Don’t Make Chocolate Popcorn on TikTok
I love good popcorn. I have a lot . Sweet popcorn, savory popcorn, popcorn grits – I love it all! I even loved the popcorn salad , a hyper-regional Midwest delicacy that the Internet was determined to hate. (I really liked that, as did Joel, and everyone should apologize to Molly Ye.) But I finally came across a popcorn hacker that I don’t like, and as you probably guessed, it comes from TikTok.
Before we get into what “hacking” is, I’d like to take a moment to ask TikTokers to please, for food and my sanity, to include some damn dimensions in their little videos. Maybe even include some instructions or guidelines – anything that really helps your audience prepare your meal. (I know. I know they don’t listen to me, a 35-year-old woman who writes for Lifehacker, but I still had to give my opinion.)
Anyway. The original TikTok video shows hands preparing chocolate popcorn. They add some butter, popcorn kernels, and half a bar of chopped baking chocolate to a saucepan, stir until the chocolate melts and a couple of kernels burst, and then cover with a lid to finish the corn pop. Chocolate coats the popped corn, making chocolate popcorn.
Joel and I tried it and it was a disaster. Burnt popcorn everywhere, smoke everywhere – we hated it. Then I tried it again later, myself, when I realized that the first time we closed the lid too early. (We closed it after the chocolate had melted, but before the kernels began to burst. It ultimately affected the result a little.)
However, even with this adjustment, things did not go so well. I’ll let you watch the video to see the disappointing end product with your own eyes, but be warned: it’s not pretty. (Joel is handsome and my hair looks good in the first half of the video, but the popcorn isn’t aesthetically pleasing.)