Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Many years ago, I was an assistant manager at a movie theater and I used to enjoy making the popcorn right as guests were coming in for shows. Now, each year around Christmas time, I start seeing a bunch of kettle poppers as gift ideas and I get the urge to buy one for myself. Then, reality sets in and I remember how much of a pain it was to clean those things AND I don't really have anywhere to store it. Same for the air popper... I already have a bunch of small kitchen appliances, which I rarely use, taking up all my cabinet space. So, this year, when a relative mentioned she used her air popper all the time, but it recently died, I started looking around for a replacement. When I saw these collapsible microwave poppers, I thought it was a great idea and I decided to give it a try. At the movie theater, we used peanut oil, flavacol seasoning, and high quality popcorn kernels. So, I ordered all of those items and put about 2 tsp peanut oil in the bottom of the bowl, poured about 1/3 cup of kernels, and about 1/2 tsp of the flavacol. Put the lid on and set the microwave for 3 minutes. I was a little worried about using the oil because I didn't want to scorch the bottom of the bowl, but it turned out great. I stayed in the kitchen and as soon as the popping slowed down to just a few seconds between each pop, I turned the microwave off. The bowl is advertised as both a popper and a serving bowl, but if you plan to use it for serving you will need to wait awhile before trying to hold it because the bottom of the bowl stays hot. I ended up using a towel to hold it while we were watching TV instead of pulling out another bowl to dump it in. The popcorn turned out great, there were not that many unpopped kernels in the bottom of the bowl, and when we were done, I just put it on the top shelf of the dishwasher! (Much easier than trying to scrub out one of those kettle units)