I used to buy Trader Joe's popcorn until several months
ago when they changed it. It used to be that nearly
all the popcorn was ball-shaped rather than the more
common octopus shape, and I really prefer ball-shaped
pieces.

According to Wikipedia, in the business these are
both called flakes, the ball-shaped type being a
mushroom flake and the octopus-shape type being
a butterfly flake.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Popcorn...sion_and_yield

And popcorns are available that produce 100%
mushroom flakes or 100% butterfly flakes.
Trader Joe's must have swiched from the former
to the latter.

I used to eat a lot of popcorn, and I tried many
brands. I wonder why no commercial unpopped popcorn
is available in stores of the type that makes
mushroom flakes? If I were still buying popcorn,
that's what I would want.

Mark Thorson wrote:
> I used to buy Trader Joe's popcorn until several months
> ago when they changed it. It used to be that nearly
> all the popcorn was ball-shaped rather than the more
> common octopus shape, and I really prefer ball-shaped
> pieces.
>
> According to Wikipedia, in the business these are
> both called flakes, the ball-shaped type being a
> mushroom flake and the octopus-shape type being
> a butterfly flake.
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Popcorn...sion_and_yield
>
> And popcorns are available that produce 100%
> mushroom flakes or 100% butterfly flakes.
> Trader Joe's must have swiched from the former
> to the latter.
>
> I used to eat a lot of popcorn, and I tried many
> brands. I wonder why no commercial unpopped popcorn
> is available in stores of the type that makes
> mushroom flakes? If I were still buying popcorn,
> that's what I would want.

Oh, interesting. And you are right. Now I am most curious about
finding the ball aka mushroom shape.

--
Jean B.

In article >,
Mark Thorson > wrote:

> I used to eat a lot of popcorn, and I tried many
> brands. I wonder why no commercial unpopped popcorn
> is available in stores of the type that makes
> mushroom flakes? If I were still buying popcorn,
> that's what I would want.

We buy Orville Redenbachers and it is mostly ball shaped popcorn. We do
get the old fashioned kernels (not the microwave bags) so maybe they are
different, I don't know.

marcella

On Fri, 21 Nov 2008 13:55:28 -0800, Mark Thorson >
wrote:

>I used to buy Trader Joe's popcorn until several months
>ago when they changed it. It used to be that nearly
>all the popcorn was ball-shaped rather than the more
>common octopus shape, and I really prefer ball-shaped
>pieces.
>
>According to Wikipedia, in the business these are
>both called flakes, the ball-shaped type being a
>mushroom flake and the octopus-shape type being
>a butterfly flake.
>
>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Popcorn...sion_and_yield
>
>And popcorns are available that produce 100%
>mushroom flakes or 100% butterfly flakes.
>Trader Joe's must have swiched from the former
>to the latter.
>
>I used to eat a lot of popcorn, and I tried many
>brands. I wonder why no commercial unpopped popcorn
>is available in stores of the type that makes
>mushroom flakes? If I were still buying popcorn,
>that's what I would want.

Interesting post. I make popcorn for caramel corn frequently and have
found the best I can get comes from a place in central Illinois called
Farm and Fleet.

http://www.farmandfleet.com/catalog/...=030102003&p=1

I don't think they're the hybrid ones but there are lots of the
mushroom flakes in the batches. I didn't know what the difference was
I just new they were nicer than grocery store stuff.

Lou