What’s the best popcorn seasoning on the market? We sampled a spice rack’s worth of popcorn seasonings to find the best ones to spice up your kernels. Read on for our ranking of the best seasoning for popcorn that you can buy—because you can do better than butter and salt.
While just about everyone loves popcorn, it can be a little…bland. And by “bland,” I mean plain popcorn tastes like diet styrofoam. After all, there’s a reason that the traditional popcorn delivery system is “coated in a sea of salt and butter-flavored oil.” So, it’s no wonder that there’s a whole market of different popcorn flavor seasonings you can buy and easily stash in a bag to deliver some (or any) flavor to your movie popcorn bucket or keep at home to flavor your stovetop or microwave popcorn. And there’s a popcorn seasoning flavor for everyone, whether you’re looking for sweet, savory, salty, or some heavenly combination of all three.
But with so many options, how do you find your favorite popcorn flavor powder? We guzzled down a range of popcorn seasonings including ranch popcorn seasoning, white cheddar popcorn seasoning, butter popcorn seasoning, and more, so you don’t have to. So, here are our picks for the best popcorning seasoning you’ll find on your local grocery shelves and, eventually, your movie bag, where they can hang out with your contraband Sour Patch Kids and your generic Walgreens gummi worms that you definitely aren’t sneaking in and just forgot all about. (wink. wink.)
- Orville Redenbacher’s Cinnabon Cinnamon Roll Popcorn Seasoning
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If you’re craving some sweetness, this popcorn flavor powder delivers a lot while somehow having only zero calories per serving! (Wait, is this some Better Call Saul-level trickery?) And while there are other cinnamon popcorn flavorings, this blend goes one step further by adding in cream cheese (!), which gives it a fuller, creamier taste that really does live up to that Cinnabon name.
Credit: Merc / Walmart
- Kernel Season’s Bacon Cheddar Popcorn Seasoning
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While the container says “Bacon Cheddar,” you’ll taste way more bacon than cheddar in this popcorn seasoning. That isn’t a bad thing. After all, bacon is life. There are probably some people who might be afraid to dump a ton of straight savory, salty bacon flavor on to their popcorn. (Not me, of course.) If that’s you, I’m sorry, because this is some of the best popcorn seasoning powder we tasted.
Credit: Merc / Amazon
- Flavacol Seasoning Salt Popcorn Seasoning
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If you’ve ever eaten movie theater popcorn, you’ve tasted Flavacol popcorn seasoning, as it’s the primary flavored salt used by concession stands since the 1960s. While the other popcorn flavor seasonings are packaged in little jars, Flavacol popcorn seasoning comes in a big industrial container. This is not the best popcorn seasoning to bring to a movie theater—it’s the best popcorn seasoning to make movie theater popcorn at home. If you’re craving that classic “movie theater popcorn” taste, you can’t get more authentic than this popcorn flavoring. Or saltier. Believe me, I’ve tried.
Credit: Merc / Amazon
- Watkins Butter/Salt Popcorn Seasoning
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If you’re looking for that classic butter taste, but with less salt than Flavorcol’s “all the salt,” Watkins butter popcorn seasoning powder is the best popcorn seasoning for your tastes. It’s got that rich, buttery flavor you love in movie theater popcorn, but probably stopped gorging yourself on for health reasons. It’s the best way to get that butter flavor without any of that soggy, melted butter-soaked popcorn texture.
Credit: Merc / Amazon
- Kernel Season’s Ranch Popcorn Seasoning
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It’s ranch popcorn seasoning. It tastes like ranch. What more do I have to say? Who can resist the most popular salad dressing/carrot stick covering in the world? And this blend is everything ranch should be: tasty, flavorful, and zesty. But, unlike a regular bottle of ranch, this one’s much less likely to drown your phone if it opens up in your bag. (Take it from me: Applecare doesn’t cover “zest.”) If you love ranch, this ranch popcorn seasoning is simply the best popcorn seasoning to buy.
Credit: Merc / Walmart
- Orville Redenbacher’s White Cheddar Popcorn Seasoning
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This white cheddar popcorn seasoning has a strong Smartfood-esque flavor that means you don’t need to absolutely cover your corn to get a good taste. Man, who would’ve guessed that the Orville Redenbacher would make the best seasoning for popcorn? Wait. Everyone? Really? Man, I’ve got to get better at betting. Anyway, this white cheddar popcorn seasoning is the ultimate popcorn seasoning flavor—whether you’re popping corn at home or enhancing movie theater popcorn. Get one bottle for home and one for on-the-go.
Credit: Merc / Walmart
Best Sweet Seasoning
Best Bacon Flavor
Best Popcorn Salt
Best Butter Flavor
Best Ranch Flavor
Best of the Best
Other popcorn seasonings we tried: Kernel Season’s Butter, Kernel Season’s Caramel Corn, Kernel Season’s Cheesy Jalapeno, Kernel Season’s Kettle Corn, Kernel Season’s Nacho Cheddar, Kernel Season’s White Cheddar, Orville Redenbacher’s Buffalo Wild Wings Buffalo, Watkins Ranch, Watkins White Cheddar
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