For as long as I can remember, our family has been using a Whirley Pop popcorn popper to make popcorn at home. Well, recently we have noticed that the inside of the popper has become all black and nasty, resulting in burnt nasty popcorn. Not exactly what we want for family movie night. So yesterday, while shopping at Target, we picked up the West Bend Stip Crazy Popcorn Machine for $30.
We gave it a try last night and really liked it! It was really simple to use and clean up was a breeze.
Quarts of Popped Corn | Amoun of Oil | Amount of Popcorn Kernels | Amount of butter |
2 | 1 tbsp. | 1/4 cup | 1 tbsp. |
4 | 2 tbsp. | 1/2 cup | 2 tbsp. |
6 | 3 tbsp. | 3/4 cup | 3 tbsp. |
The instructions call for you put oil and popcorn seeds in the base, cover with the bowl, add butter to the reservoir, click on the lid and press start. The instruction booklet tells you exactly how much oil, popcorn, and butter to use, so there’s no guessing. There is a thin metal agitator that spins in the center of the base which moves the popcorn seeds around and it begins to heat up and melt the butter. When the popping stops, you just flip the switch to off and flip the popper upside down. The bowl becomes your serving bowl. Since the popper is constantly moving the popcorn around, there are no burnt pieces. The butter drips evenly over all the popcorn, so you don’t end up with some soggy buttery pieces and some that don’t have butter. Perfectly even buttery goodness! Yum!
We loved our first bowl of popcorn so much that we wanted to make a second. This is where things got a little messy. The butter reservoir still had quite a bit of butter left in it, so when we flipped the bowl back over, it leaked all over the counter. It still worked, and the second bowl of popcorn was just as tasty, it was just kind of messy. With that being said, if you melt your butter separately and don’t use the reservoir, you can pop as many batches as you’d like, with no mess! We popped several batches with the lid on and then we decided to leave the lid off. The directions state that for unbuttered or crisper popcorn, the popcorn can be popped with the butter lid off. Be careful if you have little ones that like to sit close and watch the popcorn pop as some of the oil may spatter out as the popcorn starts to pop.
Overall, I’d recommend the Westbend Popper. It’s simple to use and it’s easy to clean. The bowl and the butter reservoir lid are dishwasher safe – Yay! To clean the base, you simply wipe it with a damp cloth or paper towel. Bonus – it’s a small appliance, so it does not take up much space for storage. It’s an all-around win!