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Product Reviews / Main Nibbles / SnacksChocolate-Covered PopcornChocolate Addictions With A Sweet & Salty Crunch
CAPSULE REPORT: We tasted a lot of chocolate-covered popcorn and chose three brands that span the spectrum from “popcorn with a touch of chocolate” (Sensational Sweets) to “chocolate with a touch of popcorn” (Hampton Popcorn Company). Two of the companies make several different flavors of chocolate popcorn (Dale & Thomas and Hampton Popcorn Company), and two (Dale & Thomas and Sensational Sweets) are kosher-certified. More than delicious snacking, these popcorns are delightful gifts, party favors and a lot of fun for connoisseurs of fine food. The key here is quality: the chocolate makes all the difference and with our recommended popcorns, it’s as good as you’d expect in a top specialty food product. If you like popcorn and you like chocolate, combine the two, common wisdom would argue, and you’ve got something really special. We put the theory to the test and spent months tasting chocolate-covered popcorns. The ones we recommend here are really special, and the’re far from kid stuff. They could take their place with an espresso at the end of a fine dinner. Or, they could come to picnics, parties, movies, the zoo... anywhere anyone wants a delicious, sweet snack. We’ll emphasize the word delicious, because the first thing most people say after their first mouthful is: This is really delicious! Dale & Thomas Popcorn is named for its owner, popcorn-lover and former Detroit Pistons point guard and Hall-of-Famer Isiah Thomas, and for the mayor of the Indiana town Popcorn River, Dale Humphrey (who has no financial ties with the popcorn company, although his state, Indiana, is the country’s largest producer of popcorn, and his town is in the heart of the industry). The company serves a variety of flavors of popcorn including three delicious varieties coated in chocolate:
The chocolate and peanut butter-chocolate coatings are sweeter than the other two manufacturers, and sure to please the sweet-toothed. The chocolate coating is in the mid-range—not as heavy as Hampton Popcorn (see next section), but very satisfying. Dedicated to pleasing popcorn aficionados, each season Dale & Thomas releases new flavors, remaining on the crest of flavor trends with Buffalo & Blue, Sweet & Spicy BBQ, Southwest Cheddar-Chipotle, Blueberry Bushel and Pineapple Coconut Breeze.
Hampton Popcorn Company Hampton Popcorn is a specialist in chocolate popcorn. Founded in Westhampton Beach, New York, the company turns out the ultimate popcorn indulgence: caramel corn generously coated with the best-quality chocolate we’ve found on any popcorn. Not too sweet, and with no evident salt, it looks like popcorn but works like a fine confection. It is tuned to a connoisseur palate—although kids will polish it off without question.
Their flavors include:
Two non-chocolate flavors of note complete the Hampton Popcorn offering:
While Hampton Popcorn specializes in chocolate-covered popcorn, they will be introducing a parmesan cheese flavor shortly for the salty-snack lover. All popcorn from Hampton Popcorn is made to order in small batches, which explains why every piece arrives so fresh and flavor-forward.
Sensational Sweets Sensational Sweets is different from the other companies in this group in that it is not a popcorn specialist. The company makes confections from chocolate bark to fudge, in The popcorn is fluffier, less crunchy than the other corns, for a melt-in-your-mouth effect. Sensational Sweets calls its chocolate “our own dark milk chocolate blend”—a hard-to-interpret phrase when you read it, but it approximates a 50 to 55 percent semisweet cacao.
Serving SuggestionsChocolate-covered popcorn is a super snack straight from the box or bowl, but don’t overlook the potential as a:
Learn More About Popcorn: Our Favorite Books
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Chocolate Chunk N’ Caramel: Coated in caramel and dark chocolate
The corn is popped from mushroom kernels, a popcorn variety that expands and opens much larger than other kernels. The kernels are hot-air-popped in a climate-controlled room with no oils, then coated with the caramel mix and cooled before additional toppings are drizzled over. Not only is the result delicious, but the process creates a more durable, more crispy corn: three months after our several cans of Hampton Popcorn were opened, the popcorn remained crispy and delicious, while the other popcorns were soft and inedible. We wouldn’t have expected our half-eaten cans of popcorn to remain so fresh after all this time—it’s a delightful bonus. 
small, hand-made batches, on the family farm in the Susquehanna Valley of Central Pennsylvania. The line includes Drizzled Popcorn—one might call it “flecked” with chocolate rather than drizzled when to compared to the heavier “drizzling” of Dale & Thomas and Hampton popcorns. It’s more of a classic popcorn that offers a touch of chocolate, and perfect for people who like a sweet-and-salty snack profile. It’s like eating popcorn with a chaser of chocolate morsels. 
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