Popcorn Facts

The Popcorn Process


Why Popcorn Pops

Popcorn is the product of a small-scale explosion. It's true! Popcorn kernels contain moisture. When that kernel is heated to about 400 degrees, the moisture turns to steam, expands, and tries to escape. When there's enough pressure built up for the steam to burst through the kernel's hard outer shell, we hear the pop of the kernel-explosion. The kernel turns itself inside out, and that's the part we eat.

Brainiac Fact: The popcorn explosion is called the rate of expansion. It's measured using the Cretors Metric Weight Volumetric tester (MWVT), the standard measurement for the popcorn industry. The higher the MWVT number, the fewer the number of kernels that remain unpopped after heating. Pop Weaver® popcorn is developed specifically to provide the highest expansion rate compared with other commercially available hybrids.

From Seed to Shelf

Pop Weaver is the number one producer of popcorn in the world. It's the freshest, best tasting popcorn around, and it's also the best value. One key reason why is because Weaver Popcorn controls all aspects of the popcorn process from seed to shelf. Here's how it works:

  1. Seeds
    Like most agricultural seeds, popcorn is bred specifically to bring out the desirable traits that make for high crop yields and great tasting popcorn. At Pop Weaver, we actually "build" our popcorn seeds by taking the pollen from the tassel (male flower) from a single plant and using that pollen to fertilize the silk (female flower) of that same plant. This process allows our scientists to identify, select and save the seeds of desirable plants. While it usually takes popcorn growers six to eight years to develop a hybrid seed, Pop Weaver is able to cut that time in half thanks to our cross-seasonal growing fields in Argentina.
    Brainiac Fact: Popcorn, also known to agronomists as zea mays everta, is one of six types of corn. It's the only type of corn that pops.
  2. Planting
    Pop Weaver popcorn is planted in the very finest growing fields in several states of the US Corn Belt; we also grow corn in Argentina to help us bring our new seeds to market faster.
  3. Growing
    It takes about a week for popcorn seeds to germinate. The popcorn roots absorb nutrients in the rich, moist soil. As the popcorn plant grows, the stalk reaches nearly eight feet in height. As the plant grows, it produces ears of corn and feathery tassels. As the plant matures, the ears produce kernels.
    Brainiac Fact: Popcorn requires 18-24 inches of water during the growing season.
  4. Harvesting
    Popcorn is harvested when the kernel has moisture content of 16%-20%. It is this moisture within the kernel which allows the popcorn kernel to pop when heated.

    Popcorn is harvested with a combine that shells the kernels from the cob and ejects the cob out of the back of the machine. The kernels are then loaded into a truck and transported to storage facilities that force air through the floor to dry the corn to very specific moisture levels.
  5. Processing
    Once the popcorn has reached the perfect moisture level, it is then cleaned and the kernels separated and cleaned. This is where Weaver Popcorn inspects each kernel with an optical scanner.
  6. Packaging
    Finally, the kernels are now ready to be packaged in specially designed bags and boxes. At Pop Weaver, we minimize our packaging to save on costs and lock in the freshness that makes our popcorn so good.