The Mystery of Shape

Have you carefully observed the shape of popcorn?

If you carefully observe those popcorn that have successfully transformed, it is not difficult to find that their shapes can be roughly divided into two types -mushroom and butterfly shaped. An old traditional popcorn type in cinemas is mostly butterfly shaped, while mushroom popcorn is becoming increasingly popular.

Why do popcorn have different shapes? Is this caused by the heated parts of the corn kernels?

Actually, they are just different types. There are two types of popcorn shapes, corresponding to specialized mushroom popcorn and butterfly popcorn. The shape of the popcorn is mainly related to the grain structure and has a weaker relationship with external conditions

Both shapes can also affect taste to some extent.

For example, butterfly shaped popcorn can be described as “cinema style” because popcorn is very similar to what you see in theaters or cinemas. Popcorn connoisseurs will describe popcorn as “butterfly” shaped, which means it has “wings” and is more suitable for spreading regular seasonings such as sugar;

The fame of mushroom popcorn lies in its “mushroom” shape. From the name, you may guess that its unique feature is a circular shape resembling the top of a mushroom. Mushroom shaped popcorn has a large surface area and is perfect for applying syrup like coatings such as cream, caramel, and chocolate etc.  Due to its uniform surface shape, the layered syrup can also evenly cover every part of the surface, resulting in a fuller and richer taste.

Besides,you will find that due to its lack of “wings” like traditional popcorn, there will be fewer broken layers when layering.

Nevertheless, each popcorn has its own unique shape, just like snowflakes, with infinite possibilities for the arrangement of molecules. Each popcorn has a different microstructure. This also gives them a unique appearance.