Cute, but gross



I really wanted to like this caramel popcorn shaped like an ear of corn instead of a ball. (You thought I was playing with my food? Shame on you!)

I couldn't help but pick up three of these for $1.79 apiece when I saw them at the Hill Top Farmer's Market in Oakland, Md. (The Farmer's Market is not a place where vendors set up once a week. It's a store that keeps regular hours and has fresh local produce as well as bulk baking items and Amish products and the famed Candyland -- hundreds of varieties that you pick and mix and pay for by the pound.)

Anyway, these were on the produce side late this summer. I'd like to say I didn't have the popcorn balls to post this until now but really I was just lazy.

There are two varieties of the Caramel Cob -- classic and peanut. The flavor is not bad. It's the texture that makes this cutie disgusting.

It, ahem, stands up to its claim of "soft n' chewy." In your mouth it becomes taffy with popcorn hulls. Blech!

I wouldn't mind a crunchier cob. I may try to replicate these at home without preservatives and additives; I could use green plastic wrap as the husks. Just wondering how I would form the ears... .



The package is printed to look like peeled-back corn husks. It's just darling, really. And the opening instructions crack me up: "Smack & Snack -- The fun way to open! Push top of cob through wrapper by smacking bottom of cob upward."

It's manufactured by Kathy Kaye Foods in Hyde Park, Utah. Here's a link to the Web site.

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