The First Ever Indian Kettle Corn Popcorn
During Diwali, the only thing that shines just as bright as the candles is the mithai (sweets). From the Jalebi, Kaju Katli, Gajjar Ka Halwa, Milk Barfi, to the Sabudana Kheer (are you drooling already? yeah neither are we 👀) the richness and variety of sweets is the perfect closure to a tasty homemade meal with family and friends.
Jaggery (gur or gor) is an unrefined natural sweetener extracted from cane sugar that's used as a common ingredient in many South Asian sweets. Given it's clean and healthy, our mom and grandma would always give us small portions of gor on the side with our meals as a lil' sweet treat vs. processed sugars or candies. It was a guilt-free way to sweeten our palette (except for when we’d find the tub of it in the pantry and indulge in secret 🤫).
When exploring different snack flavors for Confusion, I knew I wanted something savory, something tangy and something spicy. But one flavor profile that was missing was something sweet. I was obsessed with Boom Chicka Pop’s kettle corn flavor at the time – the sweet and salty flavor profile made it SO hard not to continuously reach in for more. But I always felt a sugar crash and crappy after finishing a bag. But that didn’t stop me from buying more (yes, the Costco size). The flavor was too yummy to resist. So, I thought about how I can reimagine the kettle corn popcorn many of us have grown to love. Its sweetness had to be rich, the saltiness had to be delicate but lip-smacking, and most importantly, it had to create a guilt-free snacking experience. The keys to the recipe were sitting in my mom’s pantry in the same tub I grew up sneaking into as a kid – jaggery.
To be honest, I grew up mostly eating gor not cooking with it 🙈. So I headed straight to the kitchen to learn all about it! We had to experiment with different gor and sea salt ratios, heating methods, mixing methods and cooling methods to ensure the gor didn’t burn, was viscous enough for glazing, coated evenly, and had just the right crunch & flavor profile.
Many experiments later, we brought our idea of an “Indian Kettle Corn” Popcorn to life! We’re still figuring things out how to make this flavor in larger batches, but for now, we’re SUPER excited to share a limited time small batch of our Sea Salt Jaggery Popcorn with y’all in our Diwali Gift Box!
❤️ Aadit (Chief Snacking Officer)
