Butterkist Toffee

Product name: Butterkist Toffee
Calories: 113 for a 27g bag
Country of origin: UK

Believe it or not, I still haven’t finished my Christmas stock, and this mini bag of Butterkist Toffee was another edible treat I received from Santa.

The packaging’s shade of red and general branding was identical to the Toffee Apple variety I’ve previously reviewed but this was a flavour I was much more familiar with!

Made by Tangerine Confectionery Ltd, I was impressed by the whopping 80% toffee coating on this popcorn – there was me thinking that 65% was decent on the Toffee Apple! This lovely, thick and buttery-looking coating looked delicious and made the white centres look particularly fresh.

When it came to the aroma, whilst there was a slight hint of popcorn, this wasn’t of a cinema standard. However, it did have a general carbohydrate smell that was quite like crackers.

The thick toffee coating allowed for a fantastic crunch, although I did find that, even with this handily-portioned bag, chewing did become slightly hard work after a while. However, I loved how even the pieces with a thinner coating still had a noticeably caramelised flavour, and I enjoyed the slight salty hints that seemed to be mixed with the sweetness.

I didn’t expect anything less than a tasty little treat from this Butterkist product and that’s exactly what I got...with the added bonus of a familiarity that made me feel like I was at the pictures!

Appearance: 8/10
Aroma: 6.5/10
Taste: 7.5/10
Texture: 7.5/10
Overall score: 7.38/10

Butterkist Toffee Apple

Product name: Butterkist Toffee Apple
Purchase details: £1.00 for a 150g bag (Poundland)
Calories: 100 per 25g serving
Country of origin: UK 

There are two words that, when combined, almost guarantee that I will buy a product: ‘limited edition’. From memory, I bought this bag of Butterkist Toffee Apple popcorn near Bonfire Night – a time when a toffee apple variety makes particular sense. Having never had a fruity popcorn before, I just had to try it, even though I’d not had a real toffee apple since I was about six years old! 

 

Once again made by Tangerine Confectionery Ltd, this ‘deliciously sweet and satisfying’ product came in a bag that was very similar in design to the Caramel version I reviewed in November. The main differences were simply the burgundy panel being a little larger and the background being more of an amber shade than a yellow one. (I also realised very last-minute that the red section is meant to look like an apple!)

This popcorn, like Butterkist Caramel, was largely made up of its coating, with a whopping 65% of the product being ‘apple flavour toffee’. As a result, it was identical in both appearance and texture.

Although there was a very slight cinema-style popcorn aroma, this wasn’t nearly as strong or sweet for the Toffee Apple variety, and there was also a whiff of another, almost burnt, element mixed in. If I thought about it hard enough, I could associate this scent with tangy apple – it wasn’t instantly recognisable but it was present nonetheless.

Although I wasn’t overly impressed by the popcorn’s smell, I really enjoyed its taste. It had a subtle but sweet apple flavour that was surprisingly realistic and also quite refreshing – it left a nice aftertaste too. Again, I found it almost hinted at banana at times but, overall, there was enough of an apple flavour to make this a unique product, but not so much that it became unpleasant or sickly. Despite still containing it, this was completely different to standard toffee popcorn, although the pieces that had a thicker coating did have a slightly darker sweetness to them.

I felt that this Butterkist Toffee Apple provided the usual great texture of coated popcorn but with a unique twist on a proven flavour combination. What a shame this isn’t available all the time! 

Appearance: 7.5/10
Aroma: 6.5/10
Taste: 8/10
Texture: 7.5/10
Overall score: 7.38/10

Butterkist Caramel

Product name: Butterkist Caramel
Purchase details: £0.89 for a 175g bag (Home Bargains)
Calories: 101 per 25g serving (406 per 100g)
Country of origin: UK

Considering it’s a relatively low calorie snack, I don’t buy popcorn enough. This unusual yellow and burgundy bag caught my eye recently, though, and I was glad it did since it heralded the arrival of a new Butterkist flavour – Caramel. I didn’t expect it to taste much different to toffee popcorn (particularly as it was simply described as ‘caramel flavour toffee popcorn’), but I’ll try anything once...unless it contains fish – bleurgh.

Part of Tangerine Confectionery Ltd, Butterkist is a well-established brand, and I was interested to read a bit more about it on the back of the bag. Founded in America in 1914, it’s been available in UK cinemas since 1938, and it now claims to be ‘the nation’s favourite popcorn’ with a ‘delicious and unique flavour’. Since popcorn is connected with films so much, I did like the way the brand’s logo was styled like the opening credits of a movie, and I was also amused by the concept of a strong man struggling with the weight of a single piece of popcorn. 

On opening the bag, I was greeted with a lovely cinema popcorn smell with a slight sweetness to it. Visually, it was paler in colour than standard toffee popcorn, but it still had a visible coating. The overall appearance was as expected, with similar sized pieces being different shapes, and some being more thickly coated that others (as far as I’m concerned, the shinier and thicker the coating, the better that piece will be!). 

I’d been surprised to see that the ‘sweet caramel flavour’ coating (made using Butterkist’s secret recipe) made up 65% of the product but, thankfully, the popcorn was still light enough to mean I felt like I was getting a lot for the calories. I was doing my fairly typical thing of using up spare calories rather than having 25g portions, but I didn’t feel deprived at all. 

Taste-wise, the flavour was more different than I thought it would be. The popcorn itself was quite buttery and, with the coating, it was obviously sweet too. It wasn’t as deep a flavour as toffee popcorn and I found it almost hinted at banana (now that would be a good variety!). It also reminded me of something from my childhood but I couldn’t work out what it was – it was making me think of biscuits but I couldn’t think of anything specific that would have tasted like this product! As I normally do, I really enjoyed the sugary shell that the coating formed, and the more thickly coated pieces were definitely the tastiest, as well as the crunchiest, which provided a nice contrast to the otherwise squishy popcorn. 

This was definitely a very moreish treat! 

Appearance: 7.5/10

Aroma: 7.5/10
Taste: 7.5/10
Texture: 7.5/10
Overall score: 7.5/10