Popcorn has become a top snack for me, especially now that I'm trying to stay gluten-free with my diet.
I've been popping my own corn since trying to focus on GF, but today I picked up a bag of Clancy's Roasted Sweet Corn Flavored Popcorn to sample and review.
As an Iowa native and lover and griller of sweet corn, the package touting "Roasted Sweet Corn" caught my eye when shopping this morning at Aldi. A plus, it's gluten-free. Yes, popcorn is naturally gluten-free, it's not wheat, but you do have to be careful with a lot of products, especially snack foods. Even though a food product may be naturally gluten-free, in this case, popcorn, how it gets seasoned and otherwise flavored during the processing can turn into something that's not gluten-free. Always read the label.
If you're not familiar with the Clancy's brand, it's an Aldi private label, offering a full line of snack foods with over 40 varieties to choose from. The brand is kind of hit-and-miss though. Some of their snacks are quite tasty, others, not so much. For example, while their regular classic potato chips are good and in my book a smarter buy than over-priced classic Lay's, I've found their stackable chips, a.k.a., "crisps" to be greasy and not a good alternative to Pringles.
In sampling that first mouthful of the Roasted Sweet Corn Flavored Popcorn, I was immediately hit with the butter flavor. But it's butter-forward and much sweeter than I had anticipated. Yes, corn on the cob does have a sweetness to it, especially when caramelized, but this popcorn is sweet butter-forward, and the roasted notes are far too subtle. There is a nice popcorn crunch, it's air-popped and there's no greasy aftertaste, but the roasted flavor is overpowered by the sweet butter. There was a minimal amount of old maids in the bottom of the bag and popped kernel breakage was negligible. Overall, I was disappointed by this effort from Clancy's, it's a miss.
Costing me $2.49 for a 6-ounce bag at Aldi, I'm giving Clancy's Roasted Sweet Corn Flavored Popcorn 3 out of 5 Bachelor on the Cheap Stars. It's a novelty flavor, but it needs a more savory, roasted flavor to be worthy of a repeat buy. As it is, it's too sweet and butter-forward.
$pend Wisely My Friends...
~ Mike
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