Fun Facts About Popcorn

There are a lot of fun facts about popcorn. Popcorn is a delicious, healthy snack that many people all over the world love to enjoy. It’s high in fiber, low in calories, sugar-, salt-, fat-, allergen-, gluten- and GMO-free. 

When you walk into a movie theater, the first thing that greets you is the heavenly scent of buttered popcorn so you go ahead and get one for yourself and enjoy it with the movie.

Nowadays, though, you don’t have to wait until you get to the theater to get your popcorn fix. Just make sure to include it in your grocery list and you can enjoy it at home.

Let’s take a look at some popcorn fun facts about its history to understand why Americans eat about 17 billion quarts of it a year!

Popcorn is over 5,000 years old. In fact, it may even be older: fossil evidence from Peru suggests that popcorn was being popped as early as 4700 B.C.! That means humans have been munching on popcorn for almost 7,000 years.

In ancient times, popcorn had more uses than just being a snack. But when they did eat it as a snack, Native Americans usually flavored it with dried herbs and spices – exactly what we do today.

Some tribes believed each kernel of popcorn houses a tiny spirit. They were benign spirits that didn’t bother humans, but if their home was heated, they’d eventually burst out of the kernel in their anger.

In the early 1900s, popcorn was served as cereal with cream, sugar, fruit and milk.

While other businesses failed during the Great Depression, the popcorn business thrived. Popcorn sold at around 5 to 10 cents a bag, making it one of the more affordable (and possibly life-saving) treats for poor families.

The first commercial popcorn machine was invented by Charles Cretors in 1885. Cretors was a Chicago candy store owner who had invented a number of steam-powered machines for roasting nuts and he later applied that technology to popcorn.

Why is popcorn the chosen movie theater snack? When vendors began to sell outside movie theaters, theater owners were initially opposed to it, fearing that popcorn would distract their patrons from the movies and make a lot of mess on the theater floor. It took a few years for them to realize that popcorn could be a way to increase revenues, and popcorn has been served in movie theaters since 1912.

Most movie theaters earn more profit from popcorn sales than ticket sales. It has been a big money maker not only because popcorn is overpriced, but also because people usually get thirsty and, consequently, buy sodas or water as well. In movie theaters, for every dollar spent on popcorn, about 90 cents is profit.

When televisions became popular in the early 1950s, popcorn sales decreased because people stayed home to watch movies rather than go to a theater. However, when popcorn was more readily available at home, popcorn again became popular.

An American electronics expert, Perry Spencer, invented microwave popcorn. When he paused in front of a power tube called a magnetron in 1945, he felt a “weird” feeling and noticed that the tube had melted a chocolate candy bar he had in his pocket. He decided to see if it would pop popcorn, which it did. Microwaveable popcorn was born.

Now you’re sitting at home, getting ready to enjoy a movie marathon, when you start thinking about whether popcorn is the best choice to munch on. Here are more popcorn fun facts for you to help you decide.

Popcorn has more protein than any other cereal grain. It also has more iron than eggs or roast beef. It has more fiber than pretzels or potato chips. A cup of plain popcorn contains just 31 calories. It’s an it an excellent choice for men and women who have dietary restrictions or choose a gluten-free diet.

Of course, it becomes a different story when you load your popcorn with butter, white cheese or caramel! But then again, who cares? You can even try some of the more bizarre flavors such as Beer-flavored Pub-Corn, Yo-Pop’s Butterfinger Crunch Popcorn, KukuRuZa’s Buffalo Blue Cheese Popcorn, Popcorn Palace’s Jalapeno popcorn, Jolly Time’s Mallow Magic Yummy Marshmallow Flavor Microwave Popcorn, Popcorn Pavilion’s Brown Butter & Sea Salt Popcorn, Kernel Encore’s Pumpkin popcorn, Popcornopolis’ Cupcake popcorn, and 479˚ Popcorn’s Black Truffle and White Cheddar popcorn.

You can ask anyone from Nebraska, who produces an estimated 250 million pounds of popcorn per year—more than any other state. This is equivalent to a quarter of all the popcorn the United States produces every year.  Despite this title, though, Illinois takes pride on having popcorn as their official snack. Since 1958, there has been an annual “Popcorn Day.” January 19th is National Popcorn Day while October is National Popping Popcorn Month. Furthermore, autumn is the peak time for popcorn consumption, followed by the winter months. Popcorn sales taper off during the spring and summer when people prefer to go outdoors to enjoy the great weather.

Corn is the largest crop in America thanks in large part to how Americans consume a ton of popcorn every year. Similarly, corn is the second-largest crop in the world in terms of volume.

Popcorn is the only kind of corn that pops in the fluffy way it does and its scientific name is Zea mays everta. It has a thicker hull than other kinds of corn which means that the pressure from heated water inside eventually bursts and the cooked insides quickly cool, giving popcorn its distinctive shape, the more popular ones being snowflake and mushroom.

Popcorn expands up to 30 times its original size when it’s popped and can pop up to 3 feet in the air. There are about 1,600 popcorn kernels in 1 cup and about 2 tablespoons of popcorn kernels can produce an entire quart of popcorn. Finally, most bags of popcorn will contain one white kernel for every 9 yellow kernels.

I hope you enjoyed these popcorn fun facts as much as you enjoy your tub of popcorn! Here is a great article about the different types of popcorn.