National Popcorn Day

Posted on January 19, 2018 by vanbraman

Today was National Popcorn Day. This morning when I first found this out my mind starting wandering. I have many popcorn memories so will share a few.

Popcorn Festival Float - Hamburg, Iowa - 1962 - Popcorn Days - Vogel PopcornOne of the first was memories of visiting my grandparents who lived near Hamburg, Iowa. They almost always had a large bag of popcorn for us to munch on when we visited. Hamburg is home to a popcorn processing plant and they would always get bags of popcorn that had been popped in the testing process.

Each year Hamburg has a Popcorn Days celebration. The picture above comes from an early Popcorn Festival. See: Popcorn Festival Floats

Microwave Popcorn, Buttered Popcorn, National Popcorn DayAnother memory I had was of microwave popcorn. I remember that we would nuke popcorn almost every day when I worked in a pharmacy during college.

Chile Lime, Bacon, Popcorn, Microwave PopcornWe did not have fancy types of microwave popcorn like these Chile Lime and Bacon varieties. I will say that I was not impressed with these when I tried them 🙂

Popped Popcorn, Microwave Popcorn, National Popcorn DayI have memories of one of the pharmacists always coming back from the break room with her bag of popcorn and having me open it for her as she always had trouble. I think that today they are much easier to open than back then.

I of course wondered when microwave popcorn first became available. Popcorn has been microwaved since at least 1947 when a patent was filed for a method of microwaving a complete ear of popcorn in a bag.

However, it was not until 1984 when ACT II popcorn was introduced as the first shelf stable buttered microwave popcorn. I do remember that it was ACT II popcorn that we popped when I worked in the pharmacy in 1987.

National Popcorn Day, Microwave PopcornOf course, I have many other popcorn memories like different methods of popping corn used over the years, kettle corn, movie popcorn, etc.. However, these memories will be saved for another time.

Tonight I simply enjoyed a bag of microwave popcorn to celebrate the day.

Steven

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Formosa Oolong Tea

Posted on January 18, 2018 by vanbraman

This evening the first thing I did when walking in the door was turn on the tea kettle so that I could try another of the teas that I brought back home from Germany.

Oolong Tea, Tea Leaves, Tea Culture, OolongI have already tried the Yin Zhen and Nepal Oolong and tonight I opened up the package of Formosa Fancy Superior Oolong Taifu.

Formosa was the name for Taiwan previous to the 1970’s. Today we do not see this name very often just as we do not see the name Ceylon for Sri Lanka. Both of these islands are known for their tea production.

Formosa Oolong, Taiwan Oolong Tea, Tea GschwenderThe Formosa Oolong is from TeaGschwendner. Here you can see the multi-colored tea leaves. The tea is also known as Five Color Tea and is from northern Taiwan.

Formosa Oolong, Brewing, Tea Leaves, Hot teaHere the brewing is in process. For this tea the brewing takes three minutes. I like my glass tea cup with infuser so that I can see the brewing process.

Golden Tea, Formosa Oolong, Good Tea, Hot Tea, Oolong TeaHere you can see the beautiful color of the tea. The tea is a bit darker than the Nepal Oolong tea that I tried earlier this week.

Here you can see the tea leaves in the infuser that is now resting in the lid of the tea cup. It is now ready for further infusions.

Oolong Tea, Formosa Oolong, Golden Tea, Tea AromaHere is another view of the beautiful color of the tea. The aroma of the tea was really nice. I like to hold the cup where I can enjoy the aroma as it cools. The smell of the tea definitely adds to the experience of drinking a cup of tea.

It is hard to describe the feeling of breathing into a cup of hot tea and letting the steam carry the aroma into your nose.

The taste of this oolong is a complex mix of floral and woody notes. The tea is very smooth without any bitter edges and has great mouth feel. The complexity of the taste increased with the second and third infusions and it will be interesting to see how it continues to change.

The tea was a nice little celebration of the end of another training course. I can relax a bit tomorrow as I prepare for my next courses.

Steven

 

 

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