Why is cheap popcorn not as good a premium popcorn?

I can't speak as to WHY one brand pops different than another, but America's Test Kitchen figured out the qualitative difference:

https://youtu.be/-ByrLqhBhvg

tl;dw

When a popcorn kernel pops, it can go one of three ways:

The more unilateral kernels, the crunchier and tastier the popcorn.

The more multilateral kernels, the more likely it will be squishy and stale.

So if a brand were able to figure out how to maximize the unilateral, and minimize the multilateral...

(I think the bilateral and multilateral hold on to butter better).

Orville got famous by selectively breeding their strain of popping corn. It's their own proprietary seed. Pretty much engineered to pop more kernels.

The first summer of covid, when there were all those supply chain shortages, I read an article on the shortages (I think in the NY Times). They explained that some of the shortages weren't that the companies were short of an item, just short of that item in a format conducive to home use or preference, and that sometimes they lacked the flexibility to move that stock to the consumer.

Like, there was a massive home toilet paper shortage, but companies were sitting on stocks of commercial toilet paper that they couldn't move: it wasn't properly packaged for individual resale, couldn't be easily switched to a different packaging, was often thinner or rougher than home-use paper, came in massive rolls that didn't fit on a home spindle, and most people couldn't, wouldn't, or didn't think of trying to get commercial toilet paper.

Anyway - one of the mis-matches they talked about was popcorn. People were in lockdown, wfh, etc, and the home popcorn kernel market was exploding - there wasn't enough stock. At the exact same time, however, movie theatres were closed and huge stocks of movie theatre popcorn kernels were going unsold. And they couldn't move the movie theatre popcorn into the home market.

Movie theatre popcorn uses a different variety of corn than home popcorn does. Like, one type of popcorn has a mushroom-shaped kernel that produces a large round shape with lots of surface area and is pretty crisp, while another one produces a butterfly shape with lots of edges sand that melts easier in your mouth. And if you've built your brand recognition around one type of popped corn, you can't just suddenly substitute in a different type - people will notice, and complain.

Aside from the main types of popcorn kernels, I'm pretty sure there are subtypes as well. Just like eating apples include premium types like cosmic crisp and 'common' types like red delicious, I'm sure that there are premium and 'common' varieties of home popcorn kernels. And the Redenbacher popcorn is using a more 'premium' kernel than the cheap versions.

There's also stuff like time on shelf, moisture content, etc, but I'd bet a lot of it - especially the difference in size and texture - come down to Redenbacher using a different type of kernel, and from a higher-quality kernel within that range.

And I found it there were less kernels unpopped, the popcorn was fluffier and weirdly, it sounded louder too. (same stove, pot and everything)

There are probably one or both of these things going on here.

1. this new popcorn was fresher, meaning there was more moisture (thus more steam) still inside the kernel leading to bigger fluffier pops, and less duds.

2. the new popcorn kernels had thicker hulls, which also leads to bigger fluffier pops, and also would be louder pops. thicker hulls hold in more energy from the steam building in the kernel, so when it pops it releases more energy.

if you prefer bigger popcorn you may want to check out “mushroom” popcorn which is designed for this purpose. theres a whole wide world of popcorn varieties.

Others have alread hit on the reason: likely fresher kernals plus a special corn breed that's optimized for popcorn.

At our local farmer's market (decent sized city) there's a guy that sells about 15 different verities of corn for popping. The sheer number of breeds of things are truly eye watering. We have a home garden, and even when we're growing "green beans" we can be growing one of like 75 different breeds of bean that all have their own characteristics. It's actually kind of funny that grocery stores will market which kind of apple you're buying but they won't do so for things like "red grapes", "yellow peaches", or "sweet corn".

Incredibly, if you web search popping corn quality, you'll find almost nothing but reviews of different brands. I remember reading several decades ago that the difference is really the characteristics of the strain of corn, and that's probably the difference between brands. Premium brands have cultivated their own sub variety of popping corn with better properties for popcorn.

The key parameters are the amount of moisture and oil trapped in the kernel and the shell strength.

Older kernels pop less and pop shittier, so the cheaper popcorn is probably older, cheaper kernels.

Try soaking and drying your kernels.

I've never thought there was any real difference. My dad gets Orville Redenbacher; I get whatever is cheapest. Only had a bad batch once and that was the most recent time I got the Great Value shit at Walmart (which is unusual even for them). Only half the bag would pop and what did pop was extra chewy and crunchy at the same time giving it the weirdest texture I've ever had in my mouth.

But that's not the popcorn's fault; the last few times I got anything at this particular location it's been stale or fucked up in some way. I'm going to start going to one further away that doesn't suck because everything about the one closest to me is awful.

Learn to pop your own on the stove in a pop, toss it with olive oil instead of butter and sea salt and it's so much better than microwave and takes just as much time.

I'll be honest, a lot of the explanations here sound like bullshit marketing talk when what it probably is the cooking chemicals they use.

In the example of microwave popcorn, there is a temperature difference with the oil/butter and how long it takes to pop with your specific microwave. Oil and butter boil at different temps. Some microwaves are 500 watts and some are 3000 and the Popcorn button is going to heat things differently. Probably no difference in corn source.