The Best Puffcorn for Snack Time

The best puffcorn is light, crunchy, and fun to eat. Prior to this taste test, I’d always assumed puffcorn’s main selling point is that it’s something you can eat a lot of because it’s somewhat less bad for you than, say, Cheetos (most puffcorn has 5 or 6 grams of fat per serving versus 10 or so grams of fat in a serving of Cheetos Puffs). But sitting down with a bunch of bags of puffcorn opened my eyes to the fact that a lot of people eat this in lieu of popcorn because it doesn’t have “hulls or hard kernels.” Indeed, mechanically extruded corn is kernel and hull free—hooray! And for what it’s worth, I’ll still be over here pretending it’s health food. 

But what’s the best puffcorn? To find out, we stocked up on all the popular brands—Like Air puffcorn, Chester’s Puffcorn, Pirate’s Booty, etc.—and tasted them head to head. We were looking for a good, crispy crunch—if puffcorn is even a little bit stale, it’s like packing peanuts. It has to be fresh to be good. And, obviously, we concentrated a lot on flavor—the flavor of the puffcorn itself and the flavor of whatever cheesy or sweet or buttery seasoning dust is on the puffcorn. I’ve eaten my way through a lot of brutal fatty snack taste tests, and I really did feel less gruesome after this one. Here’s the best puffcorn for your next light(er) snack sesh.

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Best Sweet (Runner Up)

Like Air Cinnamon Bun

Instacart

Like Air makes a lot of appearances on this list because there’s a lot of Like Air puffcorn—and that’s a good thing. Prior to this taste test, it probably wouldn’t have occurred to me to seek out sweet puffcorn, but this cinnamon bun flavor really won us over. It’s got that salty-sweet-buttery thing going on—it tastes like the frosting on a Cinnabon. If you’re looking for something lighter than a cookie or a cupcake, this sweet puffcorn is kind of great. 

Credit: Merc / Instacart

Rating:

8/10

Sporks

Best Sweet

Like Air Salted Caramel

Walmart

A lot of caramel puffcorn has a slick, sugary coating that gives it additional crunch. That’s great! We like that kind, too. But this Like Air puffcorn goes its own way. Instead of a caramel coating, it has a salty-sweet flavor dust that’s really complex and tasty. It’s not the caramel puffcorn you’re expecting, but it’s the best caramel puffcorn we tasted.

Credit: Merc / Walmart

Rating:

8/10

Sporks

Best Briny

Pringles Mingles Dill Pickle & Ranch

Instacart

Pringles Mingles are shaped like little bowties as a nod to their mascot, one Julius Pringles. Cute, right? It’s different than most of the other puffcorn on this list, but it’s puffed and it’s corn and we think it deserves a spot on this list—particularly the Dill Pickle & Ranch flavor, which is salty, briny, creamy, and herbaceous at the same time. We love when dill pickle snacks actually taste like pickles—not just dill. These nail it. They’re puffy and light but have a great crunch. It’s good puffcorn, even if it isn’t really very much like other puffcorn.

Credit: Merc / Instacart

Rating:

8/10

Sporks

Best White Cheddar

Like Air White Cheddar

Instacart

We tasted Like Air White Cheddar puffcorn alongside Pirate’s Booty, which I consider the originator of white cheddar puffcorn. Like Air is so much better! This is elite white cheddar puffcorn. The cheese flavor is nutty and complex and keeps you coming back for bite after bite. We also like the quality of Like Air puffcorn in general—it’s crisp, but it also sort of dissolves in your mouth. It’s a surprisingly pleasant experience. This is the best puffcorn if you have fond memories of Pirate’s Booty but you want to level up. 

Credit: Merc / Instacart

Rating:

9/10

Sporks

Best Buttered

Chester’s Puffcorn Butter

Instacart

If you have an aversion to fake movie theater butter flavor, you won’t like this puffcorn. But man, if you like a little margarine in the mornin,’ this stuff is SO BUTTERY. Chester’s Puffcorn itself has a light crunch and a soft chew. The butter flavor is explosive. It’s salty and delicious. If you’re eating puffcorn as a hull-less, kernel-less alternative to microwave popcorn, this is the puffcorn to buy.

Credit: Merc / Instacart

Rating:

9.5/10

Sporks

Best of the Best

Chester’s Puffcorn Cheese

Instacart

As I already mentioned, puffcorn has about half as much fat as Cheetos Puffs—but if Cheetos Puffs are what you’re craving, Chester’s Puffcorn in cheese flavor is genuinely going to scratch that itch. The puffs are baked rather than fried so you can eat a lot without getting a stomach ache, but the cheese flavor is just as orange and aggressive as Cheeto dust. This is the best puffcorn. 

Credit: Merc / Instacart

Rating:

10/10

Sporks

Other puff corn we tried: Pirate’s Booty, Clancy’s Puffed Corn Cheese, Clancy’s Puffed Corn Butter, Pringles Mingles Sour Cream & Cheddar, Pringles Mingles Sharp Cheddar Ranch, Chesters Puffcorn Flamin’ Hot, Like Air Classic, Like Air Sour Cream & Onion