Popcorn in a Pickle is BACK AGAIN!

GUUUUYS (I mean that generically, as in "huuuumans", not "this one is for the fellas only....):

It is summer time, and you know what that means...

POPCORN IN A PICKLE IS BACK!

POPCORN IN A PICKLE IS BACK!  Can you tell I am excited???

Yes!!!  It is time for the Trader Joe's snack that sounds utterly disgusting (to me at least) but tastes ammmmazing - popcorn with pickle flavoring!  It sounds gross, but for some reason, it just works!

In the original review of this product, we gave it 4 stars (Original Popcorn in a Pickle Review ).

In the first "It's Baaaack!" reminder review, we also gave it 4 stars ( Last Year's Excited "Popcorn in a Pickle It's BAACK" Review ) .

This year it is the same great popcorn, the same low price, but the number of stars is INCREASING to 4.25!  It is like on "Naked and Afraid" when the people's PSRs go up, and you as a viewer are not quite sure why, but they did, so you just go with the flow...  (What??  You don't watch "Naked and Afraid" on the Discovery channel??  Fear not, it jumped the shark many seasons ago, but that doesn't stop me from tuning in every once in a while and watching people eat ants and make fish baskets that never catch annnnything!) 

Anyway, the point is, Popcorn in a Pickle is back, and you should try it.  It is definitely a LOVE IT or HATE IT kind of product.  I am on the LOVE IT end of the spectrum, but I totally respect you if you get it, try it, and take it back because you can't stand it.  But DO GET IT.  I mean, what have you got to lose?  Trader Joe's will happily give you your money back if you find it yucky.

We lugged our TJ's popcorn, along with a slew of other picnic snacks, through the 105 heat index afternoon to Wolf Trap Theatre in Virginia, where once the sun went down we rocked out to the Bare Naked Ladies.  The only problem was, we ate the other stuff and forgot to open the popcorn...

If I had a million dollars....

So, we hauled it AGAIN with more picnic supplies, on the 4th of July to the Air Force Memorial in Arlington, Virginia.  There we dined on delicious popcorn and watching the fireworks go off in Washington DC.  May I just say, thanks for paying your taxes everyone, the fireworks were beautiful this year! 

If you squint your eyes and look by one of the red squiggles, you will see the Washington
Monument, shrouded in darkness, heat, and fireworks smoke 

Price: still $1.99
Rating: 4.25

Day 258 - Popcorn in a Pickle

This is a product I DID NOT want to get.  PICKLE POPCORN?  Doesn’t it sound disgusting???  I mean really – I like PICKLES and I like POPCORN – but I thought, “Let’s just keep it at that…  Pickles and/or popcorn.  Not pickle flavored popcorn!  Ewwwww.”  To me it sounded like something a pregnant woman might crave.

Look - David was not too sure about this one either....  We got it at the Indianapolis Trader Joe's\

BUT (that is a big BUT) a friend of ours, Tony, told us Pickle Popcorn was fabbbbbulous.  It was great, according to TONY…  He even had a clever name for it, “5 minute popcorn”.  He said it should be called that cuz once you open a bag it is gone in 5 minutes.  Tony was a student of David’s many years ago.  Tony and his wife Beth sang in our wedding!  Tony and his family recently came to visit us and even helped us rate some products after we all shared a dinner on the front porch (see the whole gang in a funny photo and read one of the reviews they helped with here - http://traderjoes365.blogspot.com/2015/07/193-triple-ginger-snap-cookies.html  )

So what I am saying is, TONY IS A GREAT GUY.  We needed to at least T-R-Y this disgusting sounding popcorn if he was raving about it.  I also talked with a stranger in the Indianapolis Trader Joe’s who had this popcorn in his cart and said his family looooved it. 

So we got a bag to take with us on a road trip.

Multiple warning lights on our dashboard...  Not looking good...

Only, the road trip got off to a really rocky start.  Before we could even get out of town nearly every warning light on the dashboard of our Prius was lit up!  We had a 9 hour drive ahead of us but obviously couldn’t keep going without getting the car looked at.  We pulled into the nearest Toyota dealership, sat in the sparse, cold “customer lounge” waiting to hear how much we were going to have to pay to fix our 2005 car with over 160k miles on it, and OPENED THE PICKLE POPCORN…

We had it, might as well TRY it...

The first bite of popcorn was YUCK-O-RAMA.  Yet, it was intriguing… 

So it led to a 2^nd bite…

Which led to a 3^rd bite…

(Which led to a 4^th and 5^th bite – you get the picture here…)

It didn’t take me long to realize that Tony was correct – this popcorn could easily become addictive.  It tastes exactly like dill pickles, yet it is POPCORN.  It is the texture of popcorn with the taste of pickles.  It has just enough salt.  The pickle flavor is not overpowering.  Overall it is quite nice!

David says, “My first bite was, ‘What the HUH?  Are you KIDDING me??’.  But then later it was kinda goooood.  Not bad!  Quirky!  I am not sure it would ever replace my love of white cheddar cheese popcorn, but a nice refreshing change.  And a good example of ‘high marks for thinking outside the box and making it work’.”

David then invented an even FURTHER outside the box flavor combination by pairing PICKLE POPCORN with an OVER RIPE BANANA (washed down by Pepsi).  Ewwwwwwwwwwww.  If pickle flavor popcorn sounds disgusting, the combo of pickle popcorn and mushy banana sounds downright barfable!  But he liked the combo! 

We continued munching on this treat after we got back on the road

Updates: 

1.        We lost quite a bit of time by hanging out at the Toyota place, but it didn’t cost us a penny!  Turns out a different Toyota place who had recently serviced our car did not tighten something correctly and that loose nut or whatever had almost caused the hybrid system to overheat!!  Thank goodness this mechanic just tightened it and sent us on our way.

2.       Tony reports that his Trader Joe’s in Michigan is OUT of Pickle Popcorn for the season.  Sigh.  I feel bad for his family.  Here is how he feels about it:

Poor Tony - no more Popcorn in a Pickle for you.

Price - $1.99

Rating - 4