain boring white popcorn. You want something with a bit of punch, a dash of pizazz, or let’s just say it, covered in caramel or chocolate. If only I could have my cake and eat it without the caloric transformation.
In an effort to do just that, a company called “BBNC Snacks” has a new line of flavored popcorn that they bill as “protein packed energy snacks.” You mean I can still indulge in chocolate coated pops of corny goodness? Surely you jest.
Currently they have five flavors in production, starting with the traditional sounding caramel and dark chocolate caramel, which then increase in strangeness from BBQ, to cappuccino, and finally lemon meringue. Out of this selection, I received four to try, minus cappuccino, which I was most curious about. But how did the others taste?
Dark Chocolate Caramel – I could taste chocolate but the words “dark” and “caramel” really shouldn’t be used. For that matter, I’d use chocolate even loosely, as it tasted artificial and strangely stale.
Caramel – It looks like caramel, smells like caramel, but boy does this not taste like caramel. It should be called “Wannabe Caramel.”
BBQ – This one was actually alright and was surprisingly spicy. For someone who loves BBQ and spice, this one isn’t half bad.
Lemon Meringue – I was very curious about this one and the most skeptical, but it proved to be my favorite out of the four. It tasted more lemon than meringue, but the vanilla was definitely there. This would be a great alternative when you want something lemon that doesn’t come in a pie tin.
Unfortunately, I was not impressed. Sure they are still on the healthier side, averaging in at about 170 calories depending on the flavor, but each one had that strange “this is healthy” taste that you associate with a chocolate health food bar trying to masquerade as anything but. I will say that the stranger the flavor, the better tasting it became. Now if only I could get my hands on cappuccino…
