Regular ol’ microwave popcorn is great. Actually, it’s not just great—it’s delicious. It’s fast and easy (as long as you don’t burn it and stink up the kitchen for two days). And it’s usually covered in salty butter! In general, I think popcorn seasonings aren’t really necessary with good buttered popcorn—unless the seasoning is really good. It shouldn’t cover up the flavor of buttered popcorn, it should enhance it and make it exciting. Listen, we all need a little joy in our lives and sometimes that can be something as small as a little plastic canister of powdered flavoring. So, we tried Orville Redenbacher’s two new restaurant-inspired popcorn seasonings—Cinnabon Cinnamon Roll and Buffalo Wild Wings Buffalo—to find out whether they make movie night snacking better or a bummer.
New Product!
Orville Redenbacher’s Cinnabon Cinnamon Roll Popcorn Season
We tried this popcorn seasoning as part of our Cinnabon products taste test and didn’t think it tasted much like a Cinnabon at all on its own. But when you pair it with popcorn, it’s pretty darn good. The saltiness and butteriness of the popcorn (we used Orville Redenbacher’s Movie Theater Butter) really makes it taste like a fully fledged cinnamon roll. Personally, I wouldn’t be interested in eating an entire bag of popcorn covered in this, but if you like salty-sweet popcorn like kettle corn (and you like cinnamon, too), you’ll like this. Give it a shot!
There’s something about the imagery on this packaging that made me think I wouldn’t like this Buffalo Wild Wings popcorn seasoning. Like, is it going to make my popcorn taste like oily chicken skin? Okay, maybe that would be good, but the answer is no. This seasoning has some heat and even a little bit of a vinegary tang that mimics Buffalo sauce. It’s absolutely delicious—super savory and interesting. I would eat a whole bag of popcorn covered in this. Nice one, Orville!
Howdy! I’m Gwynedd, Sporked’s managing editor. I live in Los Angeles and have access to the best tacos the U.S. has to offer—but I’m a sucker for a crunchy Old El Paso taco night every now and then. I’ve been at Sporked since 2022 and I’m still searching frozen mozzarella sticks that can hold a candle to restaurant sticks.
Why you should trust me: I’ve been a journalist for 20 years (yikes), a consumer of food for 40-plus years, and I’m truly hard pressed to think of foods I don’t like (or that I can’t tolerate at the very least). Oh and one time I cooked my way through Guy Fieri’s cookbook and wrote about the journey through Flavortown.
What I buy every week: Trader Joe’s Original Savory Thins. Fat free plain yogurt (usually Fage or Nancy’s). Honeycrisp apples. Sweet cream coffee creamer for my at-home Americanos. A frozen cauliflower crust pizza and some jarred mushrooms to top it with. Old El Paso Stand ‘N Stuff taco shells and Gardein Ground Be’f, even though I think “be’f” is a nightmarish contraction.
Favorite ranking: Stouffer’s frozen dinners. I don’t own a microwave (I get my cancers the old fashioned way!), so I love taste testing things that I don’t really buy to eat at home.
Least favorite ranking: Soy sauce. Don’t get me wrong, I love soy sauce—but consuming that much sodium in one sitting is probably illegal in some countries. Our frozen enchilada taste test was a close second; the smell of microwaved corn tortillas still haunts me.
Thoughts? Questions? Complete disagreement? Leave a comment!
Gwynedd Stuart
Vinz Karl
Ariana Losch
Thoughts? Questions? Complete disagreement? Leave a comment!