Product Review: Presto PowerPop

Since I joined Weight Watcher’s last week, I decided to invest in one of these little gadgets.  I wanted air popped popcorn that I could add my own flavorings/toppings to.   I wasn’t sure of it at first, but right out of the gate, it was awesome.

I purchased mine at my local Walmart, for $15.46 plus tax.  This could have been a boom or bust situation, depending on how well it worked.  I also purchased an extra package of 8 power concentrator cups for $2.19.  Once I opened the box however, I was very pleasantly surprised to see that an 8 pack came with the popper–and after reading the usage manual, I discovered that each power concentrator cup was good for 24 batches of popcorn popped without oil, and 12 batches popped with oil.  With the extra package I bought, I can make popcorn for a very long time.

This is an Orville Redenbacher endorsed product.  Because of this, I purchased a jar of Orville Redenbacher Original popcorn:

I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I wanted nice popcorn.  If I’m going to spend part of my precious Points Plus™ allowance on this stuff, it better be good darn it!  I had no reason to worry; the Orville Redenbacher popcorn came through with the great  high quality it always has.

The pros of this popper are many:  you can pop with or without oil;  your choice of oil can be anything from vegetable to canola to olive oil (a great option for those of us trying to get our servings of healthy oil in).  You can coat your popcorn with butter flavor nonstick cooking spray right in the power concentrator cup and add salt if you like, or you can coat the popcorn after and add popcorn seasoning of your choice. 

My first batch of popcorn took just under two minutes to pop completely, leaving  just ONE kernel unpopped.  ONE kernel!  That beats microwave popcorn of any brand any day!    We used butter flavored nonstick cooking spray to lightly coat it when it was done popping, and then used this:

We used a total of about two teaspoons to season 3 quarts of popcorn (about 10 cups).  One of the best parts about Kernel Season’s popcorn flavorings is that used in moderation, they are 0 Points Plus™.  What it comes down to is I can have 6 cups of delicious hot popcorn, complete with seasoning of my choice, for just 4 Points Plus™.  That makes me one happy camper, because we are popcorn junkies in this house.  Tonight we’re going to kick back and watch a movie or two, and try this seasoning on our popcorn:

The only “con” about this popper, if you want to call it that, is that it may not be compatible with some older models of microwaves.  It worked just fine with my two year old GE, but I can’t vouch for other models.

Overall I love the performace of this product; it’s so simple my 8 year old can do it.  It only takes 1/3 cup of popcorn to pop up three light, fluffy quarts–enough to satisfy me and my two sons for an afternoon snack.  Combined with the Kernel Season’s products, it’s an over the top winner that I highly recommend.

This is not a paid endorsement, by the way.  It’s simply a product that I will be using because I love the way it works and I wanted to tell you about it. To quote The Pioneer Woman, “Presto doesn’t even know that I exist.”

Amen.

Happy Popping!

S.

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